A Day To Remember

   It is the 11th day of the 11th month, and at the 11th hour we in Canada paused for 2 minutes to remember those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.
   It is Remembrance Day for all our fallen heroes, whether from World Wars 1 and 2, Korea, Afghanistan or other conflicts. And every year I do pause because my father served in World War 2. And like so many thousands of others, he was wounded, and counted himself lucky at that, because the guy behind him was killed. Dad went in to France some 6 weeks after D-Day, and got his "Blighty" while walking down a road. It took him about 40 years to do it, but he went back, found that road and then MARCHED, not walked, the rest of the way to what his destination should have been. Aside from going "over there" in 1943, that was the only overseas trip he ever took.
   It's guys like that we should also remember. Not just my father, but all the other vets from any branch of the service in war or peace that we should honour. Because they are getting fewer by the month.
   It was February of this year (see my blog of February 7th) the last verified veteran of World War 1 died. Florence Green never saw combat, and never left England. She wasn't a nurse. She worked in an RAF canteen as a waitress. True, she was not in uniform that long, but she was the last of the last. It was just last May the last combat vet of that war, Navy man Claude Choules, died at 110. Harry Patch was the last one in the trenches. He died in 2009. The last Central Power's vet was Franz Kuntsler of Austria-Hungary who died in 2008.
   This is why we MUST pause to remember. Because it won't be long before the last verified veteran of World War 2 passes. I may not be around for that, but my kids will. And they also know why it's important to pause and remember. So many young people today either don't care or don't understand.
   If my memory serves me, in the Netherlands, young children are given a Canadian soldiers grave to look after. And they do it. Not because they have to, but because the Dutch remember the sacrifice our boys made there. In fact, their government still ships tulip bulbs to our Nations capital, which are then planted in a magnificent garden.
   So today, like I do every November 11th, I stood up, paused and saluted our vets.
   'Nuff said.