Funny how stuff sticks in your heart...
There is a special place in my heart for an NCO called Clarence van der Walt. Yeah...I used him in a new book. Who could do better than him?
I rarely use real people in my books, usually; but i loved that guy. He'd been shot up, badly, early on. But he took us out into the Indian country, and conducted himself as a soldier.
To me, the writer, he conducted himself in some ways, as much more than that;, it was his boys that mattered to him. It has been my fortune to meet men like him, and to honor them.
We'd been defending what was left of an armored car after it hit a a boosted Soviet anti-tank mine. It was supposed to be recovered the next day, and so it was. It was a long time to the next day and the night was full of gremlins.
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I awakened after a long night of sentry duty, behind a machine gun. The dream of terrorists jumping upon me as I slept has never left me. I l sleep with my knife to this day. Maybe I'll get over that, but it's no big deal. Most folks sleep with their knives, don't they?
Yet that morning when Sgt Clarence van der Walt sat up on our possy, and sang this song to us, his boys, I will remember this forever. I loved him then, and I always will. Because in the horror of war, he loved us. Clarence, God bless you, my friend..
And ind the beauty of an African morning, he sang this to us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDtJctcarBk
Talbot
There is a special place in my heart for an NCO called Clarence van der Walt. Yeah...I used him in a new book. Who could do better than him?
I rarely use real people in my books, usually; but i loved that guy. He'd been shot up, badly, early on. But he took us out into the Indian country, and conducted himself as a soldier.
To me, the writer, he conducted himself in some ways, as much more than that;, it was his boys that mattered to him. It has been my fortune to meet men like him, and to honor them.
We'd been defending what was left of an armored car after it hit a a boosted Soviet anti-tank mine. It was supposed to be recovered the next day, and so it was. It was a long time to the next day and the night was full of gremlins.
---------------------------------------------------------
I awakened after a long night of sentry duty, behind a machine gun. The dream of terrorists jumping upon me as I slept has never left me. I l sleep with my knife to this day. Maybe I'll get over that, but it's no big deal. Most folks sleep with their knives, don't they?
Yet that morning when Sgt Clarence van der Walt sat up on our possy, and sang this song to us, his boys, I will remember this forever. I loved him then, and I always will. Because in the horror of war, he loved us. Clarence, God bless you, my friend..
And ind the beauty of an African morning, he sang this to us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDtJctcarBk
Talbot