Ward 22

When the news broke of Psychiatrist Aubrey Levin's recent sex abuses, stories about his infamous role as Head Psychiatrist of South Africa's military hospitals in the 80s appeared all over the international press.

There was some confusion though about the Ward number of the psycho ward. A lot of journos had it down as Ward 22. Well, I was there, and it was definitely Ward 24. (although one of the more accurate accounts I found on the Net claimed that it was originally Ward 22 and then became Ward 24).

The picture above is of the "New" 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria. That's where I went (by ambulance) for my 6 sessions of Shock treatment. But I didn't stay there, I stayed in the "Old" 1 mil hospital several miles away - an old delapidated building that was less conspicuous. Less conspicuous, by design, because the New hospital was where the heroic injured soldiers from the border war were flown in. It was modern, slick and a proud landmark for the Apartheid Military. NOT somewhere where you want to showcase your bunch of loonies & deviants that were also casualties of the compulsory military conscription.

But here's the kicker: Us looneys weren't the only dirty little secret stashed away out of view. When I got to Ward 24 there was indeed a Ward 22, and it was housed with its own dirty little secret - dozens of black soldiers with amputated limbs. No, they weren't enemy soldiers, they fought on the side of South Africa in the Angolan War and were part of the deadly unit - 3.2 Battalion. These were the real war heroes. They were the guys that did 60% of the real fighting - their missing limbs proof of their live combat.

When I was in Angola I personally saw some of these guys going into battle. It was a scary sight. They were psyched like I've never seen people psyched. And they didn't wear standard military attire, some wore bandannas; some were waving pangas in the air. Their faces were wild. 

Once these guys needed a mauled arm or leg amputated, they too were flown to the "New" 1 mil hospital for the surgery. But as soon as the surgery was done, they were shuttled to Ward 22, out of the view of the South African public (along with the loonies like BPG). And so the fairy tale of the heroic white boys that had put their lives on the line to defend Christianity against the dark forces of Communism lived on in the eyes of the South African public, untarnished by any blemishes. The "new" 1 military hospital standing tall and proud, a place of white heroes...