Comments | cool_moose: REMEMBRANCE DAY

cool_moose

REMEMBRANCE DAY - November 11

Nov 10, 2006 23:37

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And the carnage continues! Young men - cannon-fodder - still dying far from home for the same tired old reasons.
I was named for my uncle who died in the trenches in France during 'the Great War' - WW-I. He was only 22.

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Comments 8

smpte November 12 2006, 11:37:12 UTC

It's interesting to think what he might think if he knew he would be thought of by people scattered all over the world in the distant future.

cool_moose November 13 2006, 07:44:33 UTC

I guess that's the way we 'live on' ... the people we touch along the way.
As for WW-I, the newspapers here in Canada noted this week that Canada now has only three living veterans of that conflict. They are 105, 106 and 106 yrs old.

smpte November 14 2006, 14:23:12 UTC

There are 12 known World War I vets surviving in the U.S., ranging in age from 105 to 115. The VA says they think there are more who have slipped off the radar. The oldest known is Emiliano Mercado del Toro, 115, from Puerto Rico, who is also the oldest known veteran of any U.S. war ever. None from any earlier war survived to 115 as far as anyone knows.

halogencycle November 14 2006, 15:27:44 UTC

That's really sad he died that young, but I imagine it really makes you appreciate the life you have to know how easily you could have lost out on it.

cool_moose November 14 2006, 18:42:32 UTC

Yes - I was born in a 'seam' - three years before WW-II and still too young for Korea. And we sort of dropped out of subsequent wars - until recently, in Afghanistan.

Amazingly, at end of the Second World War Canada had the third biggest navy and the fourth largest Air Force of the world. Not so today - I think we have 4 planes and 2 ships - but they don't work. ;-)

halogencycle November 16 2006, 11:59:56 UTC

My dad was born at a point in history like that. He's a few years too young to have been sent to Vietnam.

bretoffey November 16 2006, 06:25:15 UTC

What a lovely update, Tom. It's good to be hearing from you again.

shofarot November 16 2006, 08:57:45 UTC

I think many Canadians fail to realize the significance of Canada's impact in 20th Century history. Canada's industrial output, as well as its military might, were key to defeating the Nazis. Subsequent to WW2, us Canucks played an essential role in stabilizing a weak and vulnerable Western Europe under the threat Soviet invasion.

The difference today is that unlike the urgency of the conflict in Nazi occupied Europe, the Afghan conflict is a pointless adventure into a land that perceives us not as liberators, but rather as occupiers.