The Cadet Corporal

by Christopher Cummings

  Graham was so surprised he made no reply. In hurt silence he moved away, wondering what he had done to offend Bannister. Then it came to him. ‘Bannister is Pigsy Pike’s section commander!’ Then he shook his head. ‘Poor bugger! I’m bloody glad I don’t have mongrels like Pike in my section.’

  But the taunt still annoyed him because he thought he was just trying hard and doing the right thing, not crawling. With a shake of his head he dismissed the incident and went to collect his section. “Four Section, move out here,” he called. In the darkness they moved out to one side of what was rapidly becoming a milling throng. After checking that Cadet Andrews was back Graham asked Capt Conkey if he could go.

  Having received permission to start the course Graham did a radio check then set the compass and handed it to Cadet Sheehan. Pat had been in cadets all year and had done four weekend bivouacs so was quite experienced for a ‘First Year’. Without hesitation he led off.

  Their first leg took them close past the officer’s fire. As they walked past Graham noted Lt Standish, a lady teacher, sitting there with five cadets. That surprised him and he wondered if they were all ‘sick’ the way Andrews and Dianne had said they were. Then he noted Carnes sitting staring unhappily into the flames. At that Graham shook his head. ‘Poor bugger! I wonder why he joined the Cadets?’

  Then the section passed out of the circle of firelight and almost at once the fears closed in. First the snakes! Graham found he was staring hard at the ground, even though he could barely see it in the darkness. Then he had the thought that it was good that Cadet Sheehan was leading. ‘He will scare the snakes away,’ he reasoned. Then a saying he had heard somewhere slipped into his mind to gnaw at his confidence: that the first person woke the snake up and enraged it and it bit the second person!

  Trying to reassure himself on this count Graham forced himself to walk steadily forward. The other members of the section trampled noisily along behind him. They passed by the edge of the 3 Platoon bivouac area and headed towards an old gravel scrape in the direction of the army camp. Suddenly a torch came on behind him.

  Angrily Graham swung his head to look. It was Dianne. “Turn that torch off! We are not to use torches except in a safety emergency,” he ordered.

  Reluctantly she obeyed, but only for about fifty paces. Then it clicked on again. Graham opened his mouth to tell her to turn it off but before he could CUO McAlistair’s voice rang out from a hundred metres ahead:“Turn that torch off!”

  “Turn it off!” Graham snarled angrily, stung by the reproof.

  Within ten paces a torch again flickered behind him. “Turn it off Cadet Williams!” Graham snapped.

  “It’s not me. It’s Halyday!” Dianne replied hotly.

  “Halyday, turn the torch off!” Graham yelled. Even as he did he knew he wasn’t handling things well. ‘I shouldn’t be losing my temper so easily,’ he told himself, ‘and I should always call people by their ranks.’ To help regain control he stopped them. “Listen,” he said, “This is not just to train you to navigate at night. It is to build up your confidence, to show you that you can walk through the bush in the dark.”

  “But why?” Dianne asked.

  “Because if you turn on a torch and the enemy are watching they could kill you, or your mates,” Graham replied.

  “But we aren’t in the army,” Lucy replied.

  “And how would they hit you if it is dark?” Halyday added.

  “They have night sights on their rifles that allow them to see in the dark,” Graham replied.

  “So, if they can see in the dark what difference does it make if we use a torch?” Andrews retorted.

  For a moment Graham was unable to reply, stung both by the fact that he had talked himself into a stupid contradiction, and also by Halyday’s tone of voice. It took him a moment to think of what to say, hotly conscious that with every minute he hesitated his credibility and leadership were going down. At last it came to him. “Because you can only see a few hundred metres with a night sight whereas a white light, a torch or match or something, can be seen from kilometres away.”

  There was mumbling but no more protests. Feeling that he had things under control again Graham gave the word to Pat to keep going. As he did Andrews called out from the back in a quavering voice. “I want to go back to the fire.”

  Graham silently cursed and went back to him. The glow of the fire was clearly visible only about 200m away. “Don’t be silly. We are nearly finished the first leg,” he said.

