MATESHIP IN WAR

Story based on Aussie culture

War is hell on earth. Soldiers die in war often removed other soldiers and far from the families. War finds soldiers in the frame of mind of kill or be killed. In ordinary times, many may not want to hurt a living creature. Now they seek to kill enemy.

Soldiers may have enlisted in their town and have come to war as the local football team in uniform. Jack a front row forward is the sergeant. And the local school teacher is the lieutenant.

They gave him a commission as they thought he could lead a rat up a drain pipe. We help him along and call him sir when the other officers are around. I will not tell you what his nickname is. Ladies present.

I am afraid of the war and do not want to die. My wife and kids need a man around the house. My best mate in this war is Billy. He and I went through 9 years at school. Then we were carpenters in the same company. Billy wants to marry my sister.

So we look after each other in this bloody war. Billy is good. When I am unhappy and feeling homesick, he is playing the fool. I cheer him up at times. He reads my mail when he does not get a letter from my sister. And I read his. But he never lets me read the sporting page.

When battle starts, Billy and I are never far from away from each other. He keeps telling me to keep my head down. I keep telling him he is not my mother. But he is in a way.

Neither of us have been hit yet. But if that happens to Billy, I do not want to think about it. We are both here to look out for each other. In the meantime, he supplies the cigarettes and I make sure he takes his malaria pills.

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Sometimes we see this on the Kokoda track among the trekkers. There is a definite mateship among people of the same family, company or town.

Fathers and sons look after each other. So do friends in the same company. Girl friends help each other. On one trek was a man and his daughter-in-law.

One of the problems of many treks is that there are people who are alone. Some may be shy and too busy trekking to make friends. They may be ones who are stressed on the trek.

But it would be useful if there was a buddy system. If every trekker had a friend, old or new, a trek would calm down earlier and move along in more peaceful atmosphere.

On my 4^th trek, I was having trouble with the tendon in my knee. I was trek leader which was embarrassing.

But I made friends with a trekker who was a man in his fifties and took care of me. He was a builder and had 5 kids.

I trekked and did my job. But there were times that I had pain. He looked out for me. I could not help think that he was a mate as soldiers were to one another in the war.

If he were in trouble in any way, I would be there to help him. When a person is alone, problems of trekking are much greater.