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b5da4b9
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It was plain to see the toll the extraordinary climb had taken--for an hour after Bandoola reached the top, his legs continued to quiver with involuntary contractions. What a relief
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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eea0b57
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When someone else in the village tried to extort money from Williams over damaged banana trees, he felt it was a sure sign they were reentering civilization
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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3625f25
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In part due to the 270 bridges they built from local materials, lightweight prefabricated sections were available to construct the largest known Bailey bridge, which was built across the Chindwin at Kalewa in December 1944.
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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bbee9f3
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The world he loved was not just disappearing; it was already gone. The British Empire would shrink away from its borders. Williams had lost the Burmese members of his family, and the elephants were next. The effect of the separation would be momentous. The bond he had forged with the animals was something so large and deep he could frame it only in spiritual terms, saying they were his "religion."
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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129296b
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Though he had always thought logging elephants had a good life, he found himself now pining for them to have something better. The war sometimes made men harder and softer at the same time. Even with this reassuring
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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e885533
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Many men who had spent their working lives in the East were terrified of going home to England and living on a pension. Gone were the spacious home, the servants, the ponies, the cars, and the memberships in every club. But
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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ecf12d2
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Unfortunately, by then, he had already seen the last of his beloved elephant Bandoola. The great tusker had been killed before war's end, in circumstances that would haunt Williams for the rest of his life. It was, he would always maintain, nothing short of murder
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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9a84261
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When Williams unleashed his fury on Po Toke, the old mahout, sobbing, admitted that Bandoola was dead. He claimed he did not know what had happened.
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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768a14b
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Two riders led Williams to the body. "There lay Bandoola," Williams would write. He stared in disbelief at the rotting corpse, not quite ready to comprehend that his hero was gone. Bandoola's right tusk had been hacked off, and the left remained plowed into the earth where his head had fallen. A single bullet fired directly into his skull had killed him."
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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164393c
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Somewhere on the border of Burma and India is a monument. Carved on a giant teak tree, "preserved for humanity," are the words BANDOOLA BORN 1897, KILLED IN ACTION 1944. Williams never saw Po Toke again."
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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de7db97
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James Howard Williams died during an emergency appendectomy. So accustomed to the burning ache of his ulcer, he mistook the new, sharper agony as more of the same. The man who never spoke of his woes stoically bore the pain of a burst appendix until it was too late.
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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3cbc57e
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Eighty percent of American forces contracted dysentery in another siege, but they kept fighting. Some had to go into combat with the backsides of their pants cut away.
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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d0e916c
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this point, the uzis believed that even the nicest bulls
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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a4c1f18
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I tell you, therefore, as officers, that you will neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep, nor smoke, nor even sit down until you have personally seen that your men have done those things. If you will do this for them, they will follow you to the end of the world.
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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52e5fb3
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trust requires much more than affection; it depends on mutual confidence--strength, not niceness.
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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00f6ad7
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The war sometimes made men harder and softer at the same time.
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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8441e54
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Merrill's Marauders, as well as the pilots of the Flying Tigers.
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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83cfcc0
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If you will do this for them, they will follow you to the end of the world. And, if you do not, I will break you.
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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c6d0aef
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Dominance is not leadership. From animals, Williams said, people could learn about taking "authority without being a bully."
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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b01834b
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Years later, historians would try to explain the complicated reasons for such behavior. In part, they would conclude, it was a cocktail of harsh discipline, national fervor, religion, childhood education, a cultural embrace of obedience over individuality, and a demand for utter allegiance and bravery that was enforced with physical punishment. But to an Allied soldier in the field, it didn't matter why. They simply never wanted to find the..
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Vicki Constantine Croke |
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b78e61f
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for he felt moved by forces that weren't necessarily visible or easily explainable. Coming to Burma had only amplified those leanings. "There are ways of knowing things quite certainly but not by reason," he would write, "and in the East both the wise and the simple accept this." --
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Vicki Constantine Croke |