  “I want to go back,” Andrews repeated.

  “No. Not unless you have hurt yourself, or are really sick,” Graham replied. He was getting annoyed and short tempered again. “Are you sick?”

  Andrews snuffled and shook his head. “Not really, but I want to go back.”

  “I heard you. We are going on. Get moving Pat,” he called.

  Pat began moving and Graham set off after him. However he had only gone ten paces when Roger called from the back, “Wait for us Graham. Andrew’s won’t move.”

  “Oh blast!” Graham thought, angry that Roger had used his first name, and that he now had a problem he didn’t know how to solve.

  CHAPTER 3

  IN THE DARK

  “Come on Cadet Andrews, get moving!” Graham ordered.

  “No. I want to go back to the fire,” Andrews replied.

  “Start walking, that’s an order!” Graham growled. He knew that everyone else in the section was intently following the struggle of wills. Panic at not being able to get his cadets to obey began to well up in Graham. Fear of failure gripped him.

  Andrews shook his head. “No. I’m not going on.”

  “I said start marching,” Graham grated angrily. He moved close to Andrews and added, “I am a corporal and I’m giving you a direct order.”

  “I’m not going!” Andrews replied, his voice rising and almost cracking with anxiety.

  Exasperation and embarrassment both assailed Graham. He gestured angrily at his sleeve. “Listen you, see these stripes? They mean I can give you orders and I’m telling you to start walking.”

  “No! I want to go back to the fire,” Andrews replied stubbornly

  The situation began to overwhelm Graham. His temper flared. He shook his fist in front of Andrews’ face. “Listen you disobedient little bugger, get moving or... or...”

  Even as he began to say it Graham had just enough sense and self control to stop making a direct physical threat. Even that amount of restraint nearly gave way when Andrews again refused to move. For a minute Graham stood in a lather of indecision. ‘What will the officers think if I can’t even get one little ‘First Year’ to do what I say? They will think I am very weak,’ he thought. ‘So much for wanting to be a sergeant!’

  He then tried another tack. Knowing that time was getting on he said to the others, “We will leave him here. Come on.”

  With that he started walking towards the check point at the gravel pit, hoping that Andrews wouldn’t call his bluff and just walk back to the fire. To his relief the others started walking. He heard Roger say quietly, “Come on Andrews, stay with us,” but Andrews didn’t. When Graham glanced back he saw him standing silhouetted against the distant fire.

  By now Graham was almost in a blind panic. ‘He is not going to follow,’ he thought. ‘What can I do?’ He knew he could not leave a cadet in the dark without getting a roasting from the OC. By then he had only walked twenty paces and was about to stop and admit defeat when a loud wail came from Andrews.

  “Wait! Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!”

  At that Graham did stop. “Then catch up and stay with us,” he called back.

  Andrews didn’t move. Even from thirty paces away Graham could hear the boy crying. With a snort of exasperation he snapped to the others, “Wait here!” and marched back to where Andrews stood. The boy was now sobbing loudly and crying, “Don’t leave me! Help! Help me!”

  “What’s wrong?” Graham cried as he got closer.

&n
bsp; “I’m scared!” Andrews wailed.

  By then Graham was back with him. The boy’s answer came as such a relief he felt like laughing. It was on the tip of his tongue to jeer and deride the boy’s fears but he managed to restrain himself. In a flash of insight he remembered a similar episode the previous year. It also made him very aware that all of his cadets were only 13 years old. He stepped close to Andrews.

  Very quietly he said, “I’m here. You can calm down. You are quite safe.”

  To Graham’s relief Andrews stopped his loud wails and stood sniffling and sobbing. Graham now spoke softly so that the other cadets could not hear. “It’s alright. What are you scared of?”

  “I don’t know! The dark?” Andrews sobbed. Then he went on, “Snakes, spiders, th...things.”

  “What things?” Graham asked.

  “D..d...d...drop.. drop bears and b.. bunyips,” Andrews sobbed.

  In a flash Graham realised that the older cadets had been practising on the credulity of the new recruits. He shook his head with relief. “Have you ever been camping before?” he asked.

