Many years ago I was once told of a story about a soldier on exercise in
Kenya. The guy in question was described to me as a big guy that very few people would take on. They established their Base Camp and during their stay there, a mongoose regularly visited their camp. It seems this man took an instant dislike to the mongoose and he took every opportunity to abuse the animal, he would kick it, throw stones at it and yet the mongoose kept coming back. The other soldiers apparently loved the little mongoose.
One day the soldier went to his Bedford to get something from his tool bin, as he opened the tool bin a snake sprang directly at him, fangs in full view.
In a split second the mongoose leap between him and the vehicle and the snake was gone.
The shocked soldier could not believe what had happened and from that day on he befriended the mongoose, because in his eyes it had saved his life. Everywhere he went he took the mongoose, he would let it sleep with him in his sleeping bag, he would feed it tit bits, and their relationship crew stronger and stronger.
So much so that when the exercise ended and they were boarding the C130 to return to the UK, one of the crew became aware that the soldier had something moving under his jacket, when challenged he denied he had anything, he was asked again “what have you got there” he replied “nothing”.
It was soon discovered that he had got the mongoose under his jacket and that he wanted to take it back home with him, when asked he refused to hand it over, he was told you can’t take it with you. He still refused to hand it over and it ended up in him being tackled to the ground by 4-5 men, the mongoose was caught and released back into its habitat.
The soldier boarded the plane in tears at his loss.
Many years ago I was once told of a story about a soldier on exercise in 
No comments:
Post a Comment