Beyond No Mean Soldier by Peter McAleese

Author:Peter McAleese [McAleese, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Military, History, Modern, General, 20th Century, Technology & Engineering, Military Science
ISBN: 9781910294017
Google: gm_pnwEACAAJ
Publisher: Helion and GC Books
Published: 2015-01-15T16:08:37+00:00

With Jane and Pete Donnelly at Bindura Registry Office, 24 January 1980. The happiest day of my life.

The Internal Affairs Office supervisor never turned up, not surprisingly I suppose, so I set about organising the place myself. I could see it had been well set-up originally, so there was hope. First, I deployed the Auxiliaries on patrols into the surrounding bush to drive off the ZANLA guerrillas and prove to the people inside the Keep that we had the upper hand. Then I turned to the Keep itself. In order of importance, I discovered six youngsters with kwashiorkor, the terrible condition affecting small children suffering from severe nutritional protein deficiency, which gives them dry skin, de-pigmented hair and the awful swollen bellies which have become the hallmark of African famine. I drove them straight to see Jane in the Bindura Hospital for blacks and she presented them to the doctor immediately. Two were beyond help and died but the others were saved. Next, I realised that my own medical skills were quite inadequate to deal with a problem of this magnitude (remember the goat?), so I appealed to Jane again. She agreed to come at once, and, having qualified as a nurse with an ‘A’ grade in Community Health, she was a great help with her advice. Plainly, we needed a medical centre and supplies. I went to the army, posed the problem and asked for medicines. The quartermaster in charge of the stores said, “It’s no good, Sergeant McAleese. You’re only allowed one trommel of kit. Standard Platoon Medic Kit. One box only. Those are the rules.”

“Fine,” I replied, saluting smartly, and went straight round to his stores where I looted as many boxes as would fit in my truck. I took the best part of 20 boxes I found lying about there. One Platoon Medic Kit was sufficient for only 40 people and I had 1,800 desperate people in the Keep. Jane emphasised that the blacks needed protein. She rang up a local company called ProNutro which made a milk protein supplement for children, and asked for all their rejects such as the punctured bags which could not be sold commercially. They offered them at cost. I persuaded the Special Branch to cough up $600 from their seemingly bottomless account and we drove off with a truckload. ProNutro is still going, one of Zimbabwe’s success stories – thanks guys.

At the same time, I set up a crèche for the children in the Keep. This probably sounds rather charming, but there was a good reason. In Africa, the women feed the men first, before the children, so when, as here, there was little food, the kids went hungry and got sick. So, I fed the kids at the crèche, telling the older children, who were not more than 15 years old, to make sure they fed the small ones. It was really very satisfying to see the way they perked up at once and began behaving like children again. I got more enthusiastic than ever as things improved and looked round for further ideas.

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