What to Say?A Message From Major Baker

[radop211tc]

Im not going to get into a pissing contest with the good ole Maj as I am more than positive that he will beat me hands down but I do like how you inject the Somali incident. I am sure that more than a few committed some nasties in Vietnam.

I think you really got it wrong, when most of us refer to the US as an attack of your people/military.
My wife is American and she slams the Pres,everytime she reads or see‘s him on tv, so I guess she Unpatriotic. I guess she should take down the US Flag, she proudly has hanging up.
I do Thank You sir, for me realizing, that I should suck back my attitude towards the Government for disbanding a Great & Proud Unit,one that I had hoped one day I would be part of, one of the few reasons I chose to retire early from the military, as the Gov, took one of my dreams away.
Prior to today, after years of crying over spilt milk, that I had made a Major mistake getting out, Ive decided to get this body back in fighting order and attempt at rejoining the military. For the government, I dont think so. For my buds that are overworked, constantly on tours because of the government. At least, if I can take a tour or two or three, to give someone a break, I will get gratification from it.

I dont really care if I get slammed, I cleared my chest and a Canadian Flag will be beside the US one soonest.

Tc...
VVV

 

[Devlin]

Not sure how to respond to the last comment here. WWII was an unfortunate event in everyone‘s history. Though I am no history expert I am sure Canadians are not the only ones who strayed outside the lines during this War.

Any of the history buffs on the board here care to respond to the Majors‘ story.

:soldier:

 

[Jungle]

One instance I heard about was with the "Regt de la Chaudière", from the 3rd CDN Div. During the Northwest Europe campaign, their Padre was killed by enemy fire. On the next day, the CO issued orders not to take prisonners for 24 hours. This was meant as a way to avenge their Padre.

 

[GrahamD]

When I was in high school, I learned about a situation in the Pacific theater of WW2 that I have never heard about either before or since.

It was about the Japanese treatment of Canadian captured and wounded. We were essentially guarding an island (I forget which) as a direct favor to the British, who were supposed to send reinforcements. They stalled and stalled, and eventually a major assault was launched on the island. Naturally, with insufficient troops, I belive the figure was in the low thousands, the island was overrun. The Japanese executed casualties in their hospital beds, and forced the healthy troops into camps, which were very much like concentration camps. Conditions were worse than those camps in Europe however and many died. I was shown pictures of the survivors, taken during the days of their liberation, and they are disturbing.

I also learned about a man named Adolph Hitler who was the leader of the Nazi party. The party who came up with "The final solution, to the Jewish question". Germany, or rather the German people, instead of doing something about this extremist group running their country, decided to instead, either blatently support them, or hide in their turtle shell of cowardice and support them through enablement. I believe they executed upwards of 6 million people. This only after they plunged most of Europe into a war that killed millions more, and destroyed lives and families all over the world.

A German prisoner was shot you say? By some Canadians? Lucky for that prisoner he wasn‘t captured in the Soviet Union, and its a good thing he wasn‘t born Jewish and rounded up by his war buddies to be murdered, possibly after having some mad science tested out on him in Hitlers disgusting medical experiment program.

P.S. Here are some interesting facts I just looked up that sort of relate to the first point I made, they are mostly US facts though. There are worse things than not being allowed to surrender.

World War II
Japan‘s Prisoner of War (POW) Camps
Basic Facts
U.S. prisoners of war held by the Empire of Japan, 1941-1945 died at a rate exceeding 37% while in captivity. On the other hand, U.S. prisoners of war held captive by Nazi Germany died at a rate of less than 2% while held by the Germans. (Based on figures from Center For Internee Rights).


Escapes were rare. Unlike the situation in Europe, the mostly Caucasian Allied prisoners could not mingle among Asians without instant recognition. Furthermore, the local Asian populations were subjected to severe reprisals from the Japanese when helping Allied POW. There was at least one notable successful rescue attempt, at Cabanatuan in the Philippines late in the war [ Daws, p. 324.] Surviving U.S. prisoners-of-war almost to a man consider the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan as a successful rescue. Tokyo had issued orders to kill all prisoners-of-war by 1945 [ Daws, p. 324-325.].

