Dear editor,
Halloween has passed and now my thoughts turn to Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day – a day where people world-wide stop to remember the fallen from our world’s endless conflicts. For many, the fallen are just names and faces found in history books and documentaries.
For me, as a veteran, Remembrance Day is more than just remembering the fallen, and they are far more than just names in a history book. Almost all of today’s veterans have lost friends and colleagues who wore the uniform of our country – some in conflicts, some in accidents, and some – mostly overlooked by the majority – fighting, and sometimes losing, battles with demons that many will never understand. Perhaps I should actually say “most of us” when it comes to fighting and living with demons.
So, on Remembrance Day I will once again put on an old dusty beret, I will wear my medals that seem to have grown more valuable with the passage of time, and I will remember.
I will remember the young soldiers who I served with through tough times and good times (funny how the good times seem to outweigh the bad times – although in reality soldiering is often a tough and miserable life), I will remember the soldiers I went overseas with, I will remember events I wish I could forget, and I will remember standing at attention and saluting a coffin during a hot and dusty ramp ceremony as soldiers went home one final time.
I will remember friends who did not get the privilege of growing old. I will remember those who were with us last year, but gone this year as age and time ultimately win. And I will pay respect to those still wearing the uniform – as they deserve it.
I will likely meet old friends at a ceremony or a legion – some I haven’t seen in months or years – but we will instantly be thrown back in time. Soldiering is a funny thing – shared hardships and experiences make life-long friends. And although many civilians will never understand it, we can go years – sometimes decades – without contact then bam, the camaraderie is instantly back.
We will laugh, we'll compare injuries, we will (lovingly) trash talk old friends, we will share “war stories” – although many are not about war, we will raise a glass to missing and lost friends, we will possibly shed a tear, and we will remember what it was like to be young, physically fit and seemingly bulletproof.
At the end of the day we will put the medals away and start to think about the upcoming Christmas season. However, we do not forget. Although one day a year is set aside to remember – every day is Remembrance Day for those of that have served. Lest We Forget.
Richard Walsh,
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry & CF Intelligence Branch
Editor's note - Walsh grew up in Port Hardy and graduated from Port Hardy Secondary School in 1984