  “N..no,” Andrews replied. He was now calming down.

  “So you have never been in the bush at night?”

  “No, and I’m scared,” Andrews replied, his voice low but full of real terror.

  “OK, I understand that,” Graham said. “Now, think about this. There are no such things as drop bears or bunyips.”

  “They said there are,” Andrews replied, “And Yowies.”

  “Who said?” Graham asked.

  “Four Platoon guys,” Andrews replied.

  At that Graham swore softly. ‘Bloody Pigsy Pike and Co!’ he thought. He said, “They are just having you on. Look, if these things really existed wouldn’t you have learned about them at a school? Wouldn’t there be some in the zoo?”

  Andrews was silent for a while. Then he sniffled and said, “What about the Yowie Men? They have been seen.”

  “Only by truck drivers who have taken too many pills!” Graham replied sarcastically.

  “Pigsy said he’s seen ‘em around here before,” Andrews replied.

  “He is just saying that to scare you,” Graham answered. “Look, if there was real danger do you really think the officers would send us out to walk around? It would be more than their jobs are worth.”

  That seemed to sink in. Andrews was silent for a while. Then he said quietly, “What about snakes and spiders?”

  “I don’t know about spiders but there are sure to be snakes,” Graham replied. “Just remember what the OC said; the snakes will hear us coming and get out of the way. It is when we run and startle them they strike, but only in self-defence.”

  “I’m scared of snakes,” Andrews persisted.

  “So am I!” Graham replied with feeling. “And I’ve been bitten by one.”

  “You have not!”

  “I have so!” Graham replied. “By a King Brown, when I was eleven. You ask Roger. He was there. And I’m still alive.”

  Then another idea came to Graham. From where he stood he could clearly see the lights of the army camp. As he stood looking the headlights of a car went past along the highway. “Look, see that car? It is on the Flinders Highway. If you get bitten we will have you in a car in a few minutes and it is only twenty minutes or half an hour to the hospital at Charters Towers.”

  By this time Andrews had calmed down. Graham said, “Have a drink, then stay with me. And we won’t mention this to anyone.”

  “But I’m still scared,” Andrews replied, but he began taking out his waterbottle.

  “Of course! That’s normal. We all are. But this is one of those real challenges life throws at you. If you back out you escape the fear for a few minutes but then you will despise yourself for being a coward. Worse still, other kids will look down on you and tease you. Much better to face up to it. So come on, we will keep you safe in the middle.”

  Graham waited till Andrews had had a drink and replaced his waterbottle in his webbing, then murmured ‘come on’ and started slowly walking. To his enormous relief Anderson walked with him. When they reached the others, who still stood in a line waiting, he said quietly, “Cadet Andrews is a bit worried because he has never been in the bush at night. So we are all going to help him. And I want you all to promise not to tease him, or to tell anyone from another section about this. Four Section helps each other, alright?”

  To his relief the others all nodded or murmured yes. Roger patted Andrews on the shoulder and said, “Good on you!”

  Kirsty also put her hand on Andrews’ arm and said, “I’m glad. You can help keep me safe.”

  At that Graham told Pat to lead on and the section continued with the compass march. It was only a hundred metres down to where CUO McAlistair and Sgt Sheila Sherry, the 1 Platoon staff, were seated on a mound of earth in the old gravel pit but Graham barely noticed as he was so relieved to have overcome the crisis.

  “What was all that talking back there?” CUO McAlistair asked as they arrived.

  “Just one of the cadets not feeling well sir,” Graham replied.

  To Graham’s consternation CUO McAlistair replied, “They can stay here at the check point in that case.”

  “I think he is OK now,” Graham answered quickly, hoping that none of the cadets suddenly opted for this ‘out’.

