Veterans share their experiences as we observe Remembrance Day
Posted November 11, 2014 1:06 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Sacrifice. It’s a word we hear a lot leading up to November 11th. But as we observe Remembrance Day, do you truly know what it means to sacrifice for your country? Many of our oldest veterans are opening up about their experiences so that, hopefully, the lessons of war will not be lost.
Larry Wolf loaded bombs into Halifax and Wellington bombers. “I guess the first thing I thought about was how many widows and orphans I helped create underneath all those bombs when they landed among those villages and roads.”
A huge price was paid for the ideals of freedom, democracy and peace; did they get the world they fought for?
Wolf sees a society consumed by the politics of division and greed. “We had a sense of purpose then and we don’t seem to have a sense of purpose now. Purpose now seems to be that you get a faster car or other things, [like] the material things.”
Cyril Roach piloted a landing craft through the waves onto Juno Beach, gripped with a sense of loss. “If you want to know the truth, the first thought that went through my mind [was] whose mother’s sons died today and for what. It was bedlam, it was hell, and the thing is the youth, and I was nearly 20, the youth were being slaughtered.”
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War One and the 75th anniversary of World War Two.
