Small town support, pathetic.

[lyned]

Hello. I don't know if this is the right board for this as this is more of a frustrated rant than anything. My wife, 12 yr old son and my self live in a small MB town. What the hell, CARMAN, MB. Our son is serving with the 1st PPCLI, 1st Platoon, "A" Coy (Red Devils) in Afghanistan. FOB "Martello" actually. Since his deployment we thought that, being from a small town of approx. 2500 with an extensive military history of men in service in the 2 world wars, that the local "rag" would be interested in his story. NOTHING. I've e-mailed them myself without even as much as a "no thanks" in response, along with 2-3 other people that I KNOW of blasting the local paper. Now, a friend of my wife does restaurant placemats stating local history on them and she did a series about our son. They are in big demand at the local golf course, a couple of restaurants, people take them home instead of using them!. The LOCAL LEGION hall up till now, for reasons still a little hazy, didn't express any interest while a Legion hall approx. 10 miles away in SPERLING, MB with only 5 MEMBERS were more than happy to pay for the cost of printing, if I remember correctly, 500 mats for their hall. THANK YOU SPERLING VETS. We are extremley proud of our son for his career choice as we are proud of all those that have gone before him. This is not a project for profit, just for 10 cent a copy printing costs. Doe anyone else living in a small town encounter this pathetic attitude? You don't HAVE to support the mission but our troops DESERVE to be supported. Thanks for letting me sound off. We're not looking for a spotlight, just recognition for our son who CHOSE to do what he's doing because of his pride in our Military history.

 

[Booked_Spice]

Wow what a small world.

I have sent you a PM. If you can give me the email addresses of the contacts in Carman. I will see if I can do anything from my end.

You are absolutely right about support. When I went back to Carman/ Roland/ Winkler, this summer. I brought along lawn Ribbons and different support our Troops merchandise. We encountered several of people who didn't even realize that some of the boys that grew up in these small towns are fighting in Afghanistan. I applaud your efforts and I would keep trying.

 

[Good2Golf]

Lyned, you have every reason to be very proud of your son and his unit!  

Wow, that attitude floors me!    Maybe you could write a story about your son for the Sperlin local paper, then write a letter to the Editor for the Carman paper stating, "To read about one of Carman's own soldiers, see the article in the latest issue of the Sperling "????"!

PRO PATRIA

Duey

 

[the 48th regulator]

lyned,

I am proud to have you here.  Your Son, and your family are the examples of what it is to be CANADIAN.

Rest assured, that posting your experience on army.ca will be of a much better benefit to Canadians.  Why, well we are also a small community, one that you and your family are a citizen of.  One that has broader reach than a local paper.  So be it that they will not write your son's story.  You can post it here, and know that it will be appreciated by your fellow citizens. 

Thank you, and tell your son I hoist one for him.

dileas

tess

 

[George Wallace]

I was thinking that when your son came home to visit, that perhaps you could fill your yard with yellow ribbons and then perhaps take him over to the Legion in SPERLING, MB with its' only 5 MEMBERS and introduce them and thank them for their help to you over a couple of beer.  Perhaps embarrassing your local newspaper and Legion would do them some good.  Congratulations to those five gentlemen for giving you a hand.  It is only right that you take your son over to meet them when he visits.

 

[military granny]

lyned
Even though I was not born in small town Manitoba, all my family is there. We had three great vets on this site a while back that were in Manitoba, their stories are here for the world to read.Parkie, Jack and Buster touched a lot of people here and because they knew my grandparents we made fast friends. Parkie requested a picture of my son and his buddies in Afghanistan so he could go to his legion and brag to the "old boys club" that he knew some of the walking hero's of today. Lyned this is how most of the vets think of our sons and for your hometown legion to ignore the men and women that are in the CF, to say the least surprises me.I find small town papers find the CF and what they do too controversial, and keep out of it totally.Crappy on their part to ignore the walking hero's of today

 

[lyned]

"I am proud to have you here.  Your Son, and your family are the examples of what it is to be CANADIAN."
Thank you 48Th regular. We're fiercely proud of Canada's, unfortunately little known, battle reputation.

To George Wallace: I fully intend to embarrass this town if possible. Some local businesses have already started posting yellow ribbons and at least one says they'll have a hotdog stand out when he comes home and, in their words, "to hell with the rest of this town". There is support from those that KNOW about him.

I thank everyone on this board for their support.

 

[lyned]

Military Granny. Parkie wouldn't be Alan (Sparkie) Park would it? 1st Can Para? If so, there is a man with a story to tell. Jumping into Normandy, 6 weeks fighting in Bastogne. Wow. Immence respect.

I mean no disrespect to the Carman Legion and it's members. The guy that was handling their public affairs didn't show any interest but he was also a  non-vet member, did everything but crawl under the tomatoes to hide when he saw my wife in the grocery store ;D. I will always fully respect the War Veterens of the Carman Legion..

 

[military granny]

Lyned
You can find Parkies stories here http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/41265.0.html

He was not only a great story teller but a fine man.

 

[paracowboy]

look, if the local paper, or anyone doesn't want to run a story, they don't have to. That's why we fight. If folks don't want to hold ticker-tape parades for their vets, they don't have to. We don't have to like it, but that's why we fight. Getting your panties twisted ain't gonna change their minds. It's just going to make them think you're an asshole.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

I agree with Para,.....yea, it may suck, but the freedom to do nothing is still one of the freedoms we fight for.  However, you also have the freedom to rail at their apathy.

