Swearing at the Colonel.

[Aughnanure]

I may be telling this for the second, or their time, but the memory is going.
I can hardly remember things that happened 75 years ago.

Anyway one of the blokes was wounded and the telephones were jammed (bit of an emergency) so I took off on foot for the medic. On the way past CHQ someone called out "Soldier STOP!!"

I replied "Pig's f----- arse" and kept running; returning on the back end of the stretcher, the Colonel fell in beside me (and I realized who'd yelled at me), "what happened lad?", "Ronnie Toole, the storemans been shot; and my apologies for my remark on the way down, Sir".

He clapped me on he should with a "That's all right, lad."

The Colonel, the late "Spin" Buckler, was anti 'bad language' and either of the famous 'Four letter words', or their derivatives could earn one a 5 pound fine.

A 'Fiver' was known as a 'Spin', hence the Colonel's nickname.

Actually the Colonel was a good bloke and a fine soldier who never got his just recognition.

[Niner]

Good story Eoin. If you have told it before I don't remember it.

Reminds me of when I was finishing up my time in Vietnam and had been reassigned to the 101st and had a job in the 3-506 infantry battalion firebase bunker passing judgement on artillery fire. The idea was to protect soldiers on the ground in our AO from being on the receiving end of H&I fire that could come from any location that could fire and hit them. A green looking captain I had never laid eyes on before came into the bunker while I was busy going over a map with overlays of "color" plans for H&I targets...it was the A Shau mountain range and I could do my deciding solely based on updated troup locations. He sat down on a folding chair right next to me. I paid him scant attention as I was totally occupied. He says, " I'm the new chaplain". I may or may not have said anything back and went on and made my list and then loaded up the secure set with proper code and called the arty HQ and gave them the list of denied targets. When I was done, the chaplain, having watched me intently all during my chore, says to me with a straight face and a serious looking intense expression....."You're doing a good job." Then he got up to find somebody else to be mystified by. I couldn't help being astonished that this guy praised me for doing something he obviously hadn't a clue about. For all he knew I might have been ordering booze and whores for the the colonel and the staff officers.

[Aughnanure]

Further to my post above, an Obit that I found for "Spin".

Brigadier Ben Buckler OBE
Born Sydney, February 12, 1919
Died Melbourne, February, 1995

Sydney Buckler's leadership on the Kokoda Trail helped saved lives of most of the men in his battalion and became a cornerstone of Australian heroism in World War 11.

Though nothing could prepare a man for the role, Captain Buckler's background stood him in good stead - a boyhood passion for scouting and camping, an ardour for physical fitness and graduation from the Royal Military College, Duntroon.
Buckler was the first adjutant of the 2/14th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, which was raised in May 1940 and saw its initial service in the bloody Syrian campaign. His brother had been killed in action single-handedly storming a machine-gun post during that conflict.

The titanic battle of Isurava on the Kokoda Trail was perhaps the 2/14th's toughest battle during its distinguished World War 11 campaign. After having reinforced the beleaguered 39th Battalion on august 26, 1942, the 2/14th was subjected to grueling, fanatical and costly Japanese frontal assaults. The enemy outnumbered the Australians five to one.

https://www.kokodatreks.com/history/her ... uckler.cfm

[Niner]

A brave man from that obituary.