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Thousands of people crowded in and around Confederation Square in Ottawa on Tuesday, and each had a particular reason to be there. Here are some of those reasons, as outlined to Citizen reporters.
Master Cpl. Allison Geddes and Dan Troughton decided last month to come to the National War Memorial. It was their first time attending the national ceremony.
“Last year I went to Beechwood (National Military Cemetery) and wanted to experience the war memorial here,” Geddes said. “This is the place to be if you’re going to go to a ceremony in Canada. This is the one time and the one place.”
The Oct. 22 shootings added to their desire to be in view of the memorial.
Standing along Elgin Street, Allison wore her green army uniform and Troughton a jacket with military patches. Troughton’s grandfather was in the First World War. His father served in the Second World War. Troughton served in Afghanistan and Somalia.
“Just because we served doesn’t mean we should remember the people who protected Canada and made Canada how great it is more than civilians should,” he said.
Veteran Leon Katz, 90, holds up a Canadian flag and pictures of the two soldiers recently killed in attacks at home: Corp. Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent.
Leon Katz, 89, held a flag above pictures of Corporal Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent that his daughter had fashioned for the day. The Second World War veteran was in the American-occupied zones of Germany as the war came to a close, helping capture and interrogate Nazis and overseeing military law in the region.
He joined late in the war after his brother was already overseas in the Canadian Navy. Katz joined the army.
“It was not pleasant times,” he said after Tuesday’s ceremony. “This service looks good to me, but the actual activities in Europe were not pleasant. They were nasty.
“When there were hostilities, I would crawl under one of the vehicles and wait for things to calm down,” said Katz, who wore his medals and his Order of Canada medal.
On this day, he remembered the family that didn’t make it through the Holocaust.
“My mother had a sister and an entire family in Romania and they were all wiped out during the Nazi occupation of Romania,” he said.
“One cousin of mine survived — just one from an entire family. If you’re asking me who do I remember now, I remember that family.”
Ann Coles and Richard Coles, members of the Manotick-South Carleton Royal Canadian Legion, were volunteers for Tuesday’s ceremony. They are children of Second World War veterans and parents of veterans.
“We’re remembering all those who fell, gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom,” said Richard.
“And those who are still suffering the effects of PTSD from the war,” added Ann.
Jerry Kovacs is a director with Canadian Veterans Advocacy.
“It was particularly moving to be here today because it’s the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier who is apparently known only to God,” said Kovacs. “But now so many Canadians, millions of Canadians know Cpl. Cirillo and he’s the known soldier and I think that’s brought Canadians together.
“That is what has made this ceremony today especially moving.”
Mike Buttery, retired sergeant in the British military, extended his stay in Ottawa to be at the ceremony.
“It’s humbling at the end of the day,” he said, his voice trailing off. He had to turn away and take a moment alone.
In his hands he held three small crosses, each adorned with a poppy. The Royal British Legion hands out the small crosses for Nov. 11 ceremonies. They are meant to carry to the name of a fallen soldier and be placed in the ground in memoriam.
Buttery left the three on the tomb of the unknown soldier.
One was for his great-grandfather, who died in the First World War. The other two had the names of Cpl. Cirillo and WO Vincent.
Crowds gather along Elgin St. on Remembrance Day, November 11, 2014.
Jeffrey Kroeker brought the medals his grandfather, Ben Kroeker, earned serving in the Second World War, including being on the beaches in Normandy on D-Day with the 3rd Canadian Division out of Winnipeg. Six decades later, Jeffrey and his father retraced his grandfather’s footsteps in Normandy, using the map reference points his grandfather had used to guide the generals overseeing the invasion.
“We brought these (medals) with us along the way because he was unable to make the journey. He has now departed this world, but his memory and his service live on with us,” Kroeker said.
“For Canadians, and for me personally, taking this one day to sit back and remember — it is a duty. It is akin to not only service to your country, but also voting, the very privileges that we take for granted literally on the footsteps of our democracy stands this memorial in essence keeping watch. And there’s a reason why it faces south in the sense that our soldiers are forging forward and pulling democracy with us.”
Robert Downey stood along Elgin Street, holding a picture of his grandfather, James Downey, and the medals he earned serving in the First World War. Downey said he has come to the memorial every Nov. 11 since he moved to Ottawa 14 years ago to remember his grandfather and the other black soldiers who fought for the right to serve their country.
