sms' good go
Jan 30, 2010 · No Comments
sms’ good go with 2VP/Whistler/2010
full circle. the ring road from Shilo, a year and a half ago, to Whistler. the long drive across the prairie. farmers’ fences ribboned yellow. Welcome Home signs flapping in late October. the razor wire of winter just being felt in the wind. I rolled my rented car into the ghost-town, CFB Shilo. 2 PPCLI just home from A’stan. everybody on leave. restoration. regroup. rethink. the whole thing.
how could I know then, the wind would blow so much to me. change. unsettling. a door closing. another opening. pain. love. friendship. great loss. great gain.
at Shilo they gave me officer’s quarters. I cooked toast on my iron, made coffee. had my own bathroom, bed, suite. I was alone. until I begged to sleep in the field. squeezed first into Admin. then a rifle company.
the year rolled into WWx, garrison, Suffield, Maple Guardian, war. I thought it was done. then invitation to Whistler with the Col. of the Regiment. a chance to see life after war. a chance to spend time with the eminence grise (says the CO).
and they put me up in officers’ quarters. my own bed, bathroom. comfortable, warm. alone. a long way from biv’ing in pup tents with fresh-minted soldiers, beneath October’s red harvest moon, or snoozing in LAVs, or puking in live-fire at 0400 hrs or shutting eyes in the abandoned Russian school house somewhere out in the middle of A’stan.
two days with the COR. his stories, history books. an image I’ll never forget. us in the mess. the COR sitting between the CO and a young pup. the young pup leaning in listening. hanging onto the words of the “old strap hanger”.
and a soldier I’ll never forget. one of those open faces you see. born in Russia, brought to Canada so he wouldn’t have to serve in the Russian army in A’stan. this poor soldier’s mother, she saw her son join up over here, live through two tours (the irony, the irony of it). young soldier bright, bright. he’ll go a long way.
snow and ice, food (I always get fat when I spend time with them), visits with the boys on the top of the mountain. watching watching still. ready for anything. A’stan taught them well.
Capt. drove us down to the coast. bid us farewell. the COR and I talked all the way back home. from the good go.
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The page you're reading contains a single diary entry entitled sms' good go. It was posted here on January 30, 2010.