Memories by Billy Willbond
MEMORIES
By Billy Willbond
I hear the bugle call at reveille in the morn
Thoughts hearken back to Calgary’s Depot
Where young Infantry Riflemen soldiers were born
I hear a voice yelling out there on the square
That drill voice it was harsh and extremely loud!
Korean War veteran Merv Sneddon my friend
Told me to hold my head up proud
Or I’d get unwanted wrathful attention
From our CSM perfectionist, the Rod Ken McLeod
I don’t know whether it’s a dream in sleep
Or is it daydream thoughts that I sometimes weep?
For my long dead buddy Dighton Vaughn Roussel
Rosie had shared with me a guardroom CB cell
He was killed in a bar in Amsterdam on leave
Leaving Cyril and big Mack and me to grieve
They lowered Rosie’s coffin down into German Ground
The Padre said prayers and the wets drank a round!
As I get older I think back o’er that young soldier’s life
To those years before I met and married my wife
I lived each day to the sound of the duty bugler’s call
Until he sounded retreat in front of the hall
The drill and duties course, LCpl - promotion
A fight with a meathead, stripes lost to demotion
Fourteen and twenty five and two weeks of pack drill
Moving 140 to the minute to the BOS’s will
It must be a dream because I’m not really awake
I must put on the coffee, jump up, take a break
Put aside thoughts of Buddy Rosie and trips back through the years
What’s that on my cheek? Those can’t be real tears?
CSM – Company Sergeant Major
CB – Confined to Barracks (punishment for infractions of Military Discipline)
Cyril – Rifleman Cyril (Newf) Barnes (a life long friend)
Big Mack – Rifleman James MacDonald (6ft 7in tall) lost track of him when we came back from Deutschland – I believe he went for release?
LCpl – Lance Corporal – first NCO position between Rifleman and Corporal
Meathead – Affectionate nick name for members of the Canadian Provost Corps (C Pro C)
Fourteen and Twenty Five – 14 days pack drill and a $25.00 fine
BOS – Battalion Orderly Sergeant
Rosie – Rifleman Dighton Vaughn Rousel – had been on the boxing team – killed by a bouncer in a bar in Amsterdam – buried in Germany
Saanichton BC – 1155 hrs Friday 17Aug07
William Willbond – Canadian Soldier Poet – http://iwvpa.net/willbondwha