“He, like everybody else, wanted to do their part for God, king and country,” Downey said. “Their first fight was just to get accepted by their comrades to join in the fight because they were sent home and told originally that this was a white man’s war and we’ll send for you when we need them. But they persisted and the No. 2 Construction Battalion was formed.
“I’ve been doing this, I’ve been holding his picture every year since I’ve been here. About four years ago, my father, Sgt. (Ret.) Robert Downey, entrusted the medals to me for safekeeping. I’m very proud to have them. I come every year with my grandfather’s picture, with his medals and a commemorative medal for the No. 2 Construction Battalion. Gotta represent.”
Standing on the steps of the memorial, German Ambassador Werner Wnendt reflected on how much had changed since his country and Canada were twice at war.
“Now we not only are close partners and friends and allies,” he said of Canada and Germany, “but we share the same ideas, the same visions, the same values, which are democracy and the protection of human rights.”
Wnendt said attending Tuesday’s ceremony was also important in light of the attacks on Cirillo and Vincent, which were a painful reminder of the ongoing struggle for peace and freedom in the world.
Veterans standing tall as the annual Remembrance Day Ceremony takes place at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.
“Everybody here, to me, is a brother,” said Carl Spencer, 88, veteran of peacekeeping missions in Syria, Israel and Lebanon.
“We’re all — the young kid that was killed here and the fellow at Quebec — we’re all brothers and you grieve them, you really do. I do.”
For former veterans ombudsman Pat Stogran, the ceremony was a painful reminder of the battle many wounded Afghan vets — and their families — continue to face after their military service has ended. Veterans like triple amputee Billy Kerr and Mark Campbell, who lost both legs in Afghanistan.
“When I was ombudsman, I said sometimes dying on the battlefield is the easier way out because the trauma and the pain endures when they come home and it falls on the entire family,” Stogran said.
A retired colonel who lost four soldiers to a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan in 2002, Stogran welcomed the government’s addition of the Afghan war to those commemorated on the memorial.
But standing in the memorial’s shadow, he worried that Canadians today don’t grasp the very real ramifications of sending men and women in uniform off to war, as is now the case in Iraq.
“I find it very upsetting when Canadians talk about the Canadian Forces being at war, but the nation isn’t,” Stogran said. “Any operation that we send our children overseas for is a Canadian operation, and every single Canadian should take a sense of stewardship in that and hold their government accountable.”
Among those serving military members who placed their poppy on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before saluting all those who had fallen was Sgt. Alain Perreault of the Royal 22e Régiment, or Vandoos.
Perreault said he was thinking Tuesday of his friends and comrades, including those who died in Afghanistan, as well as Pte. Steven Allen, killed last week in a training exercise in Alberta.
Looking at the crowd, the sergeant from Quebec said Tuesday’s ceremony was certainly different from previous years because of the recent attacks.
“It’s sad,” he said, “but it’s also good because people are more interested.”
RMC cadets pay their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier late in the afternoon of Nov. 11, 2014.
While dignitaries were rededicating the National War Memorial, Lt.-Gen. Guy Thibault says he was reflecting on the soldier whose remains are buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“It’s just those who go and serve without any expectation of being recognized or remembered,” explained Thibault, the military’s second-in-command.
“I don’t think there’s anything that could be more reflective of what it means to serve in the Canadian Forces than to do that. Not looking for any glory, not looking for any other recognition than that, doing your duty.”
The events of the last few weeks may have made Remembrance Day more poignant this year, said Thibault, but he believes the passing of Canada’s First World War veterans has also resulted in a “re-awakening” of public interest in the military.
Shean Kelly, 67, wore a photo of his father Bill Kelly. The gunnery sergeant with the 166 Newfoundland Regiment fought in North Africa and then in the campaign at Casino, Italy. He was the only member of his platoon to survive.
“We’re all here out of respect,” Shean Kelly said, “and to thank them for everything they have done for us and the freedom that they have given us.”
Mel Squissato, 92, a veteran of the Second World War, broke down when asked why he was at the memorial.
He came “to commemorate a lot of friends who aren’t here any longer.”
Squissato remembered his captain, the author and playwright George Blackburn.
There were several others, too numerous to remember all by name.
