Marvellous old interview with an Irish WW1 veteran

[fjruple]

When I first enlisted in the US Army National Guard, it was in a very historic unit. Each year the unit would have an Annual Dinner in which all of the previous members from previous wars were invited to attend. Unfortunately for many members my age they did not interface with the older veterans. I personally made it a point to sit down with them about their experiences. We had several WWI veterans attend the dinner most of whom were in the late 80 and early 90's. Many in wheel chairs. I remember one veteran describing the same experiences as the WWI Irish veteran in the interview especially about the rats. He still had nightmares of the rats even in the 1970's. It was just like yesterday. The other thing he mention was the smell. He said everything had the smell of death, the sickly sweet smell of bodies decomposing. If you buried the bodies, the German shelling would blow decomposing fresh all over you. The smell was in the water, uniforms and food, everything. I also got the talk to the officer in charge of the firing party for Ernie Slovak. There was no sympathy for him by the firing party. All great men!! all gone now.

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