They Served Until Death, Why Not We?
A Canadian veteran at some point wrote a blank cheque to the Government of Canada for an amount up to and including their death. For almost 150 years, millions of Canadians have written that cheque and over 100,000 paid the full amount. They died in service to our country.
I believe all those who served in the front lines all came home wounded to some degree. I don’t believe any can experience war and not be wounded, if not physically, then mentally. They can’t unsee the horror that war is, it will have an impact on them to the day they die. For some, it will be worse than for others.
Remembrance Week in Canada
It’s Remembrance Week in Canada, the week leading up to Remembrance Day. This morning, Sunday, a small number of us attended church to honour the memory of the fallen. It’s a tradition that goes back to our earliest days and one that will gradually fall off as our society becomes more and more secular.
Our veterans from WW1, WW2 and Korea all had to attend Church Parade while in service. Those who still participate do so in a nod to remembering and honouring the traditions they upheld and the service they gave when our country called on them.
Colours being carried from the church
The church we attended this morning was the church our Chaplain leads. Don’t tell him, but, my mind did wander a bit during the service. Nothing against his sermon, it was a good sermon, but between it and my own thoughts, my mind often wanders at this time of year.
My Mind Wandered
It goes to my grandfather, my father, my uncles and the many many veterans I have known in my almost fourty years as a Legion member. I am not a veteran. I’m a civilian with military links in her family.
My mind goes to the Legion Comrades who I’ve known that returned to Canada and continued to serve and work toward building their country and their communities. I hold a deep and abiding respect for the work those people did for their fellow veterans, their families and the communities they served.
They could have sat on their laurels and said “I did my bit” but they didn’t. They worked hard and fought for care and benefits for their fellow veterans and their families. They worked to make sure no veteran died without being remembered for who he or she was.
They worked to teach and instill a strong sense of pride in country through remembrance of what had been given to numerous generations of young Canadians through Youth Education programs. They worked to make their country and their communities better.
Comrade Don, WW2 Veteran
The veteran seated in the photo above, Comrade Don, was recently presented with his bar for sixty years of Legion service. He’s a WW2 veteran. The medals worn on the left on Legion dress are for military service. The medals on the right are for Legion service
He returned to Canada, married and raised seven children. They were all present when Comrade Don received this long service award. He has a large and loving family consisting of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
While raising and providing for his large family, Comrade Don served the community through his church and the Legion. A quiet, friendly and unassuming person — he worked hard to help those in our community who needed a helping hand.
An example of this was in 1992 when an apartment building burned to the ground one night in June. The Legion spent the night at the scene providing coffee and sandwiches to the firefighters. The following morning as people in this small community started stepping up with donations for the residents, the Legion was opened to receive them.
A call went out to Comrade Don early that morning. From that point, he stepped up to help and led a relief effort that went on all summer. All the tenants, 14 families, were helped to get back into accommodations and get their lives restarted.
That is one small example of his selflessness.
Dispatch Rider
During WW2 that now 90+ year old man was a young man in his late teens, early twenties. The video below shows dispatch riders training for service, Comrade Don was a dispatch rider during the war.
Remembrance Day Service In My Community
On Friday, Remembrance Day, November 11, the Legion, cadets, the military, community groups and students will form up behind the pipes & drums and the colour party and we’ll parade to the cenotaph along the route that has been tread for the last 85 years. We’ll round the town square and move into the park where our cenotaphs stand.
Just before 11am all traffic around the square will be brought to a halt. O Canada will play followed by the Last Post, the traditional bugle call to signal to the dead that their duty is done and they can rest in peace. The branch banner will dip toward the ground and the officers of the parade will salute to honour our country and the fallen.
At 11am a silence will envelope the square for two minutes. The normally noisy town centre will be reduced to the rustle of leaves fallen off the trees as those standing in the park shift their feet as they stand. Sounds will be heard in the distance as those not attending carry on with their lives.
On the last second of the two minutes, a lone piper will play the lament for the fallen. There will be a slight pause and The Rouse will sound to signal the need for the living to carry on. The banner will rise to the upright position, the officers of the parade saluting.
As the Rouse ends a Legionnaire will invoke the Act of Remembrance:
“They shall grow not old, as they who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them.”
“We will remember them” the parade will respond.
The parade and the colours will stand easy as the names for wreaths are called out and people start to lay wreaths at the cenotaphs. Some will march smartly to the cenotaph, deposit the wreath, step back, salute and march away. Others will walk in various ways to lay the wreath and either salute or bow their heads for a few moments before moving away to their place.
Prayers for the dead and the living will be said. The parade and the colours will be brought to attention and the ceremony will conclude with the singing of the Royal Anthem. The parade will form and we’ll march past the reviewing stand.
On the reviewing stand this year will be Comrade Don representing those who can’t be there from wars past and a serving member of the military, representing the service of today.
Every Day is for Remembrance and Service
All of those from WW1 have been gone for several years. The numbers of WW2 veterans still surviving are rapidly falling along with those from the Korea War. There are many still living from UN and NATO missions. There are those we lost in Afghanistan, those who died since suffering from PTSD and those who continue to serve.
While the media will talk about the fallen being those who died in combat. For me, it is about remembering those who died in combat, who died later from wounds and those who continued to serve in their own ways after returning to Canada and have now passed.
They set an example of service and sacrifice for me as a simple civilian to try to follow in my life. They served until death, I can but hope I do the same.
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As a veteran of the VietNam unplesantness I have a thought.
The wording is off...a word is missing..
Instead of saying they served it should be they WERE served
No disrespect to the vets themselves...Like I said ...I are one.
But the old story about a sled in winter being pursued by wolves comes to mind.
Pick one of the group and throw him to the wolves
Did he serve the best interests of the group?
Or was he served....to the wolves?
are you referring to the title? No words are missing
I guess you'd have to have been there.
Nevermind
I'm going to try and get out and photograph some war memorials for remembrance Sunday. Unfortunately the rain has been working against me so far. This time of year makes me think of my relatives and all the others like them who sacrificed their own lives and didn't really get much thanks in return. I never asked my grandfather about his WWII experiences when he was alive - I was too young to really understand it and he passed away when I was 14 - now I regret it. Sadly fewer and fewer people are left from some of these older conflicts.
in my experience, veterans, like my father, rarely talked about their experiences. I knew very little about dad until I got him involved with the youth ed and meeting with school children. Even then it was very limited.
I remember many years ago as we were gathering under a shelter from the rain before forming up for the Remembrance parade I was approached by a member who asked if we'd delay the parade until the rain stopped. Before I could answer, a veteran standing nearby quietly commented "combat never stopped for rain". I looked at the person asking the question and asked him if he needed any further answer?
We paraded in the rain.
Yes I've heard that about not talking. I do remember my grandfather very well and he never actually spoke about it.
Sadly I can't take my camera out in the rain - it isn't waterproof - I already killed one camera by doing that. I've never understood why people stop activities due to rain. We were never allowed to do that at school and in England it rains very frequently so nothing would ever get done!
some activities it makes sense but others, you adjust and get on with it.
long-range for Friday is looking good so far. Chance of shower and 46F... much better than the snow, rain and cold we've often paraded in. I usually have three layers below my blazer and no topcoat... if that forecast holds.. i may get away with just one layer.