I wasn't fortunate enough to meet my paternal grandfather Jack Milne. According to my Dad, Grandpa Milne served in the Canadian Navy during World War II, helping to guard Canada's eastern coasts from the Nazi U-Boat threat. After the war, he started a farm just outside Edmonton before moving to the city proper, where he ran an auto repair business.

I was, however, fortunate enough to know my maternal grandfather Derek Browne. Derek served in the British Royal Air Force before his plane was shot down and he became one of the first 100 POWs taken by the Nazis. After the war, he moved to St. Albert and became heavily involved in everything from the Protestant school board to the Masonic Order and the St. Albert Curling Club.

Today is a time to remember not just the courage and sacrifice people like my grandfathers made, but the lives many of them built after the war. Most of them did not achieve the fame of the politicians and generals that directed the war effort, but their efforts were just as important as anything our national leaders did both to win the war and construct the society that came after it.

I say this in memoriam to my grandfathers, and everything they did for me, whether they knew about them or not.

Lest we forget.

   

I traced my namesakes back to the Battle of Agincourt. I knew my Great Grandfather served in the Boer war, my dad's father served in WWI where he was injured but still captured a couple Barvarian prisoners, and my Father served in WWII. My Mom's father was a Merchant Marine during WWII, and her brother served in Gulf War I.

R-UP

   

While technically not a military branch, serving in the Merchant Marine during WW2 was one of the most dangerous places one could be. The Canadian Merchant Navy had a casualty rate of one in seven. That casualty rate was higher than any branch of the Canadian Armed Forces during WW2. There were no major lulls, or sitzkrieg in the Battle of the Atlantic. The war was hot from day one. That goes for the Navy as well as the Merchant Marine. I am not trying to take away anything from anyone who served in any branches of the military during the war. I am just trying to point out that the Merchant Marine people did not get the full credit that they deserved after the war. They were denied benefits and recognition until the 90's. The Merchant Marine were a HUGE part of the Allied victory.

   

I agree, and I don't think any service should be discounted. Like Bart wrote once, the guy in the motor pool wrenching jeeps is still a Marine. Not every one will have the same service, even as the others in their battalion.

The Merchant Marines had it hard. But then, so does the Blue Helmet flying relief supplies into Nicaragua as gangsters shoot at him to try and stop him.

   

My great grandfather on my mother's side fought for Canada in the Great War, then served again in WWII in a POW camp here in Canada. My late grandfather on my father's side fought for Germany in WWII on a Q-boat in the Kriegsmarine. Q-boats were small, fast ships that hunted for Allied vessels and then alerted either bigger guns, or U-boats.

Remembrance Day has always had a significant meaning for me, and is an emotional day to say the least. I hold a small service on my own here at home either before or after work, wear my poppy, and make sure to never forget the sacrifices on either side.

I will always remember, no matter what.

-J.

   

   

My father-in-law fought in WWII. On my side there’s been at least one but usually more pre-generation. My father and a fair number of his cousins were army. My father actually started air but was kicked when they realized that he was supposed to have been a cadet for the summer no regular. I think it he was 15 lol. Wasn’t noticed till my grandfather called to find out why he hadn’t come home with the rest of the cadets that anyone realized. He had completed basic and was doing his trades training!! They packed him up told him to come back when he was old enough and sent him home.