Lest We Forget

Beneath me lay the sands of time
Four sand walls and they are mine
My roof is but the starlit sky
and that's a Soldier's Paradise
~Thomas Murrie Donnelly

All of us know someone who has served in the armed forces-somewhere!  But, how much do we really know about them or what they did?  If your family is anything like mine, the stories of war didn’t get dragged out and bragged about at the Sunday dinner table.  Survivors of war, even those who make it through with their life and their bodies still intact, do not escape unscathed.  The experience of war is unlike anything else and the opportunities for mercy are few and far between.  The mercy that escaped the veteran on the battlefield is given to the family members by the vet on their return.  The sounds and images that run in a loop in their head they mercifully reserve for themselves.

But, at least once a year, we remember and once again, during the 90 minute Remembrance service held at the Arena, the elderly veterans, those who were able, stood.  They stood at attention, or at ease, by the direction of either the Service Director or the Parade Marshall, one of their own.  This takes a special kind of determination, especially given the age of many of the remaining Second World War and Korean War Veterans.  It appears, the remembrance of what they lived through and what others, comrades of theirs didn’t, creates a resolve and rolls back the years to ensure they are able to pay their respects as well as remind all of us that they will not forget!  We have younger vets now too and they are the ones who the school children will remember in years to come.

The jackets, adorned with their ribbons and medals worn over the heart.  The lines in the faces speak to the years since World War 2 and the Korean War, but, the eyes which have seen so much death and devastation sparkle on this day.  They want people to remember, the sacrifices not only they made, but, also those who never had the opportunity to make it home or stand in a Remembrance Day service.  They never left the battlefield, the skies or the seas alive.   Most recently, those who have been returned to us, having given their life, have ridden the Highway of Heroes, unaware of the crowds who gathered to say good-bye and thank you.  But, I’m sure with every fallen son or daughter who has returned to us only to be buried and memorialized, every veteran has been brought back through the years to the days of their youth remembering their comrades who, also, never returned. 

Tomorrow they will once again hide their grief in their hearts and forge on with their life, allowing all of us to put aside the remembrance for a little while.  But, as they remind us, every year, they are never far from remembrance.  Members of the Legion say, ‘We shall not break faith with thee’.