Respect for United Nations Service

You just, there’s a bond that you can not explain to other people. And it’s a bond that’s different and particularly in the peacekeeping world, because you found yourself so often in a situation where you could not solve the problem, where you could not take action, where you could not even alleviate the problem, and where if you were looking for support, really the only support you got were the guys who were right there with you then. You know it’s, it’s an interesting world. There’s a little graveyard outside of a little place in the Suez Canal called Ismailia and it’s a Commonwealth graveyard and there’s a Canadian grave there, a chap I knew in the Royal Canadian Dragoons, Van Straubenzee. And I can remember going to that grave site just after I got there and I don’t think anybody had been there in years and I put some flowers and spent some time and I... He was killed in the UNEF and I thought to myself, God, I wonder who else knows he’s here, or if anybody cares? Really, for a long while nobody ever recognized UN service on Remembrance Day and so a lot of us in blue beret stood on the side and you think, you know, gee, these guys paid the ultimate price. You know, just think if you today were to die, what have you done? Just think of the families they left, just think of the hopes of those families and you know, so I, I’m not one of the guys that go around and sit in the legion and drink beer and reminisce. I go to the service, I do the service with my kids. I now take my grandchildren and I usually go home and usually a quiet day and I think about it.