Remembrance or Veterans?

[The Bread Guy]

When my father was KIA, Feb 1943, someone in Ottawa - Percy Nelles' puzzle palace - decided that someone should write letters to the mothers and widows of the others KIA. That was the "standard thing," after all. It was, normally, the job of the captain, but he was dead and the XO was somewhere in a long, not terribly well organized repatriation chain, so ... "let's ask the captain's widow to do it," they said to themselves. It can't be our job, they decided, we're just a bunch of regular force RCN types waiting for the Navy to build ships worthy of us because we couldn't be expected to go to sea in those slow, wet, little corvettes that were actually fighting and winning the Battle of the Atlantic.

Here is a sample of one of the letters:

Wow, just wow ... Well done your mom, and thanks for sharing that bit of history to give us some lessons to learn (with hopes that those who need to, do).

 

[Cloud Cover]

I believe the addition of Indigenous Veterans Day as part of Remembrance Day ceremonies has caused some confusion as to whether we are remembering the grave or honouring the brave. Also if Parliament wanted to have a Veterans Day on another day it shouldn’t be too hard to make that decision. But they didn’t so here we are …