Sandra Greenberg believes that despite acts of remembrance, today, some things are forgotten on Remembrance Day. “We need to work for peace,” she said. “War is harmful not just for the people who fight, (but also) to their families, to people that get caught up in the destruction and environment destruction.”
Ted Conover’s last day of combat in the Second World War brought trauma and recognition. “It was the 1st of May, 1944, and we’d been very successful in getting prisoners up to that point,” Conover said. “What we were unaware of was that the area where we were to take up our position was mined by the Germans with shoe mines.”
Next Monday, at Glen Ames Senior Public School, students will reflect on the act of remembrance. Their reflections, part of the school’s Nov. 11 Remembrance Day observance, come from a story about the First World War, titled The Enemy: A Book about Peace.
Serving in the military is a family tradition for Ben Boyden. “I’m proud to be in the army. I joined for a reason,” he said. Boyden, 22, joined the 48th Highlanders of Canada in November 2008, when he was 17 years old. Now a corporal in the reserves, he enjoys the experiences that the military has provided him.
Fidelis Oketch was on just his seventh mission in Iraq when his war ended. “The scariest (part) was knowing friends who died,” he said, “getting blown up by IEDs each day and taking fire fights.” Though he had always wanted to be a military pilot, Oketch got his first chance to serve in the military after 9/11 when President George W. Bush declared war on Iraq and U.S. troops were sent out almost immediately.
Jim McGee hadn’t planned on a long military career. “I joined up when I was a teenager for a summer job and I stayed for 37 year,” he said.
Earlier this year, some high school students showed Toronto Legionnaires they can remember veterans. Along the way, their art touched branch president, Debbie Moore. “I was blown away by the artwork. I could not believe how much time and effort they put into it,” Moore said.
David Koufis had never been to war, until Nov. 10 this year. “You do a lot of reflecting, thinking about what you’re doing and what you’re saying,” Koufis said. “Someone my age had to go through this and that makes you definitely think, reflect and have a totally renewed respect for the day.”
At 5 a.m. each day while on duty, David Garcia woke up to the sound of the alarm, strapped on his gear and readied himself for anything and everything. “You are faced with tough decisions a lot of the time, but you don’t have a lot of time to react,” Garcia said.
On Sunday Nov. 4 at 2 p.m., the City of Toronto and the Scarborough Civic Centre hosted its Remembrance Day service.