Order of Australia

[kevinlms]

What an amazing story, no wonder he's getting an Order of Australia. He has deserved such an honour.

 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/lying-in-a-hospital-bed-with-a-broken-leg-frank-had-one-choice-to-survive-the-war-20190514-p51n9j.html

[ikks]

Incredible story,what a wonderful man........hope he can make the presentation.

 

Mike

[J. S. Bach]

I hope that he is able to receive it in person.

A model railroad friend of mine (now deceased) was a survivor of the Bataan Death March; luckily for us, he was more that willing to talk to us about his experiences both on the March and his work in captivity at the copper mines in Ashio. He did make the statement that (at Ashio, anyway) the pows were not really maltreated as the commandant was wise enough to realize that weak/sick prisoners could not meet "production" levels.  Because they met assigned "levels", they usually got better rations. Very interesting stories he told, we would sit there listening and completely forgetting the trains!.

[faulcon1]

A man used to live across the road from my mum and dad and in WW2 he'd been in Paupa New Guinea. He saw some horrific sites and wrote a book about his wartime experiences (long out of print). But I remember him saying in the book that when the Japanese shot Anglo soldiers or Anglo soldiers shot the Japanese the dead would have to be buried very quickly, not from a security viewpoint but simply because in the heat and high humidity the dead would start to decompose within one hour. He also told of a visiting officer who berated their company commander for not wearing his stripes or any other way to recognise his rank. It was pointed out to this visiting officer that Japanese snipers pick off the officers in the belief that the men left will become a disorganised rabble. This visiting officer made it known that he didn't care and that the company commander would be reported on his return to HQ. Well on his way back to HQ the Japanese attacked his staff car and made him their target. He took refuge in a muddy ditch where he ripped off all decorations pertaining to his rank and threw his baton away. The company commander never was reported. In another chapter he reported how out on patrol he and his fellow soldiers would have to make camp for the night wherever they were. One night they made camp but there a horrific smell and they soon realised that they'd made camp onto of buried dead soldiers who weren't buried deep enough and in the heat the swelling decomposing bodies had broken the ground. It's those sort of stories that were never on a recruitment poster.

To look at him this man was perfectly normal and no one would have an inkling of the horrors he'd been through.     

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Nine. Sorry, that's my idiot savant personality talking. Australia is ninth in alphabetically ordered nations list.

 

A testament to the human spirit.