Bill Kaufmann, for the Calgary Herald;
It’s a generation of ex-warriors now in or approaching their 100th year and whose ranks have thinned to a very few. In one of the last opportunities to share their stories, two Alberta veterans, one who served as an infantryman, the other as a sailor, recall their sense of loss and the horrors of war.
With all due respect, we have veterans in Canada who were in later wars.
True, but WW2 was the last war we fought like we wanted to win.
the average vet in canada is about 60
I saw an item in which girl guides placed poppies in front of military graves.
One showed death in 1957, and a young girl showing some perception was quoted
“I don’t know if they died in the war, but it doesn’t matter”
Nice
Well said.
My WWII vet Dad would have turned 100 this summer. Thanks to those who gave their life. And thanks to those who lived; who help shape those of us who will gratefully listen and learn.
I far more appreciate my dad as I better understand the horrors he experienced and re-lived for 62 years.
They took care of business, leaving us a peaceful world. God bless them.
When husband was at UBC very much back in the day, we rented one side of a duplex which had a WW I veteran living in the basement on the other side. When I came with my parents to see the place (they’d kindly driven me down to Vancouver to find our new home), an elderly man came out and said to my dad “you’re a ….” Turned out the old boy knew my Dad’s father (long gone) from WW I. I ended up – courtesy of old Denny – at a fair few events with the WW I vets.
Husband graduated and we moved on. By that time the duplex had been sold and Denny had been moved to a lodge. We kept in contact though; when we had a small holiday in Richmond after our eldest child was born, we visited him at the Shaughnessy veterans’ hospital where he now lived.
Tomorrow, we’ll remember Denny, my grandparents, and all the men in our family (including merchant marine0 who served. The dead we also remember; but those who returned and picked up their lives also deserve our respect.
Liberal racists say “what have veterans done for me lately?”
Veterans were told a trillion dollars ago that they were asking for too much…