Remembrance Day....

[Obvious Li]

A personal comment.......



My father served overseas in WW2, as did his next older brother and an uncle on my mothers side (although they did not know each other at that time).......they joined in 1939,41 and 42 and returned home throughout 1946 almost a year after the war ended (first in first out FIFO)....there was a shortage of transport ships so they had to stay for some of the post war clean up until transport became available......



my father was wounded in operation Market Garden in Holland, an unbelievably tough campaign that tasked the mettle of every soldier who fought there,  and would die young as a result of his wounds, very few of his regiment survived that terrible ordeal......my uncle on mothers side was in the Black Watch (wore a kilt and carried a battle axe along with his rifle), was seriously wounded twice in Holland but recovered to lead a very productive life and lived to age 80, (although he wandered around town at night in his pajamas sleep walking until some time in the late 1950's) ...today that would be called PTSD back then it was called "shell shock" and everyone treated them as "crazy" from the war..... he told me a few stories about the bloated bodies in the trenches moaning at night, the rats, the smell, the big tough guys who shit their pants and cried or the ones that lost their minds after three or four days of constant shelling.....but mostly they would not talk about it...my dad would never touch a rifle again and forbid anything but a .22 in the house......



My uncle's father died before the war and as he was the only son he decided to join the army as he was now the family "bread winner".  So from 1939 to 1946 all his pay (except $10 per month) was sent home to his mother to look after her and his sisters.....i simply marvel at the discipline and willingness to sacrifice engrained in soul and spirit of past generations.....who would consider doing that today ?? not sure~~~ and lest we begrudge our veterans any benefits due them,   remember that the six or seven years they spent overseas were "lost years" in the most productive time of their lives...their contemporaries who stayed home prospered, started families, businesses and were well established by the time these vets returned home...almost impossible for war ravaged men to catch up, many did not and fell throught he cracks of alcoholism, mental disorders and homelessness..... that is the real story of rememberance day.........remembering what these old grey haired guys, sitting in wheelchairs at the local legion hall,  actually did for this country.

[Anonymous]

A personal comment.......



My father served overseas in WW2, as did his next older brother and an uncle on my mothers side (although they did not know each other at that time).......they joined in 1939,41 and 42 and returned home throughout 1946 almost a year after the war ended (first in first out FIFO)....there was a shortage of transport ships so they had to stay for some of the post war clean up until transport became available......



my father was wounded in operation Market Garden in Holland, an unbelievably tough campaign that tasked the mettle of every soldier who fought there,  and would die young as a result of his wounds, very few of his regiment survived that terrible ordeal......my uncle on mothers side was in the Black Watch (wore a kilt and carried a battle axe along with his rifle), was seriously wounded twice in Holland but recovered to lead a very productive life and lived to age 80, (although he wandered around town at night in his pajamas sleep walking until some time in the late 1950's) ...today that would be called PTSD back then it was called "shell shock" and everyone treated them as "crazy" from the war..... he told me a few stories about the bloated bodies in the trenches moaning at night, the rats, the smell, the big tough guys who shit their pants and cried or the ones that lost their minds after three or four days of constant shelling.....but mostly they would not talk about it...my dad would never touch a rifle again and forbid anything but a .22 in the house......



My uncle's father died before the war and as he was the only son he decided to join the army as he was now the family "bread winner".  So from 1939 to 1946 all his pay (except $10 per month) was sent home to his mother to look after her and his sisters.....i simply marvel at the discipline and willingness to sacrifice engrained in soul and spirit of past generations.....who would consider doing that today ?? not sure~~~ and lest we begrudge our veterans any benefits due them,   remember that the six or seven years they spent overseas were "lost years" in the most productive time of their lives...their contemporaries who stayed home prospered, started families, businesses and were well established by the time these vets returned home...almost impossible for war ravaged men to catch up, many did not and fell throught he cracks of alcoholism, mental disorders and homelessness..... that is the real story of rememberance day.........remembering what these old grey haired guys, sitting in wheelchairs at the local legion hall,  actually did for this country.

Rememberance Day has a deeply personal meaning for you Obvious.

[Securious]

My Father was a WW2 pilot flying the Lancs over Germany. He had his own squadron of likely lads all in their 20's, all piss and vinegar, hard boozers and hungry girl watchers the lot! Their days back at base were heart felt not knowing if this mission will be their last as there were a lot of Lanc casualties then. The rear gunner always took the lions share of bullets, he would be their spotter for in-coming Krauts. I have his personal journal and his trip planner for finding his way across Germany from the air.

Dad lived through all that but sadly not most of his pals. They perished so Canada and the "Western Alliance" would remain free from tyranny, unlike most of Europe at the time under the [Boot Heels] of the fascist Nazis.

Canadians were the bravest bunch and soon gained a reputation as those "Crazy Canucks". Dad always played this up to the hilt when around women at any bar scene much to the dismay of the local lads. Remember this was in Britain and stationed in Yorkshire and in Cornwall, Southern England. It was in Cornwall that he met my Mom who also was in the military as a Wren, the Womens Core. They got married after a short engagement and Dad was shipped off to Yorkshire all his buddies and he never knew if this was to be their last mission never coming home to their girl friends, wives of their families.

It is to these men and women that i honour Remembrance Day as Dominion Day. Not with the Maple Leaf but with Canada's true flag flown during those wars, The Red Ensign, a flag I fly proudly over my house.

Many Canadians and military people are lobbying to get this original and true flag flown again over Ottawa honouring our fallen. That flag and those years were the defining moments that made Canada a true free nation. We fought for that notion of freedom and with those lives that were lost we are indebted to them.



I salut all of you who have had similar experiences as I have, their parents and relatives who underwent such horror and deprivation to come out of it all with this country in tact. We are hopeful and kind people and abhor cruelty in all its forms notwithstanding tyranny that exists today in a country like China.



dad on his deathbed revealed the darker side of his military like and one which led him down the path of Freemasonry, becoming an initiate just after the war ended, 1946 [when I was born]. His lodge was full of his pals and other military bods. That one was in Vancouver. More about this later though. I digress here.



 I Salute , Shen Li, Curious Li and all others w/ similar backgrounds. I raise a glass to Canada's hard fought and won freedoms.

[Rambo Wong]

Remembrance Day is for remembering how white people treated Chinese workers who built the railroad and the head tax