A book entitled I’ve Seen The Elephant may bring visions of a delightful romp at the zoo or on safari, but in the case of Brandon Logan’s novella, it’s anything but.

The East Kildonan resident and Herald community correspondent released the book at the Royal Canadian Legion’s Prince Edward Legion Branch No. 81, located at 300 Trent Ave., on March 9. The title of the book refers to an expression meaning "nothing can surprise me anymore", according to Logan.

The book, written as a second-year major assignment for Logan’s Creative Communications program at Red River College, deals with the experiences of his stepfather’s great-uncle Jim Bulmer during the Second World War and the Korean War – and his life after combat.
Logan, a history buff, based the book off of Bulmer’s memoirs and filled in other details creatively.

"I took his words – he had probably about 40 pages of notes from his experiences in the Second World War and Korea, and then I added some creative fiction, because there were some big-time lapses that needed to be pieced together," he said. "I filled it in creatively, but it’s historically accurate."

Logan explained while there are countless war stories, especially those chronicling the Second World War, Bulmer’s memories set up a long and frustrating showdown back on home soil.

"He serves in Korea and he moves his way up the ranks and he gets diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis), so that ends his military career," he said. "I don’t want to say he battled the Canadian government, but it took him almost a decade to get his entire disability pension from the Canadian government.

"After he served in two wars, two vicious wars, he wasn’t impressed that they wouldn’t give him his full disability pension."

Logan read an excerpt from his book at the launch, detailing Bulmer’s capture and transport to a prisoner of war camp.
At the launch, Logan said he had about 30 copies of the self-published book remaining.

Anyone looking to purchase the book, which costs $10 per copy, can contact him at brandonl91@hotmail.com.

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