A man named Fred H. McDonald.

I was selling D-Day Wear at the Military Vehicle Model Show and Exhibit, part of the Ontario Regiment Museum's Aquino Day event in Oshawa, Ontario this past weekend. I had the opportunity to see some vintage tanks and military vehicles in action all I can say about that is ‘Wow”!

As it turned out that the movie Fury with Brad Pitt was on T.V. and I watched it last night. It reminded me of a man I met at a show back in 2013, at the Ribfest in London Ontario, where a Veteran of WWII walked into my tent to show me a picture he had just taken of my display. His name was Fred H. McDonald. We spoke for a bit and he told me that he was with the 1st Hussars, a tank regiment from London. And that he had actually driven a Sherman tank across Juno Beach on D-Day.

As we chatted, he reached into his pocket, to get his wallet and then proceeded to pull out some pictures. The first one he showed me was his Canadian Military ID card. His dog tag number was A510, which means he was the 510th person to enlist for World War II from London in 1940. He was 16 years old. The second picture he showed me was one of him later in the war when he was 21.

He told me how he was injured once and showed me the scar on his face and said that he also had a scar on his stomach as well that he received from the injury. He told me how he was hospitalized for three months to recover and then how it took him an additional couple of months to get caught up and returned to his unit.

As our conversation progressed, I asked Fred what was his worst memory of the war was. He told me he would never forget having to pull five burned bodies out of a destroyed tank (apparently, they have to come out feet first) He said he will never forget the smell of burning flesh.  I couldn’t imagine carrying that image around with me for 70 years, could you? I often hear people say that veterans they know never speak or spoke of the war. You can’t blame them, why would you want to relive those memories? As the tag line of the Movie Fury states, “War never ends quietly”.

For some reason, it is different with me and I don’t know what it is?  Maybe it is the nature of my business or my size, but Veterans open up to me and share their stories.  I have heard stories from WWII that I never thought I would hear and after hearing some of them, I wish I never did.  I think as they enter their twilight years, some are looking for closure; they have to get something off their chest or just off their minds.

I gave Fred a Sherman Tank t-shirt that I sell and he thanked me profusely. I said, “No Sir, thank you!” I told him that I hope to see him next year at the Rib Fest. To which he replied with a smile, “You will! I’m only 90 you know”. 

That made my day.