In Canada November 11 is Remembrance Day. Leading up to it there are many events that help turn our attention to our fallen and Veterans.
For me it brings back memories of the the stories my Uncle Al would tell me. In the summer 1976 I had gone up to a town called Kaslo in the Kootenay region of British Columbia, to help him build his house. I was nineteen. Though we had spent thousands of hours together fishing on Kootenay lake he had hardly ever mentioned the war when we were together. Often a blank stare would come over his face and I knew he had slipped back to the horrors he had faced.
As the days and weeks passed the house went up and that stare would often be there. One day during a lunch break he just opened up with a horror story that occurred two days after he landed on Juno beach on D-Day. It involved his two best friends he had been with since he had signed up in 1939. Many other stories soon followed and I really learned a lot about where his mind would travel to when that blank stare would return to his face.
He signed up in 1939 when Canada declared war and immediately was sent to Europe. He finally got home in the fall of 1945. He had a very close family and had not seen them in six years.
He had a good life after he got home even though he was often pulled back to a time he would rather forget.
He was my hero.
Here is a link to a short video that makes the rounds in Canada around this time of the year. Have a look.
November 11th should be a national holiday for all of us to give thanks who those that put their lives on the line so that we could enjoy our freedom. 177,000 Canadians paid the ultimate price, while other’s remain scarred for life.
I am so proud that my future daughter-in-law is a graduate of the Royal Military College, and served 8 years as a tank commander.
Being a veteran (and a young one to boot),Veteran’s Day is special to me. I’ve worked with many different nations, and career fields. The EOD community is small around the world, and we work, play and mourn like family. Thanks to all the guys/gals on here who are veterans with me, or have family who are/were. [4:-)]
I would ask everyone to take a mintue to look at EODmemorial.org. It’s a site dedicated to the EOD Memorial in Niceville, Fl. Hallowed ground for the EOD community. Thanks.
kyle
The Man in the Arena
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
President Theodore Roosevelt
Speech at the Sorbonne Paris, France
April 23, 1910
far too few remember or are taught that it is to remember the ending of the Great War at the Th minute of the Th hour of the Th day of the Th month. if history has taught us anything it is that we can disagree about the why and where for of a conflict and still support those that are putting their life, their family and lively hood on the line for the rest of us. a free meal is small reward for the great sacrifices that are made by those that would put themselves in harms way for others.
I’ll grant that our veterans deserve more than two minutes, but as a Vet myself (and married to one, to boot), I’m grateful for ANY appreciation.
Both this week and Memorial Day, we see far too many people who have no idea what we are “celebrating” with the National Holidays.
Just to reflect (and not exactly in my own words); We wish to honor those who had the courage to place their frail bodies between their homes and war’s devastation, and especially those who paid the ultimate price for doing so.
And parents, PLEASE teach your children WHY they don’t have school on Thursday, and what that holiday represents and means.
Yes, Veteran’s Day is more than just taking advantage of the sale at WalMart.
The greatest experience I ever had was driving the D-Day survivors around on a Veterans Day parade about 10 years ago. These were the men, who, on the day of the Normandy landings, were the first out of the boats. I got to hear their stories, told to me personaly on a one on one setting. One man I spoke to had his whole platoon killed while still in the boat, he made it to shore and fought from the beach to the Rhine and never got a scratch. The next gentleman I spoke to took 27 bullets in Normandy and survived. Two men I spoke with were CMOH winners, one held off a company of panzers for 3 days with small arms fire, the other man threw himself on a grenade that turned out to be a dud. I served in Panama, GWI, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, and compared to the D-Day survivors, I’ve got nothing at all to talk about, nothing whatsoever.
Next time you see an old man with one of those envelope hats declaring him a WWII survivor, treat him with the upmost respect, pay for his meal, give him you seat or parking spot and remember he went thro
I am a veteran and although this post is not about Veterans Day directly, I think it important to note that “our patriotic news media at ABC” have been directed NOT to wear a US flag lapel pin.
Certainly don’t want to offend anyone!!!
