Less We Forget

Week of June 6

This week is the 56th Anniversary of D-Day...the landing of Allied Forces on the beaches of France to free the French and others from the occupation of Nazi Germany.

This Go Figure story is dedicated to the men and women of that era and remembering one soldier in particular who I had the privilege of meeting at a boy scout camp in 1948. His name was Malcolm Daniels and his camp nickname was Peppy.

We were both on the staff of Camp Yawgoog, a Boy Scout camp in Rockville R.I.Peppy, a disabled vet was the chef that summer and I was an apprentice on the waterfront. Peppy and I were tent-mates.

One afternoon while changing to go for a swim I noticed why he was disabled. Going up the inside thigh of his right leg were six scars, each about the size of a bullet.

"Is that where you were shot," I asked curiously?

"Y'eah" he shrugged, "And I'm thankful that guy was a trained gunner."

I didn't know what he meant then but six years later when I was being trained as a U.S.Army infantryman I was taught to fire a machine gun in short bursts of six rounds. A seventh bullet could have ended Peppy's life.

Like a lot of WWII veterans, Peppy was reluctant to talk about the war. But after a summer of being badgered by a 15-year-old waterfront apprentice Peppy told this account of his disabling encounter with a machine gun in a dense German forest.

After being shot he said he fell in an out of consciousness. Once he recalls being attended by a GI medic and later by a German who was lossening a tourniquet on his leg.He passed out again. When he awoke he realized he was on a cot and he heard two men talking in German.

He thought oh no, I've been captured. I can't walk and I'm a prisoner. In perfect English he heard, "Hi soldier, how are we doing here?" Peppy opened his eyes to see an American doctor.

He was in a forward aid station and it was the talking Germans lying in adjoining beds who were the prisoners.

Peppy died a few years ago after a long and fruitful life of public service. He may be gone now as are most other World War II Veterans, but let us not forget what they did for their country. Thanks Peppy.

Malcolm Salter
Sarasota, Fl.