This year’s Remembrance Day had special significance for Bill Walker. For the first time, he joined a Remembrance Day observance with his father, Second World War veteran Howard Walker.
“I got a little lump on my throat,” he said, “because for the first time I heard somebody talk about (my father). It is different to hear from my dad himself, (but when) somebody is talking about him, I think it is very special,” Bill Walker said.
This week, on Nov. 11, Howard Walker took part in colour party march-on during the Remembrance Day observance at the Centre for Creative Communications of Centennial College. He joined his colleagues of Royal Canadian Legion No. 617, Dambusters Branch.
When his father was in the war, Bill Walker wasn’t even born. The only way he came to know his father’s wartime experience was through photographs and the stories he told.
Howard Walker was in the Royal Canadian Air force serving in New Brunswick in Coastal Command. Bill Walker’s grandfather was a corporal in the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles during in the First World War. He was wounded and captured by Germans and spend couple of years in a German POW camp.
His grandfather and father have been an enormous influence on Bill Walker. That’s one of the reasons he joined the Canadian Armed Forces as a reservist.
“Because I have a family history, people in family are serving in the military and more important thing for me was that I thought it was more tangible way of showing my support to the military,” he said.
Bill Walker works with the media and public affairs wing of the military. His training is not completed yet; he has one more phase of courses to do and then he will be qualified for deployment. He said he may volunteer to go to Afghanistan or UN peacekeeping mission somewhere in the world.