To me, this shows a a total disrespect and unpatriotic attitude toward the USA as a country. I wonder if ABC will even mention Veterans Day on the 11th.
As an early Vietnam-Era veteran, and grandfather whose grandson-in-law has served in Iraq and will deploy to Afghanistan soon, no one here is not honoring and praising all veterans, dead or alive.
I live near the Abraham Lincoln Memorial cemetery and I heard that a funeral’s passing through on Thursday. If the creek don’t rise, I’m gonna be out there holding an American flag.
My father did not talk about his war experiences, although after he died this fall as we were going through his stuff, a clipping from a Victoria paper came to light. Turns out he was in the Battle of the Bulge, after spending most of the war in Scotland logging as part of the Canadian Forestry Corps. He ended up in Normandy 3 days after D Day.
I do know he was proud to be asked to go back twice to Europe to participate in anniversary celebrations but other than that, was not willing to talk about it.
We do try to educate our kids about why the poppy, and why it is important to remember.
Thanks to all who served, especially those who did not live to become veterans.
With Remembrance Day tomorrow, I thought I’d bump this with another story.
THE VETERAN ON OUR TEN DOLLAR BILL
If you look at the back right-hand side of a Canadian $10.00 bill, you will see an elderly veteran standing at attention near our National war memorial in Ottawa. His name is Robert Metcalfe and he died last month at the age of 90 years.
That he managed to live to that age is rather remarkable, given what happened in the Second World War. Born in England , he was one of the 400,000 members of the British Expeditionary Force sent to the mainland where they found themselves facing the new German warfare technique - the Blitzkrieg.
He was treating a wounded comrade when he was hit in the legs by shrapnel.
En route to the hospital, his ambulance came under fire from a German tank, which then miraculously ceased fire. Evacuated from Dunkirk on HMS Grenade, two of the sister ships sailing with them were sunk.
After his recovery, he was sent to allied campaigns in North Africa and Italy . En route his ship was chased by the German battleship Bismarck .
In North Africa he served under General Montgomery against the Desert Fox, General Erwin Rommel.
Sent into the Italian campaign, he met his future wife, a lieutenant and physiotherapist in a Canadian hospital. They were married in the morning by the mayor of the Italian town, and again in the afternoon by a British padre.
After the war they settled in Chatham Ontario where he went into politics and became the warden (chairman) of the county and on his retirement he and his wife moved to Ottawa . At the age of 80 he wrote a book about his experiences.
One day out of the blue he received a call from a government official asking him if he would care to come downtown for a photo shoot.
He wasn’t told what the photo was for or why they had c
As a veteran, thank you for the post. As a citizen of the United States, a heart felt thank you to the thousands who endured far greater hardships than i did. Uncle Sam chose not to send me to Vietnam, his choice, I was thankful. After my tour and finishing college, I returned home via a differerent route one trip. There was a bridge with a palque, bearing the name of a former HS classmate. Later, when I went to the Vietnam Memorial, I made sure to look him up.
My childhood memories are more of Memorial Day than Armistis Day, as the older folks kept calling it. The ceremonies that our little one room school carried out included patriotic songs, reciting of the Getteysburg Address and Flanders Field, decorated the graves in the cemetary behind the school, then marched a mile to the other cemetary in town and decorated those veterans graves. We had a few veterans in town and my parents had friends that were veterans, but they seldom talked about “things.” One fellow had been on a ship that had been hit, the resulting fire burned off part of his nose and ears. It was hard not to stare, but I was in awe of the sacrifice he and others had made. During my HS years I always played in the band for Memorial Day and Veterans Day and more than glad to perform for them. Each year I had a greater and greater respect for the veterans of the “Greatest Generation.” Now I see veterans of my own age leading the parades with cars carrying the few remaining WW II veterans. My hat goes off to all to all of them.
My son has done two tours with the Air Guard in Iraq. It’s a chilling feeling when he’s there, but I am proud of his chosen field. I am proud of all the young people that are serving today in all branches of the military and I support them.
My layout plans include a Memorial Park of some sort. It’s my thank you that I can say in modeling.