If I may steal a line from a great Toby Keith song....

I don't do it for the money
There's bills that I can't pay
I don't do it for the glory
I just do it anyway

 

[the 48th regulator]

We who serve, may feel that way Para, but the passion is different for a Parent wouldn't you agree?

dileas

tess

 

[rmacqueen]

Living in small town Ontario I have run into this situation before.  It may have more to do with the part-time nature of the paper than any actual indifference.  I have found that if you actually write the story for them they will often print it, especially if you have some photos that they could also use.  Small town papers are always in need of content but it is often a hobby for those involved and they are not willing to put much effort into actually "writing" anything.

Your pride in your son is justified and should be trumpted.  Give our best to him and our gratitude for the job that he is doing on our behalf

 

[paracowboy]

Tess,
parent or not, service member or not, getting all bent out of shape is not going to accomplish anything except piss off the very people you need to have on your side to accomplish your aim.

 

[the 48th regulator]

Agreed on that.

dileas

tess

 

[FSTO]

When I was on the PROTECTEUR during OP TOUCAN, I wrote a couple of stories for my hometown newspaper (Killarney MB) and they printed it with no editing at all. Small town papers are always on the hunt for filler and if you can supply it (and it is interesting) they'll print it.

 

[paracowboy]

I have found that if you actually write the story for them they will often print it, especially if you have some photos that they could also use.  Small town papers are always in need of content but it is often a hobby for those involved and they are not willing to put much effort into actually "writing" anything.

When I was on the PROTECTEUR during OP TOUCAN, I wrote a couple of stories for my hometown newspaper (Killarney MB) and they printed it with no editing at all. Small town papers are always on the hunt for filler and if you can supply it (and it is interesting) they'll print it.

now, this sounds like productive activity.

 

[mechanic_chick]

Hello!

Just thought I would post that I am from a small town in Manitoba , also known as CFB Shilo. Here , I find ( which is obvious! ) that there is alot of support for the troops. Yellow ribbon on every fence , post and pole you could imagine. Brandon folk are really starting to ' come around '  and people seem to support our troops more then ever. Even though Shilo is a 2VP / 1 RCHA based base , we support all soldiers. I have also noticed that in Manitoba there are alot of little towns that have a gargantuan amount of Vets and active soldiers. It is unfortunate that Carman is not supporting your son in the fashion you would desire , and your disgruntlement with the outcome is very normal like any parents would feel Im sure. But , do know , your son doesn't have to be a 2VP soldier, or 1RCHA or even FROM Shilo to be honoured from the people and soldiers from Shilo. We support all of our troops and there ARE people here supporting you!  It is difficult for Parents with their children in the Military regardless if they are based in Canada or on tour ( like my family ). Hopefully the little towns in this province pick up the slack , the Legions usually do alot of great work and I would love to see support from the town as well.

Good luck with everything ,

Cheers ,
JESSO

 

[3rd Herd]

In my scrap book I have several newspaper articles from the small town I taught in both about my past experiences and about current experiences of the troops today. Yes, I can understand your lack of support from your legion. In my case the ANAF was referred to as the "Ucluelet Construction Workers Club" not one single executive member was a former member. I t took two years to get them out and replaced and the club back to what it should have been. Wintering over in another small town in the interior of BC I was amazed at the number of articles found in the area small town papers. Some of the articles were down loaded from Can West, but quite a few were written by local part time reporters about members from their area. Next there was it seemed a constant flow of service personal on leave that were willing to give up some of their leave time to address cadet organizations,school classrooms aside from the informal legion briefings. 2 CER in particular produced and amazing compact disc of some of their adventures in Afghan. If I remember correctly the young Cpl spent about five days of his leave shuttling from small town to small town. While visiting in Edmonton last weekend I picked up a copy of the 'Western Sentinal' and found several stories that a more than a few small towns would be more than interested in, particulary the "mortar man trucker". That story in itself is slowly making it's way from truck stop to truck stop, "Hey did you here about the trucker in A-Stan who ..........." Life is what you make it.

 

[tonykeene]

This topic raises an interesting point about The Royal Canadian Legion.  I am a serving Reservist, and have been a Legion member in small-town Ontario for 20 years.  My Branch is far away from any base, so we don't have a military retiree community such as you might find in Trenton, Gagetown etc.

I have tried, repeatedly, to get my Legion interested in the CF today.  I've offered to speak, show slides etc, only to be politely refused.
At one Remembrance Day dinner, the guest speaker was a guy who showed slides of rural mail boxes, for goodness sake.

It has taken me a while to figure it out, but I believe the problem is this:

Years ago, faced with nosediving membership, the Legion opened its doors to anyone who was willing to support its goals and aims, which are mainly remembrance of First and Second World War vets, with a brief nod to Korea.  The Legion was expecting, I believe, that it would get a lot of new blood, from across all walks of life.  What they got instead was a very narrow slice of Canadian society, mostly older, white conservatives who wanted a safe place where they could pretend that it was still 1956.

My Legion Branch is just like a tiny piece of apartheid South Africa.  White, Christian and fearful.  They fear change, and all the agents of change, such as immigrants, all minorities, the French language and so on.

We have not had an executive member with any military experience, for ten years.

I've tried to get involved, tried hard to talk to them, to get them to make slight changes, to acknowledge the great diversity that makes our country.  It's like talking to a squad of North Korean border guards.

I have given up.  I'm considering joining the Canadian Peacekeeping Vets.