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Ken Gaydamack stood near the National War Memorial clutching a brown leather folder.
The 80-year-old had brought it with him to Monday’s ceremony in Ottawa, where dignitaries including Prime Minister Stephen Harper gathered to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War.
The Great War forever scarred Gaydamack’s father, as it did thousands upon thousands of veterans, and in his folder he carried the documents that tell the tale.
Gaydamack pulled out sepia-tinged photographs and a typewritten note that referenced the wound that rendered Thomas Gaydamack medically unfit to serve. A shell in Vimy ended his four years of war in 1918, just short of the Allied victory.
Korean War veteran Ken Gaydamack, right, shows some pictures and documents about his father, a First World War veteran, to Gerry Wharton, honorary president of The Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans in Canada.
“He was the only survivor,” said Gaydamack of the shell that took out every man in father’s troop, and cut through his left side. “That bothered him all his life.”
Gaydamack and hundreds more looked on Monday morning as speakers commemorated the century since the launch of the First World War, now known ruefully as the war to end all wars.
The crowd gathered in the heat before the War Memorial as Harper laid a ceremonial wreath, and later a smaller group of honorary guests sat at the Canadian War Museum surrounded by tanks, guns and other wartime relics.
“A century has past now since the dull roar of the guns of August was first heard and all across Europe the lights of peace faded. This great conflict on the other side of an ocean need not have involved us,” said Harper. More than 650,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders fought between 1914 and 1918. “Canadians do not turn away.”
Harper said that focus remains unchanged, suggesting this is Ottawa’s approach to present-day conflicts.
“Canada is still today loyal to our friends, unyielding to our foes, honourable in dealings and courageous in our undertakings. This remains the character of our country.”
A few federal announcements coincided with the historic day, including a longer sentry program at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the restoration of a traditional army insignia for the officer rank.
Harper invoked many of the brutal battles Gaydamack’s father fought in and for which the First World War, and Canadian soldiers, became synonymous — the Somme, Passchendaele, Vimy.
“Canada as a truly independent country was forged in the fodders of the First World War,” said Harper, describing its “place at the table” as “bought and paid for” and the muddy and unforgiving battlefields.
Gaydamack said he learned about his father’s history in pieces, some from the odd story and other bits pulled from documents found in archives.
“He never spoke that much of the war,” said Gaydamack.
But the story sits in Gaydamack’s folder, on the pale yellowing parchment showing a uniformed man, now barely defining the shadow between a nose and where his cheek should be. In another, flanked by soldiers in orderly rows, the young father stares through the photographer’s lens.
“Here he is marching off,” Gaydamack said.
Gaydamack, himself a Korean War veteran, called his a “patriotic family” and said he followed those military footsteps even though his father didn’t want him to join.
Gaydamack said his father didn’t glory in war but he remembers him as a proud Canadian who regarded his part in the First World War as a necessity.
“He knew it was something that had to be done.”
查看原文...
The 80-year-old had brought it with him to Monday’s ceremony in Ottawa, where dignitaries including Prime Minister Stephen Harper gathered to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War.
The Great War forever scarred Gaydamack’s father, as it did thousands upon thousands of veterans, and in his folder he carried the documents that tell the tale.
Gaydamack pulled out sepia-tinged photographs and a typewritten note that referenced the wound that rendered Thomas Gaydamack medically unfit to serve. A shell in Vimy ended his four years of war in 1918, just short of the Allied victory.
Korean War veteran Ken Gaydamack, right, shows some pictures and documents about his father, a First World War veteran, to Gerry Wharton, honorary president of The Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans in Canada.
“He was the only survivor,” said Gaydamack of the shell that took out every man in father’s troop, and cut through his left side. “That bothered him all his life.”
Gaydamack and hundreds more looked on Monday morning as speakers commemorated the century since the launch of the First World War, now known ruefully as the war to end all wars.
The crowd gathered in the heat before the War Memorial as Harper laid a ceremonial wreath, and later a smaller group of honorary guests sat at the Canadian War Museum surrounded by tanks, guns and other wartime relics.
“A century has past now since the dull roar of the guns of August was first heard and all across Europe the lights of peace faded. This great conflict on the other side of an ocean need not have involved us,” said Harper. More than 650,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders fought between 1914 and 1918. “Canadians do not turn away.”
Harper said that focus remains unchanged, suggesting this is Ottawa’s approach to present-day conflicts.
“Canada is still today loyal to our friends, unyielding to our foes, honourable in dealings and courageous in our undertakings. This remains the character of our country.”
A few federal announcements coincided with the historic day, including a longer sentry program at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the restoration of a traditional army insignia for the officer rank.
Harper invoked many of the brutal battles Gaydamack’s father fought in and for which the First World War, and Canadian soldiers, became synonymous — the Somme, Passchendaele, Vimy.
“Canada as a truly independent country was forged in the fodders of the First World War,” said Harper, describing its “place at the table” as “bought and paid for” and the muddy and unforgiving battlefields.
Gaydamack said he learned about his father’s history in pieces, some from the odd story and other bits pulled from documents found in archives.
“He never spoke that much of the war,” said Gaydamack.
But the story sits in Gaydamack’s folder, on the pale yellowing parchment showing a uniformed man, now barely defining the shadow between a nose and where his cheek should be. In another, flanked by soldiers in orderly rows, the young father stares through the photographer’s lens.
“Here he is marching off,” Gaydamack said.
Gaydamack, himself a Korean War veteran, called his a “patriotic family” and said he followed those military footsteps even though his father didn’t want him to join.
Gaydamack said his father didn’t glory in war but he remembers him as a proud Canadian who regarded his part in the First World War as a necessity.
“He knew it was something that had to be done.”
查看原文...
