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For the occasion of Remembrance Day & Veterans Day this year I'm putting up this space as a place for all of us to remember those we lost and those who served in years past.

Please post the name of the person, your relationship to them, when they served (not necessarily during a war), and principally where they served.

Let them not be forgotten.

   

Francis M. Walley, US Navy Chief Pay Clerk posted to HMS Tuberose (Mauretania) 1917-1918. My grandfather on my mother's side.

John Walley, US Army (rank unknown) 1st Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters 1861-1865. My great-grandfather.

   

I've gone to 4 funerals this year for Legion members who served. All of them served in Europe, during WWII.

Many times we drank, many times I saw them pass out on Remembrance Day. This year, I will miss their company on Remembrance Day, and will drink in their honour as if they were still here.

I don't wish to post their names, as I don't know if they'd be OK with that. This sits outside the Legion entrance, standing for all those who have fallen:


Branch 281 Cairn.JPG [ 121.5 KiB | Viewed 688 times ]

   

But they're remembered. My condolences.

   

Thanks.

There is a line in the Remembrance Day ceremony that always tears me up, it used to be recited for as long as I can remember by 'Jack' who was a Royal Marine in WWII. This year, it won't be. It always tears me up:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

"For the Fallen" - Robert Laurence Binyon

   

Unfortunately the list I have is fairly long. I'll just add those who I went through my basic training with.

CWO Gil Payette died last year of heart failure, age 51.

Cpl Frank Gomez KIA July 27 2006 Afghanistan

RIP

   

Sounds like you would be good at reciting it this year.

   

No, I think public speaking in crowds larger than 2 is hard. But, thanks!

I loved that pic of Col. McCrae's grave though.

   

William Howard, Major USAF (this is correct) 505th Bomb Group, Tinian. 1944-1946.

Bill actually stayed on into 1946 helping to cease major operations on Tinian and other islands in the Pacific. He mustered out in mid 1946 and served many years in the California Air National Guard continuing at the rank of Major.

   

WO Guatane Roberge POMLT Roto 6 Afghanistan, IED
WO Denis Brown, POMLT Roto 6 Afghanistan, IED
Cpl William "Billy" Kerr (still with us but deserves a note) Lost 3 limbs 1015hrs, 15 Oct 2008 Afghanistan, IED/Ambush

Trained hard with the three warriors all.

   

Daniel F. Geibel, Soldat, Wehrmacht (Germany) 462nd Volksgrenadier Division July 1944-December 1944 (Metz)

Also, Corporal, US Army 50th AAA, Korea 1950-1953

   

One lady I will miss tomorrow was a nurse in The Netherlands in WWII. She retired in the early 1980s, I think she said, as a Major from 4th Battalion PPCLI - The Loyal Edmonton Regiment. Her occupation was 'Dentist'.

Even in her 90's, I always took her for a waltz on the 11th.

   

Both my Parents and two Uncles all WWII. Both my grandfathers WWI Veterans. The only one who didn't come home was one of my Uncles. So, I guess in the grand scheme of things our family was one of the luckier ones.

RIP and thank your to all those who gave their lives for our freedoms.

   

My grandfather Derek Browne was born in England in the 1920s, and joined the Royal Air Force. His plane was shot down early in the war, so that he was one of the first 100 prisoners of war taken by the Germans. He spent the remainder of the war years in a POW camp, until he was rescued.

He immigrated to Canada after the war and raised a large family while acting as an entrepreneur, a school trustee and an active member of the local Legion, the Masonic Order and the POW Association of Canada. Most significantly for me, however, he was an active and loving father and grandfather.

Derek Browne's story illustrates the often overlooked side of the war. While history has focused on the Pattons, the Churchills, the Montgomeries and other prominent figures, countless men and women wrote their own stories by doing things on the ground that contributed to the war effort-they fought in combat, they provided medical relief, they made repairs, they worked in factories. All of these things may not have been significant by themselves, but collectively they speak to the efforts and the sacrifices made by ordinary people whose contributions ultimately made victory possible. When the wars ended, many of these people continued writing their own stories by building businesses, raising families and reconstructing a stronger, more prosperous society.

If Canada has a prominent standing today, it is in many ways because of these people, their sacrifices and their efforts.

Lest we forget.

   

   

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