PAGE 2, THE TOWNSMAN, Thursday, August 18, 1977

Yarns of
~ the past

I’M engaged in writing a few
yarns for Airforce, . the -
official magazine of the
RCAF Association.
Naturally, this has brought
- back a lot of memories, some
a bit grim, some pretty
hilarious,

As the old mind’s eye
wandered back, something.
hit me like a cold douche.

Not that I've ever taken a
' colde douche.

’ Why were we so keen to
get killed? In this age of,
dropouts, draft dodgers and
‘deserters, it seems incredible
that thousands of young
Canadian males, back in the
‘Forties, were almost frantic
to get into the air force, into
air crew, and into a quadron,
where the chances were ©
excellent they’d be dead
withina couple of months.

From the point of view of

aa Smiley———

Normandy. We knew rather

vaguely that we were
defending . democracy and

unemployment against the -

monsters of totalitarianism
and full employment,

. :although it was a bit puzzling.
that totalitarian Russia was:"*

on ourside.
We knew joining up was

” the thing to do, that most of
_ our friends were doing it,

-that a fellow looked. pretty

‘fine in a uniform, that the

girls were impressed and the -

hitch-hiking easier.

But why the air force? And
why air crew, wheré the dice

- were loaded so heavily?

Did we avoid the army
because we didn’t want to be

exposed to the rude and ©

licentious soldiery and get all

* dirty dnd grimy in action? or :

- the navy: because

common sense, reason, logic, _

it was not any brighter than
the Children’s Crusade of the
~ Middle Ages.

Why? Certainly we had no
death wish. We had no deep
urge 10 immate ourselves in
the breath of the war dragon.
We weren't even running to -
the battiements. to protect
our homes, our wives and
children. Most of us were in
school, or just recently out,
and didn’: have none of them
there things.

Oh, we knew we had to
“‘Siop thet bawstawd
Hitlah!”" as Churchill once
told us on an airfield in

preferred a: fiery: ‘grave. io 2.

wateryone? .
I just dont know, but

most of my friends, and most ~

‘of their friends, chose the air
force, and were dead keen on
getting into air crew

Within a bare few years,,

most of them were a lot fess
keen, and many were a lot
more dead.

As I recall, it was a real
downer for those who failed

* the tough medical test for air

crew. Once chosen, you were
filled with despair if you

_ were going for pilot and had
_ to settle for bomb-aimer, just

because you were a little
cross-eyed.

‘Once in training, it was a
shattering experience to be

“washed out’: of air crew -

merely. because you had
badly bent .up one of His
Majesty's. aircraft. by- trying
to land at 40 feet up, or had

wound up 300 miles off  .

course on-a cross-country
training flight. . It. was

be a fighter pilot and were
shipped off to lumbering old
bombers. .

’ ¥ have friends who still
bear a deep scar an the

psyche because they were -
made flying instructors and -
spent the rest of the war in...

Canada. This despite the fact
they were chosen as in--
structors because they were
far better pilots than the rest
ofus

“This despite the fact that

many of the pilots - they
trained were dead, dead, in
no time, None ofthis was

feel “they missed something
‘irrecoverable.

Well I know what they :

missed. They missed the

who didn’t know whether
they were punched or bored.
They .missed long, deadly
dull. periods of training, and
short, intense moments of
sheer terror.

They missed being shot at,
physically,, by. perfect:
. Strangers: and shot down,
verbally, by people on their-
-own side. ~

They missed the utter blind
confusion of the amateurs in
charge of the war. Migawd,
‘those idiots [ost ‘an entire
_wing of Typhoons for a: full
week,

Nobody, least. of all In .

- telligence, had a clue where j it

TURODAY

". was. E air-hitched all over .

devastating if you wanted to” ‘

__ any consolation. They still

. says a Swedish

’ bicycle tour of

southern England and
- Morthern France before I
found the blasted thing, all
on my own.

Let’s see, have I left
anything out? Well maybe I
have. First take that back
_ about stupid senior officers,
There were plenty of those in
Canada, too, so you didn’t
miss that.

Perhaps you - missed the
joy of climbing out of your
aircraft after. an operation,
lighting a cigarette, and
talking a wild blue streak of

* gelief and let-down.

- J guess you missed the
‘glory of heading off for a

week's leave in a ‘strange
country, loaded with lust, a

- month’s pay in your pocket,

and the secret sweetness in
your head of knowing that ©
nobody would be shooting at -
you for sevendays. - -
And. you did, [ must

admit, miss the girls. Not all
. of those fumblings ‘in the

blackout were Frustrating. ”
But I still say we were all

crazy to volunteer, and even. —

vie to be killed. Musi writé a -
paperonthatsomeday.

The Argyle Syma Ltd.

Archeological find -
“hit by indifference”

‘LISBON (AP) — Turmoil

stupidity of senior officers- in Portugal's Alentejo

region is in
peared regi a helpi 3
largest concentrations of
Stone-Age om mass ass graves

Stockholm, who took a
hundreds of
stone grave sites, said 30

cent have been reduced to
’ ruins in the last 30 years hy

natural erosion, official -
indifference and poor.

treatment . by peasant
farmers
Decay accelerated

the upheavals following :

Portugal’s 1974 democratic

' revolution, Carlsson said ini

an interview. Peasants were

increasingly damaging, the

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Braves by using them .
ireplaces or garbage :
dumps.

Conflict over + seizures by -
_Communist-led workers of =

has |
Alentejo, an-
fields and cork plantations
southeast of . Lisbon.
Carisson . said. former.

landlords often ‘were the
graves! only : defenders

t casial abuse by
workers unaware of their
historical value.

“The. graves,
“dolmen, were built
3,000 and 2,-000 BC as rough |

" ealled ;
between |

circles of stones uptolgfeet

high, Stones were placed __
horizontally on top to make
tforms - and ‘earth was.
ped overnthe structures.
to form hills,

positions inside each grave.:.

” The Alentejo. and Brittany -
in France have the: lar et
collections of graves, Wi
alsoare found in Britain =e
Scandinavia. .. Excavations -
have yielded pottery, b bones
and early gold. je

Carlsson. said.-no Soesrent
inventory exists of the.
graves. They are late-Stone -
Age contemporarires. of.
- Egyptian pyramids:and are.
oun an Beale,

on enge site: an

which is believed. to date _
’ from 2,000 to: 1,500 BC. -

“There. “used to. be.
thousands: Now there’ are .
few * left * ‘ntact and -the...
number
Carlsson nal. “Most are in :
.wheat fields or groves. of”

trees,’ ‘unmarked
without: protection. bo

“There . is’ - Jaw,
’ controlling. ‘exeavation bit it -

is. not.-enforced. . Private.
collectors can-excavate and
_ Hestros sites from which an.

ig

torlsson,: ‘in Portug al.
-More than a year.
‘doctoral

‘or
earch on Stone: ©

“deslining, ~ cE

-

and |,

ore
ion