Was really happy to hear that the Canadian Defense minister in government put out a press statement on Father's Day. He reminded people that soldiers are fathers too and their kids and spouses are at home waiting for them to come home.
It was a happy thing because there's not a lot of noise made about soldiers making sacrifices other than funerals' announcements. So to hear about their kids waiting for them to come back okay was a great idea. So why stop there? I'd love to write more about it. I cannot forget because veterans' stories have kept me captivated with bravery in just doing their job and duty.
Having never missed a Remembrance Day ceremony, even if just on TV when I was too sick a few years, even got a speeding ticket making it to the cenotaph on time. That's how much I care. Why am I going on about this in the middle of the spring and not November? Everyone seems to forget about the common soldier the rest of the year other than Afghanistan casualties and if a veteran dies -- taking his stories with him. So I'm taking the challenge to figure out when is best to be talking to veterans.
Not the best remembering dates and years, but June 6th was D-day and there's so many other historic war deciding and small battles which have been fought before and since then. I'd love to talk to some more veterans since two years ago I went and drank beers with a bunch of wonderful older men at the legion who told me about their glory days and bitter return to normal life where nobody understood them.
Put that idea on the back burner when I was working full-time and caught up in other projects and half regret not knowing how to get in touch with the veterans. I'll dig up those interview notes and my other formal articles in student and community newspapers as well as online posts and poems too.
Having a few friends tell me wow... interviewing them sounds like an awesome project and I'm sad to say I've lost some of those photos in a stupid lack of hard-drive back-up but it's not too late to go find those wonderful veterans again and get the rest of the stories. Never-the-less I'm really wanting to tackle the issue from all angles from before during and after the war. None of the Hollywood nonsense or nationalism, just a platoon looking after each other, camaraderie that rarely is understood by civies like myself.
If you'd like to look up the kind of stuff I'm looking at doing, read a short story called 'The Things They Carried' and the inspirational book written by a journalist and later a movie called 'Black Hawk Down'. Yet I've read very few books and articles outside of November 11 about Canadians so I'd love to take up that gap in the rest of the year.
Will it be difficult? Bloody difficult to convince those old veterans that I even had an inkling of what they went through. Only because both my grandfather and father (reserves) served in the Cold War era Canadian Navy was why they started talking.
Having heard a few wild and chilling stories from my dad I am more determined to see what I can do about getting those stories out of the Legion Hall and into the electronic sphere. There seems to be a few projects out there that I'll try to latch onto and find out from others' experiences.
Check out at Facebook and the Legion that I intend to contact real soon. Thanks for any supports or ideas on what I could do with this project. It's going to be worth it as these stories bear repeating to keep peace on the forefront of how much was sacrificed by young men my age and younger who were brave enough to enlist and defend our nation. Soldiers past and present deserve to have their legacy preserved.
Cheers to them who fought, supported on the home-front and keep on guard for freedom.
-- PLR --
p.s. stay tuned on old stories and new interviews happening soon! like June 6th and any other significant battle.
It was a happy thing because there's not a lot of noise made about soldiers making sacrifices other than funerals' announcements. So to hear about their kids waiting for them to come back okay was a great idea. So why stop there? I'd love to write more about it. I cannot forget because veterans' stories have kept me captivated with bravery in just doing their job and duty.
Having never missed a Remembrance Day ceremony, even if just on TV when I was too sick a few years, even got a speeding ticket making it to the cenotaph on time. That's how much I care. Why am I going on about this in the middle of the spring and not November? Everyone seems to forget about the common soldier the rest of the year other than Afghanistan casualties and if a veteran dies -- taking his stories with him. So I'm taking the challenge to figure out when is best to be talking to veterans.
Not the best remembering dates and years, but June 6th was D-day and there's so many other historic war deciding and small battles which have been fought before and since then. I'd love to talk to some more veterans since two years ago I went and drank beers with a bunch of wonderful older men at the legion who told me about their glory days and bitter return to normal life where nobody understood them.
Put that idea on the back burner when I was working full-time and caught up in other projects and half regret not knowing how to get in touch with the veterans. I'll dig up those interview notes and my other formal articles in student and community newspapers as well as online posts and poems too.
Having a few friends tell me wow... interviewing them sounds like an awesome project and I'm sad to say I've lost some of those photos in a stupid lack of hard-drive back-up but it's not too late to go find those wonderful veterans again and get the rest of the stories. Never-the-less I'm really wanting to tackle the issue from all angles from before during and after the war. None of the Hollywood nonsense or nationalism, just a platoon looking after each other, camaraderie that rarely is understood by civies like myself.
If you'd like to look up the kind of stuff I'm looking at doing, read a short story called 'The Things They Carried' and the inspirational book written by a journalist and later a movie called 'Black Hawk Down'. Yet I've read very few books and articles outside of November 11 about Canadians so I'd love to take up that gap in the rest of the year.
Will it be difficult? Bloody difficult to convince those old veterans that I even had an inkling of what they went through. Only because both my grandfather and father (reserves) served in the Cold War era Canadian Navy was why they started talking.
Having heard a few wild and chilling stories from my dad I am more determined to see what I can do about getting those stories out of the Legion Hall and into the electronic sphere. There seems to be a few projects out there that I'll try to latch onto and find out from others' experiences.
Check out at Facebook and the Legion that I intend to contact real soon. Thanks for any supports or ideas on what I could do with this project. It's going to be worth it as these stories bear repeating to keep peace on the forefront of how much was sacrificed by young men my age and younger who were brave enough to enlist and defend our nation. Soldiers past and present deserve to have their legacy preserved.
Cheers to them who fought, supported on the home-front and keep on guard for freedom.
-- PLR --
p.s. stay tuned on old stories and new interviews happening soon! like June 6th and any other significant battle.
posted discussion request on this cool site. http://www.facebook.com/CanadaRemembers
ReplyDeleteand hope to get some replies there!