Careful who you wrestle with

When I was stationed in Bethlehem (not the one with the three wise men and a virgin), the army had a farm which was used for training (bridge building, mine warfare, explosives etc). It was also a wildlife sanctuary. One of the animals in the camp was an orphaned wildebeest. This one was quite young, about waist high to an adult, and just starting to grow horns.

Every time we came to the farm, my corporal would go look for the wildebeest and play with him. Play consisted of grabbing it by the horns, and giving it a shake. The young wildebeest loved this, and immediately try to head butt him. The corporal (I think his name was Charles Bester) was a strapping young lad, and he’d hold the animals by the horns and play with him.

We went away for three months, I think we went to the townships. When we came back, the first thing corporal did was to look up his mate and give him a shake. Big mistake. In three months the wildebeest must have put on a 100 kilos, and promptly had the man pushed up against the truck, fighting for his life. We were laughing so hard there was no way we could help him. When it really looked like he was going to get seriously hurt a couple of guys gave him a hand up into the truck.

The problem was that every time we went back to the farm to give the troops training, the wildebeest was there, waiting for the corporal. He’s single him out. And insist on playing…