30 FOCUS - SEPTEMBER 2016 30 FOCUS - NOVEMBER 2017 VETERAN BOB MURRAY WII veteran Robert (Bob) Murray got a real surprise just before he was to be shipped out overseas. Having completed his basic train- ing in Orillia, the Torontonian went on embankment leave. Awaiting orders at a camp in Halifax, Bob was pre- pared to go to war when the Captain “hollered his name and another guy’s name.” Suddenly Bob was off draft, and sent on a course to train to be an instructor. He also got his first hook (stripe.) A Lance Bombardier, Bob was singled out to do a very important wartime job. He was responsible for training thousands of men to oper- ate a six man Swedish manufactured Bofor light anti-aircraft gun. Every two months, troops from all over Canada came to the camp to learn the gun drill. The guns were so heavy and huge that they needed to be moved around by a vehicle. At the end of the training stint, real ammunition was fired. He never held any type of fire- arm before the army or after he was discharged. When asked how he felt about his change in fate from facing active com- bat to serving as an instructor, Bob responded, “I didn’t think about it. The Army runs your life. You don’t.” But this defining moment may have spared Bob’s life.At 99 years old, he’s in “good health except for a bad back.” He lives at Port Perry Villa and while he enjoys lunch and dinner in the dining room, Bob has a coffee pot and a toaster in his suite and he still makes his own breakfast, and walks daily to keep in shape. The most dangerous part of WWII for Bob was being cast in a security role during the crazy three-day riot “Don’t worry about it.” Good advice from a 99-year-old WWII veteran Bob with a photo of himself as a young man, 25 years old in uniform with his first stripe. W