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Dexter_h wrote:vetern's should have more holidays dedicated to them

Veterans, don't need more holidays, they just need more Recognition

2007 Remembrance Day events, taken from:

http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/NewsReleas ... eday07.htm

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The City of Vancouver's 2007 Remembrance Day ceremonies will be held on:

Sunday, November 11, 2007 at 10:30 a.m.
Cenotaph at Victory Square
West Hastings Street, between Cambie and Hamilton

These ceremonies, which include a wreath laying to honour those who gave their lives in the service of our country, will mark the 89th anniversary commemorating the First World War Armistice.

The prelude at the Cenotaph will begin at 10:10 a.m. with a performance by the Vancouver Bach Youth Choir. The official program begins at 10:30 a.m., followed by two minutes of silence at 11 a.m., and the placing of wreaths at the Cenotaph. A parade of veterans, ex-service personnel and the Canadian Armed Forces will then move west on Hastings Street and march past the saluting base at Seymour and Hastings, where Mayor Sam Sullivan will take the salute.

Weather permitting, there will be a commemorative fly-past at 11 a.m. by the Recreational Aircraft Association Western Warbirds and 407 Maritime Patrol Squadron.

Remembrance Day ceremonies will also be held at 11 am at several Vancouver parks including Memorial Park South, Grandview Park Cenotaph, and Stanley Park at the Japanese Monument near the Stanley Park Pavilion. For details visit: vancouverparks.ca.

The Endless Sleep

Days and nights continue by
While sleeping we continue lie
Our cause was war and mingled grief
A premature end to light so brief

For others we did give this gift
To heal hatred’s brutal rift
For this our dreams of joy did perish
So hopes realized could others cherish

The price was high for us so cold
What we would give for warmth of gold
To pierce our gloom and set us free
Another chance for us to be

But we are gone and often nameless
The forgotten sons and daughters blameless
We watch and weep while others follow
And pray that fatal pride is swallowed

A bitter vigil with no end
Another soul forbid to rend
We gave our lives because we must
Do not us now betray this trust

We will sleep the endless sleep
In our veil of darkness deep
Lay open all our folly’s bare
In hope no others join us there.

I usually attend the UBC service:

http://www.ceremonies.ubc.ca/ceremonies ... rance.html

Ill be attending the service at Victoria Park tomorrow. Bob

Bullen Park cenotaph.

My daughter will be taking part in the Parade tomorrow as part of the Girl Guides (Brownies). We've gone down to the cenotaph every year we have been home since Shaelyn was born.

[img]http://forgottenhope.bf1942files.com/im ... member.jpg[/img]

Charlene wrote:

KnowItAll wrote:

Happy Remembrance Day

???

somehow, I never heard that expression before. isnt Rememberence day supposed to be a somber day of reflection, rememberence and Respectfulness. ????

I noticed that, but i really don't think he meant it in a disrespectful way

I would have thought the same had I not read (with muted disgust) his posts about Afghanistan :x

Today for me is a day where I think not only of those who sacrifed in the First and Second world wars, my mother still has an uncle listed as Missing in Action in WW II. I also think of those who fought in Korea, and who have served on the many UN missions that Canada has been a part of since the very first in the Suez crisis in 1956. I also think about my first instructors in the military, veterans of Cyprus, Rwanda, Somalia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Some who were shattered there. I think about men who trained me who were themselves just young soldiers when they served with UNPROFOR and went toe-to-toe with the Croats in the Medak Pocket in 1993. It would be ten years before those men would get their due recognition. I think about those whom I served with overseas in Bosnia, in Haiti and Afghanistan. To some they might just be names, they might just be numbers (or to some a price tag their precious tax dollars must foot) but to me they are my family, and how I honor them and remember them is my legacy.

To all those who have served, to all those who have lost, who have given, sacrificed and suffered for peace and freedom I say thank you, and to those comerades of mine, it was my honor to serve along side you! In memory of those who have given their lives in Afghanistan, we will remember them!

Pro Rega et Patria!

While In Flanders Fields may be better known in Canada and I have no wish to challange it's significance of it's place in history or symbolic connection to this day, I would also like to present another poem, also from the First World War which I always turn to set the mood for Remembrance. The poem is titled Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen, a British Army officer who served on the Western Front.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Excellent posts, CartWheelFan!

I still love this shot I took a couple years ago... two warriors showing mutual respect:

[img]http://www2.moltenimage.com/photos/lions/warriors.jpg[/img]\

And TLK, awesome video... thanks for sharing that.

CartWheelFan wrote:While In Flanders Fields may be better known in Canada and I have no wish to challange it's significance of it's place in history or symbolic connection to this day, I would also like to present another poem, also from the First World War which I always turn to set the mood for Remembrance. The poem is titled Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen, a British Army officer who served on the Western Front.

I am very fond of Wilfred Owen's poems. If you are interested in more of this type try this book:

Link

It has alot of poems, all about WW1 and from many authors. If you like this sort of thing, you will not be dissapointed. My version (from Chapters) is a very nice little pocket-sized hardcover with a red ribbon in the binding for a bookmark.

Real nice service at Victoria park today. Well attended. The rain held off. How were the services in the burbs. Thnx BB

I second Ballistic Bob. Great ceremony today downtown at Victory Square. My only beef was during the two minutes of silence, two diesel Translink buses went roaring by on Pender. Come on guys, show a little respect. And the CTV News Chopper would have been well advised to back off a bit ...