Some Army Connections

Introduction

In the post at the end of this, I initially thought I had covered every Vocal Community with my writing but there were six that I had not touched, so I thought it would be a challenge to, so to speak, complete the set.

After this in the Vocal Serve Community, I will have three more to do, but as these areas have not caught my attention before there may only be one story from me in each of these communities.

There are four that I have not graced with my presence so far are:

• Blush
• Chain
• Marriage
• Serve *

The Serve Mission Statement is as follows:

For those who defend their country, and those who love them. Serve explores the lives, culture, and careers of those in and around the military.

I have never been in the army though have a few stories related to events involving military personnel, but this is mainly about three people who I have known or known of who were involved in the military.

Teenage Idiocy

I remember someone I know walking into a military pub in Kirkham, Lancashire and saying he hated squaddies and some other choice insults. I had to go in and drag him out of the beating he was taking, which he deserved for his disrespectful attitude, and the squaddies were fine with me. I told them he was a moron and if he came in and did that again and I wasn’t there, then it would be on his own head.

My Grandad On My Mother's Side

I know very little about him, I can’t even remember his name, though his surname was Benson. He died of cancer before I was born, but served in the second world war and received medals for his time there including one for long service, but unfortunately, they were stolen as a decoration and then lost by the guy I dragged out of the squaddies pub.

My Friend Jim

My friend Jim died last year having passed his hundredth birthday and I will share a poem I wrote to remember him by. Here served in the far east and oversaw the surrender of Japan when the war there ended.

He also served at Bletchley Park and maybe he met Alan Turing, but he never talked about his time during the war, with people although he has written a memoir which i hope to get a copy of and publish on Amazon to raise money from a charity that he started from people who wanted to work after retirement.

I will add it here when it is published, but here is my poem.

My Dad

My Dad served in the army as his National Service. He had a choice of going down the mines or serving and tried the mines but did not last long, possibly, like me he suffers from claustrophobia, though I have never asked him.

While he was in the army he represented them in boxing, winning most of his fights but he had to retire because his eyes cut too easily which meant that he could not finish some of his bouts.

He eventually left and did various things including running a pig and cow farm, and mostly as a builder. He has also installed more than two thousand post boxes (and I helped him with many in my youth) from Buxton to Anglesey to Lockerbie so a large area. I am contacting the Guiness Book Of Records about this so if anything comes of it I will share here.

Another piece I wrote for my dad

Conclusion on My Serve Piece.

This is probably not what you expected. I could never have served in the army because I always would question orders, but luckily these days in the UK, the army is all volunteers and I totally respect every member of our services.

I do abhor our government's attitude to throwing soldiers returning from campaigns on the scrap heap so I will share a link to “Help For Heroes” who actually do something for these incredible guys.

This is the piece that inspired this