Intake 150 - "C" Company - 9 Platoon

DEPOT THE RHODESIA REGIMENT

8th January, 1976 - June 1977

I have my platoon and company photographs taken in early 1976. We came to depend on each other for our lives and many of us became good friends. Today, as I write, 32 years later (April 2008) I still have contact with some of them. What is especially strange is that I still see them all in my mind and hear their young voices as 18 year-old just-out-of high school boys... and we are all now in our early 50's. I certainly had many unique experiences in the infantry. I absolutely hated how many of the full-time moron NCO's and officers in control treated us - like pieces of dirt while we were doing all of the work - but the other experiences and the friendships made up for these people, many of whom would struggle to hold down a job in the real world.

I was extremely fortunate that, at Llewellyn, I ended up in a platoon with a firm but fair commander, Color Sergeant Van Den Berg and a decent corporal, Cpl Newbould. Van Den Berg was a tough, decent, ex-RLI soldier and we knew we had a great guy in control. 7 platoon however ended up with a terrible, ignorant, abusive and sadistic S.O.B. over them. (I still remember his name but won't mention it here other than to say he was Sergeant P..t. For those of you who may remember him. I can still see his fat body, see his red face and hear his screaming voice in my mind. How he slept at night after treating his guys so badly every day I just don't know). I remember his guys telling us that if they ever had a chance to kill him on the rifle range they would.

The names overlaid in red are those I know were killed on active duty. Those underlined in green remained with us in our platoon in the infantry and did not go off as medics, to signals and so on. There was one typo and that is where I corrected "De Wildt" to read "Benkenstein."

When I have a chance I will scan my company photo and put that up too.