A woman drops her poppy at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier following the ceremony.
查看原文...
*
Master Cpl. Allison Geddes and Dan Troughton decided last month to come to the National War Memorial. It was their first time attending the national ceremony.
“Last year I went to Beechwood (National Military Cemetery) and wanted to experience the war memorial here,” Geddes said. “This is the place to be if you’re going to go to a ceremony in Canada. This is the one time and the one place.”
The Oct. 22 shootings added to their desire to be in view of the memorial.
Standing along Elgin Street, Allison wore her green army uniform and Troughton a jacket with military patches. Troughton’s grandfather was in the First World War. His father served in the Second World War. Troughton served in Afghanistan and Somalia.
“Just because we served doesn’t mean we should remember the people who protected Canada and made Canada how great it is more than civilians should,” he said.
*
Veteran Leon Katz, 90, holds up a Canadian flag and pictures of the two soldiers recently killed in attacks at home: Corp. Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent.
Leon Katz, 89, held a flag above pictures of Corporal Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent that his daughter had fashioned for the day. The Second World War veteran was in the American-occupied zones of Germany as the war came to a close, helping capture and interrogate Nazis and overseeing military law in the region.
He joined late in the war after his brother was already overseas in the Canadian Navy. Katz joined the army.
“It was not pleasant times,” he said after Tuesday’s ceremony. “This service looks good to me, but the actual activities in Europe were not pleasant. They were nasty.
“When there were hostilities, I would crawl under one of the vehicles and wait for things to calm down,” said Katz, who wore his medals and his Order of Canada medal.
On this day, he remembered the family that didn’t make it through the Holocaust.
“My mother had a sister and an entire family in Romania and they were all wiped out during the Nazi occupation of Romania,” he said.
“One cousin of mine survived — just one from an entire family. If you’re asking me who do I remember now, I remember that family.”
*
Ann Coles and Richard Coles, members of the Manotick-South Carleton Royal Canadian Legion, were volunteers for Tuesday’s ceremony. They are children of Second World War veterans and parents of veterans.
“We’re remembering all those who fell, gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom,” said Richard.
“And those who are still suffering the effects of PTSD from the war,” added Ann.
*
Jerry Kovacs is a director with Canadian Veterans Advocacy.
“It was particularly moving to be here today because it’s the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier who is apparently known only to God,” said Kovacs. “But now so many Canadians, millions of Canadians know Cpl. Cirillo and he’s the known soldier and I think that’s brought Canadians together.
“That is what has made this ceremony today especially moving.”
*
Mike Buttery, retired sergeant in the British military, extended his stay in Ottawa to be at the ceremony.
“It’s humbling at the end of the day,” he said, his voice trailing off. He had to turn away and take a moment alone.
In his hands he held three small crosses, each adorned with a poppy. The Royal British Legion hands out the small crosses for Nov. 11 ceremonies. They are meant to carry to the name of a fallen soldier and be placed in the ground in memoriam.
Buttery left the three on the tomb of the unknown soldier.
One was for his great-grandfather, who died in the First World War. The other two had the names of Cpl. Cirillo and WO Vincent.
Crowds gather along Elgin St. on Remembrance Day, November 11, 2014.
*
Jeffrey Kroeker brought the medals his grandfather, Ben Kroeker, earned serving in the Second World War, including being on the beaches in Normandy on D-Day with the 3rd Canadian Division out of Winnipeg. Six decades later, Jeffrey and his father retraced his grandfather’s footsteps in Normandy, using the map reference points his grandfather had used to guide the generals overseeing the invasion.
“We brought these (medals) with us along the way because he was unable to make the journey. He has now departed this world, but his memory and his service live on with us,” Kroeker said.
“For Canadians, and for me personally, taking this one day to sit back and remember — it is a duty. It is akin to not only service to your country, but also voting, the very privileges that we take for granted literally on the footsteps of our democracy stands this memorial in essence keeping watch. And there’s a reason why it faces south in the sense that our soldiers are forging forward and pulling democracy with us.”
*
Robert Downey stood along Elgin Street, holding a picture of his grandfather, James Downey, and the medals he earned serving in the First World War. Downey said he has come to the memorial every Nov. 11 since he moved to Ottawa 14 years ago to remember his grandfather and the other black soldiers who fought for the right to serve their country.
