War Memorial

[kato13]

DeaconR 08-21-2005, 07:24 AM Yesterday I went with my father and other relatives to a war memorial in Nanton AB which was dedicated to the Canadians who fought in the British Bomber Command in WWII. This was attended by the Minister of Defence, members of the Royal Canadian Legion, the Lancaster Society, a representative of the Chiefs of Staff and other dignitaries, as well as a huge number of surviving veterans and their families.


It was a very moving ceremony, particularly when more than one of the speakers testified to going to mess hall after a mission and seeing empty chairs. The memorial is a wall similar to the one for the Vietnam War in DC though smaller. More than ten thousand men died in the 2000 day bombing campaign. I paid my respects to my grandfather's name. My aunt told me that the last time she saw him was in 1940 when he came to visit her in the hospital. My father was too young at the time to know him well.


During the speeches some joking references were made between the Minister of Defence and the local MP, who is on the Opposition side. It occured to me (not for the first time) that to live in a nation like Canada and see that sort of thing as the main kind of political rivalry is a great privilege, and that there is a debt owed to those who fought against the Axis, not just to remember them but to learn from the errors of the past.


At the end of the dedication as the pipe band played "Amazing Grace" there were few dry eyes there, regardless of generation.

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TR 08-21-2005, 08:08 PM I'm hoping the next time I get back home to Indiana I'll have a chance to see the Medal of Honor Memorial there in Indianapolis...


About three to four years ago the "Moving Wall", the travelling Vietnam War Memorial came to Longmont, Colorado which was quite surprising as it's not a huge city maybe only 70,000 total poulation. I went to see it with my brother, mother and father who served in Viet Nam with the 10th ARRS as a door gunner. For being 8:30 PM in the evening it was surprisingly busy with people at all lengths of the wall, I was glad in the end to have gone as I got at least a long time goal realized for my father to see the wall... even if it isn't the one in DC.

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