  To his relief none said anything. CUO McAlistair told Graham to get out his notebook and torch and then gave him the Grid Reference of the next check point. Roger stood and held his torch while Graham wrote and Kirsty stood close on the other side. Graham then crouched and unfolded his map. A moment’s work gave him the location, a dry creek about 500m to the west. As quickly as he could he drew a pencil line across the map through the two points and placed his protractor on it. He was so selfconscious of being watched by a CUO, sergeant and half his section that he became quite flustered and all ‘thumbs and fingers’ but he got the bearing at last, then did the calculation to convert it from Grid to Magnetic on his notebook.

  “Two hundred and thirty six degrees magnetic sir,” he said. “And about seven hundred paces.”

  “That sounds about right,” CUO McAlistair replied. “You should find CSM Cleland and Sgt Gayney there.”

  “Thanks sir,” Graham said. He adjusted the compass and then stood up. “Shine the torch in the top to improve the luminous Roger,” Graham said. He instantly regretted not calling Roger Lance Corporal Dunning in front of the others but no-one seemed to notice. What he was really trying to do was gain some time while he decided who should take the compass for the next leg. ‘I could ask for volunteers,’ he considered. ‘No. That will make me look weak and indecisive.’

  He said, “You are next Cadet Hind. Here is the compass.”

  Lucy muttered a few ‘Oh nos!’ but took the compass. Graham then stood close to check she was holding it the right way and that she had the luminous North pointer lined up between the two luminous dots. Satisfied she had it right he told her to start walking. “Cadet Andrews and Cadet Weldon, you both count paces,” he added.

  As they started slowly moving Graham was relieved to note that all of the section followed, even Andrews. He also took comfort from the fact that they would be moving on a course which converged with the highway. ‘If we get really lost we can just go to the road,’ he told himself. The lights of the army camp were now behind his left shoulder and he noted that the glow of the officer’s campfire was hidden by a rise.

  Their course took them down a gentle slope into a tangle of gullies and small bushes. The only real guidance other than the compass was the flicker of car headlights over to their left whenever a vehicle went past along the highway. There were so many bushes and small washouts that Graham completely forgot to worry about snakes. So, apparently, did Andrews as he made no further comment. After five minutes of shuffling along they reached the edge of a gully. In the starlight Graham could see it was only a couple of metres wide but it looked to have steep sides.

  “Take y
our time going across this,” he cautioned.

  To no avail. Andrews slid down with a sharp thud and a cascade of sand and pebbles. “Ow! Aargh! I think I’ve broken my leg,” he cried.

  Graham had been just about to climb out the other side. A stab of alarm made him spin around. He whipped out his torch and turned it on. Andrews was half lying, half crouching in the bottom amid a cloud of fine dust. “Which leg?” Graham asked anxiously.

  “Uh! I dunno,” Andrews replied. He squirmed and struggled to his feet and looked down at both legs.

  “Neither,” Graham said, relief adding an edge of sarcasm to his voice.

  “I could have!” Andrews grumbled in an injured tone. He rubbed his right leg but had no difficulty climbing out of the washout. This time Graham kept the torch on till everyone had safely crossed. Then he turned it off and told them to have a drink while they recovered their night vision.

  The compass march was resumed. The section went up over a wide gentle ridge through very open bush. The soil was sandy and almost devoid of grass. Up to his right Graham saw the glow of the officer’s fire. ‘This is the ridge which comes down from our bivouac area to the highway,’ he thought, relieved to be sure of where they were.

  A hundred paces on, just as they were starting to go down the long gentle slope on the western side of the spur, Dianne suddenly said, “I need to go to the toilet. Can we go back to camp please?”

  Graham gave a short laugh he was so surprised. “We are in the middle of an exercise. We can’t go all the way back just so you can go to the dunny.”

  “But I really need to go. It is urgent,” Dianne wailed.

  “If you’d mentioned it when we were back at that gully you could have gone easily,” Graham said. “The girl’s latrine was just near there.”

  “But I need to go! Can we go back please?” Dianne persisted.

  “No! Just go over behind a bush somewhere. We will wait here,” Graham replied.

  Dianne was plainly appalled. “I can’t just go out here! Not in the bush! Not in the dark! I need a toilet.”

  With an effort Graham bit back a sarcastic retort asking why she was different from other girls. “It’s dark,” he said. “No-one will see.”