Today we held our annual Remembrance Service at Church. Each year the 709 Signal Corps attend and the Padre gives the sermon. The Regimental Colonel and Major read the scriptures today and a Lieutenant read a Shakespeare passage about honouring those that die in battle. A young member of the cadets read the names of three fallen soldiers from Afghanistan and gave a brief account of their service records.
We sang the traditional Hymns, Abide with me and O God our help in ages past along with a reciting of Lest We Forget followed by the Bidding, Last Post and Reveille, ending the service with God Save the Queen and O Canada.
The regiment is accompanied by a band and colour guard after the service they assemble beside the church for a march past on Eglinton Avenue.
I always feel a great deal of pride in seeing this public display, it is always a very nice yet moving service.
For me and my family Remembrance Day is an important day to observe. Both my Grandfathers were wounding in action in France during WWI with the CEF and my father spent his war days on Corvettes and Minesweepers during WWII in the RCN. I have one Uncle and several great Uncles I never met because they did not return home.
I think it is especially important to make the appropriate observances in a year our soldiers are enaged in combat daily in Afghanistan and as we all know too well far too many have fallen in their service to us all.
i wore my medals to church this morning and the padre brought me up to the front for the children talk. we had a full ceremony in church today too. i'll be down town at the ceremonies on tueday. I'll wear my ships coat not any medals. its different since i retired living in a town that doesn't depend on the military for support. but they do show their full support such as lining the bridges over the 401 when our fallen comades come home.
I hope everyone pauses at 11:00 on Tuesday to remember. Sad to say but many don't. If I was running things through my benevolent dictatorship, I would force such a pause. Actually stopping what you are doing at 11:00 is much more respectful than making it a holiday as some have suggested, because it forces people to focus on the true meaning of what Remembrance Day is all about which would get lost in just giving people another day off.
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Hillar
1970 LS4 (eventually an LS5) Laurentian 2dr hdtp -and a bunch of other muscle cars...
Hillar, we go to Leaside Presbyterian, corner of Hanna Rd. and Eglintion Avenue East. I'll remember to invite you next year.
I think I would like to see a National Day of Remembrance as well, but for some reason it is nearly impossible to get this done. When I look back over the years I think we do a much better job as a country now, I mean Trudeau made the military a dirty word when I was a teenager and he stopped it being a day off for observances. What more would we expect from a man who reflected on his opposition to service and conscription and his doubts about the war in his 1993 Memoirs: "So there was a war? I give huge credit to General Rick Hillar (ret.) for revitalizing the moral in our forces and national pride in our armed forces for their accomplishments and sacrifices.
I have never attended the national Service in Ottawa, but it is on the bucket list. When I worked downtown I never missed the service at Queen and Bay Cenotaph and now at the East York Cenotaph.
To be honest, I truly failed to grasp the total sacrifice until I was able to visit the Vimy memorial, and travel through Belgium and see some of the Canadian memorials. One that hit home for me was Saint Julien where 2000, far too young Canadians fell. While we visited the memorial pillar, across the road was a small pub, the owner somehow reconizing our group was Canadian, waved all 8 of us in. We sat and he bought us all a round of Stella's. They still remember. Leper (was Ypres) was also very moving.
Canada should send every graduating grade 8 student to Vimy. I'm non religious, but there is really somthing powerfull going on there. Man..It's moving.
I understand now.
Mark.
-- Edited by cdnpont at 09:38, 2008-11-10
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
I would like to make the pilgrimage to Vimy and tour Normandy. My grandfather fought in WW1 and 4 uncles in WW2. One never came home. One lost an arm. Growing up in Halifax Nova Scotia in the 60's there was constant reminders as well as a day off of school. It has really changed since then. At least there has been a more visibile resurgence in the last few years.
I would like to make the pilgrimage to Vimy and tour Normandy. My grandfather fought in WW1 and 4 uncles in WW2. One never came home. One lost an arm. Growing up in Halifax Nova Scotia in the 60's there was constant reminders as well as a day off of school. It has really changed since then. At least there has been a more visibile resurgence in the last few years.
Remembrance Day & all things military are huge here on PEI. We have "Red Rallies" here every Friday to support the troops in Afghanistan. My Dad was a Korean war vet. ... armour corp. ... his birthday is/was today. National headquarters for Veterans Affairs Canada is in Charlottetown, and that is who I work for. I really appreciate Remembrance Day!
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Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
Both my Grandfathers were in WW1 and came home physically Ok.. One was a city boy from Leaside Toronto, the other a farm boy from on top of Blue Mountain by Collingwood.. When they met each other, obviously they talked about their experiences and realized they had returned home on same voyage of the White Star Line's ship Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic.. What was strange was one had a pic of himself and a bunch of others taken on the voyage home and sure enough, both were in the same picture!.
After they were both gone, one summer day in the 70's I was holidaying at my Grandma's in Collingwood and was helping her clean out the back woodshed and toss old worthless stuff.. One of the things that was going to the trash but she let me have when I asked her for it was my Grandfather's WW1 kit bag!. Inside was his helmet, putties, utensils, sewing kit, letters to and from his family and more but the most interesting was his journal.. It begins the day he signed up in Whitby Ontario and ends the day he came home.. No mention of shooting anyone or combat stuff but more highlights of where he went and how he was doing...partway through it goes from pen to pencil and he notes someone stole his pen.. It ends the night he got home and he wrote how happy he is to be home and how great it'll be to get up in the morning and milk the cows!. Yes I still have the kit bag!.
One other thing, online somewhere you can view the original Canadian Soldier enlistment cards w/ their signatures.. All were scanned and digitized in recent years and I looked through them once and viewed both my Grandfather's cards..
We are THE most fortunate generation EVER!!!
-- Edited by Ghost Post at 14:37, 2008-11-10
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I like real cars best...especially the REAL real ones! ----------------------------------------------------------------
My Grandfather was in WW1. I have his discharge papers which I think is great to have. My father was in WW 2. He was in a tank for the years he was overseas. He only talked about the war one time to me. I can't imagine the hell that these guys went thru to keep us safe.
He did mention about about the stink in the tank. That wool uniform.....add a couple of other guys that didn't have a shower for a week or more. Add the heat and the engine smell along with shooting off rounds and you would rather be anywhere, but inside that tank. I'm thankful that both made it out without a scratch. Yet they both saw HELL.....They never lost their lifes........like so many did.
It is one of my dreams to go up for a ride in a B17. I've been fascinated by B17's since I was a kid. I can't imagine what it would be like being 18 and in one of those flying over Berlin-especially at night!
Todd, You should try a trip in the Lancaster out of Hamilton Airport. I see it over Turkey Point a few times in the summer. I would love to go on it for a flight. Quite expensive, but when your feeding 4 Merlin V12's with hi octane it can't be cheap to operate.
I must say I have been most affected this year. Our local paper (Winnipeg Free Press) published pictures of 100 Canadian soldiers killed in action since about 2002. This was the full colour front page today. I just gazed silently and sadly at each one, knowing full well that every one of them looked way too young and each one had left behind many many people who are missing them. Somehow it was just very real to me like never before.............
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
The last 4 years my son had been in cadets and we would go to one of the local legions and they would march to a near by church . It gave me a new light on the whole thing. This year he did not go back I was rather disappointed but it his choice . I must say I was very proud of him he looked real good in his uniform and each year his marching got better . I was always scared at the same time that if he stayed in he may join the army . He has the kind of luck that if he went he would not come back.
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1957 Pathfinder deluxe 4 door wagon 1961 Pontiac Parisienne bubble top Traded for a Harley sorry guys.
