Soldiers and Civilians

Wartime story told by a dad to his son.

During WW2 Canadian soldiers were stationed in England prior to being deployed to various venues of conflict in Europe and North Africa.  May Dad related this story to me when I was about sixteen years of age.  He was always reluctant to talk of his war time experiences.  Why he told me this one, which pertained to his time in England, I never quite knew.  Maybe to give me some insight into the heart of mankind, that mankind’s inhumanity to man (and woman) is occurring all around us, all the time.  The “O Canada, we stand on guard for thee” refrain is not just some war time, mighty we are, glorious we are anthem.  We are in the conflict all of the time whether it’s racial injustice, poverty, violence against women or the pre-born.  We need courage to enter the battle.  As a sixteen year old my Dad did.  Here is his story with some poetic license.

Corporal S.T. was from a rough rural city in Northern Canada.  He enlisted to get away from poverty, drinking and family violence. He was violent himself and took out his frustrations on smaller kids and animals.  What he lacked in education, he made up for in size.  He was six foot three and weighed two hundred and forty eight pounds at enlistment.  The army sized him up and liked his size.

He liked the drinking available to him on leaves and a supply of willing women if you knew where to look.  He quickly found out where to look and satisfied his appetites in ways that were loveless.  One night he drank a bit too much.  The usual victims of his predatory instincts were not available.  A young girl of not more than fifteen, five foot one; one hundred and five pounds, was making her way home from a late afternoon shift, alone. She was a riveter in airplane production.

MP’s heard the screams of horror and agony and found the Corporal on top of the young woman, both breasts exposed and red with blood.  ST had bit both of her n*****s off.  The MP’s took the corporal into custody and there he remained until his military trial two weeks later.  The girl was taken to hospital and there her side of the story ends.

Military Judge Owen Stance was a stern man of the law.  As a civilian he had been a prosecutor in criminal cases, mostly murders.  He later became a judge and while not as famous as judge Matthew Bailie Begbie of the mid 1800’s, he was known for an unforgiving attitude.  Begbie was inclined to dispatch malcontents and felons with a short stretch of rope.  Owen Stance was familiar with some of Begbie’s application of the law and had an appreciation for his legal opinion.  

Another interesting point is that Stance and his wife were childless.

The evidence was incontestable.  ST was guilty.  But the judge deliberated for a few days, wrestling with the severity of the crime.  One of his options was the death penalty.  Varying years of imprisonment were other options. 

My Dad was able to get a copy of the military court’s decision.  This is how the end of it reads:

”Corporal, the findings of this court are that you are to be dishonorably discharged immediately. If you were to be judged in other times you may have been subject to a similar barbarity in having your chest disfigured but such is the male anatomy that, that seems hardly fitting.  You have robbed this young woman of her dignity and perhaps even her ability to give nourishment and succor to children.  What indeed, is a fitting punishment for such wretched behavior?  I have decided that you will be treated as one insane, your madness is demonstrably evident.  You will be surgically castrated within the next week.  As much as your previous inclinations led you to a promiscuous manner of living with no apparent fruit, you shall remain fruitless and barren for the rest of your life.  You will spend the next twenty years in military prison to rue what manner of life you have walked in.  May God have mercy on your soul.  I will not."

I carry this story in my soul as a warning, to try to be tender towards everyone you meet, male or female.  You never know what deep chasms of hurt lie within the breast of each soul.  And if you do not cherish the one that you are with as an incredible gift of God, you should not be with them at all.

 

 

Reviews

[JD Major]

Thank you Rafita ...Your well-crafted and rhythmic prose, written in your less-is-more style enhances life's abiding message, that treating others as we would have others treat us, was, is, and always will be the golden standard.
I love the way you honor your Dad's choice to share this story with you, and your tender care of it through all your years, passing it so eloquently forward.
I'll be impatiently awaiting your next offering,
JD