“He, like everybody else, wanted to do their part for God, king and country,” Downey said. “Their first fight was just to get accepted by their comrades to join in the fight because they were sent home and told originally that this was a white man’s war and we’ll send for you when we need them. But they persisted and the No. 2 Construction Battalion was formed.
“I’ve been doing this, I’ve been holding his picture every year since I’ve been here. About four years ago, my father, Sgt. (Ret.) Robert Downey, entrusted the medals to me for safekeeping. I’m very proud to have them. I come every year with my grandfather’s picture, with his medals and a commemorative medal for the No. 2 Construction Battalion. Gotta represent.”
*
Standing on the steps of the memorial, German Ambassador Werner Wnendt reflected on how much had changed since his country and Canada were twice at war.
“Now we not only are close partners and friends and allies,” he said of Canada and Germany, “but we share the same ideas, the same visions, the same values, which are democracy and the protection of human rights.”
Wnendt said attending Tuesday’s ceremony was also important in light of the attacks on Cirillo and Vincent, which were a painful reminder of the ongoing struggle for peace and freedom in the world.
Veterans standing tall as the annual Remembrance Day Ceremony takes place at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.
*
“Everybody here, to me, is a brother,” said Carl Spencer, 88, veteran of peacekeeping missions in Syria, Israel and Lebanon.
“We’re all — the young kid that was killed here and the fellow at Quebec — we’re all brothers and you grieve them, you really do. I do.”
*
For former veterans ombudsman Pat Stogran, the ceremony was a painful reminder of the battle many wounded Afghan vets — and their families — continue to face after their military service has ended. Veterans like triple amputee Billy Kerr and Mark Campbell, who lost both legs in Afghanistan.
“When I was ombudsman, I said sometimes dying on the battlefield is the easier way out because the trauma and the pain endures when they come home and it falls on the entire family,” Stogran said.
A retired colonel who lost four soldiers to a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan in 2002, Stogran welcomed the government’s addition of the Afghan war to those commemorated on the memorial.
But standing in the memorial’s shadow, he worried that Canadians today don’t grasp the very real ramifications of sending men and women in uniform off to war, as is now the case in Iraq.
“I find it very upsetting when Canadians talk about the Canadian Forces being at war, but the nation isn’t,” Stogran said. “Any operation that we send our children overseas for is a Canadian operation, and every single Canadian should take a sense of stewardship in that and hold their government accountable.”
*
Among those serving military members who placed their poppy on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before saluting all those who had fallen was Sgt. Alain Perreault of the Royal 22e Régiment, or Vandoos.
Perreault said he was thinking Tuesday of his friends and comrades, including those who died in Afghanistan, as well as Pte. Steven Allen, killed last week in a training exercise in Alberta.
Looking at the crowd, the sergeant from Quebec said Tuesday’s ceremony was certainly different from previous years because of the recent attacks.
“It’s sad,” he said, “but it’s also good because people are more interested.”
RMC cadets pay their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier late in the afternoon of Nov. 11, 2014.
*
While dignitaries were rededicating the National War Memorial, Lt.-Gen. Guy Thibault says he was reflecting on the soldier whose remains are buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“It’s just those who go and serve without any expectation of being recognized or remembered,” explained Thibault, the military’s second-in-command.
“I don’t think there’s anything that could be more reflective of what it means to serve in the Canadian Forces than to do that. Not looking for any glory, not looking for any other recognition than that, doing your duty.”
The events of the last few weeks may have made Remembrance Day more poignant this year, said Thibault, but he believes the passing of Canada’s First World War veterans has also resulted in a “re-awakening” of public interest in the military.
*
Shean Kelly, 67, wore a photo of his father Bill Kelly. The gunnery sergeant with the 166 Newfoundland Regiment fought in North Africa and then in the campaign at Casino, Italy. He was the only member of his platoon to survive.
“We’re all here out of respect,” Shean Kelly said, “and to thank them for everything they have done for us and the freedom that they have given us.”
*
Mel Squissato, 92, a veteran of the Second World War, broke down when asked why he was at the memorial.
He came “to commemorate a lot of friends who aren’t here any longer.”
Squissato remembered his captain, the author and playwright George Blackburn.
There were several others, too numerous to remember all by name.
A woman drops her poppy at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier following the ceremony.
查看原文...