All U.S. and Allied POW were subjected to slave labor, cruel and unusual punishments and medical experiments [ see Unit 731 ]. Many of the Japanese war crimes afflicted upon Allied POW were brushed aside by Japan and Allied governments following World War II during the headlong rush to stop Soviet expansion in Asia.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

The island in question would be Hong Kong, and yes Canadian troops were executed in their beds.

Japan was not a signatory to the Geneva Convention (neither were the Soviet Union, incidentally).

 

[Deleted member 585]

Jungle... L O L. Thanks for the comic relief.

Cheers.

EDIT: Cripes! I refer above to your post from the first page... not to your latest post, on this page... which I obviously missed. *Groan*

 

[OLD SCHOOL]

The major is correct in that the negative comments and barbs have no place here.
I would venture that as a group Canadians hang out like teenagers,that is, stupid in a group,
feeding off one comment to the next. Forgetting about softwood lumber, I would like to just remember the personal relationships between soldiers during my career. Everything from splitting a mars bar into 12 pieces on a Ranger course to feed my brothers to sniping with a U.S SGT. for 7 hours straight until one scored over the other. And let us not forget gucci kit and more gucci kit. Ft. Bragg is a second home. Yes, Americans need to broaden their world view and turn off CNN but look at the morons we elect in Canada to run our Country. Stupid in a group but to a man we are loyal to each other. On 9/11, our population opened up their arms to Americans and they lived in our houses for days while stranded.Our Gov. handled everyhing in true idiot fashion but the people reacted with loyalty to a man.All B.S aside, this will always be the case. Loyalty and brotherhood. On a job a month ago I got coined by an American politician and it cost me $165. I love him like a brother even if I don‘t agree with him on much.
Just one opinion Major.

 

[nULL]

Another thing about Canadians...like everyone else, a good lot of them think that they, as individuals, have the answers to the country‘s problems, and would be so much better up on Parliament Hill. "Stop bitching and become an MLA" is something everyone should remember.

 

[GerryCan]

I also have to agree with Spr. Earl on this one, you definetely can‘t take everything to heart that is posted here, some may be a little more disheartening than others but we‘re all adults right? One thing I DON‘T agree with, was the low blow about the CAR torturing a somali teenager blah blah blah etc. etc....It seems we‘ll pay for that for a long time to come, but don‘t for a second think we‘re the only ones guilty of such things...I mean no offense, but Americans have one of the sketchiest track records of this sort and most of it coming from one war...but regardless, why even state a complaint of anti-americanism if you‘re just going to retaliate along the same lines and pretty much cancel one another out.

 

[nbk]

*Ahem*

The vast majority of Germans ddi not know about the concentration camps until the war was over. Even te soldiers (with the likely exeption of the SS and camp guards) had no idea.

It is easy too look back on everything and wonder how the German people could have allowed all this to happen, but you have to remember most Germans were unaware of just how bad things were. And most were too scared of the Gestapo to speak out if they did not agree with everything.

By that same rational, you could blame Iraqi‘s for all the atrocities that Saddam and the Ba‘ath party were responsible for.

And remember there was lots of propaganda at the front line level in World War 2. Remember the story of the crucified Canadian soldier in World War one, and how the exact same story came out in World War two?

 

[Duotone81]

but regardless, why even state a complaint of anti-americanism if you‘re just going to retaliate along the same lines and pretty much cancel one another out.

That‘s a good point.

 

[Walter Brunszwick]

nbk, I don‘t exactly recall, but I do believe that the vast majority of German civilans knew about the German concentration camps. However, the could not do anything, for they would be shot. It was a brutal war.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Bowling for colombine, great documentry of what i saw of it so far. People should take a look.