Canadians mark Remembrance Day each year on Nov. 11 to honour those who have served and also fallen in the service of our country.
The sacrifices made by those who died in the great wars of the early 20th century were offered because those brave men and women valued our way of life – in the freedoms we cherish and the beliefs and traditions we hold dear.
If we fail to remember and appreciate their sacrifice, it’s been said, that sacrifice will have been meaningless.
But while it’s only appropriate to remember the more than 100,000 Canadians who gave their lives during the First World War and Second World War, we should never lose sight of the fact that brave Canadians have played a continuing role in supporting our values.
That service has never stopped, and those men and women who have served deserve to be remembered and should be honoured in equal measure.
Since the end of the Second World War, our military has played a role in protecting our values in Korea, the Congo, the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia, Serbia, Iraq, East Timor, Afghanistan, plus other corners of the world that many of us couldn’t even find on a map.
And while the death toll of those conflicts has not been as high as those of the “great wars,” the service of our military in those conflicts did not come without a cost.
We’ve offered these profiles of Canadian military veterans in this publication , all of whom have been forever affected by their service, either directly or indirectly. It’s not surprising given that, in Canada, more than seven per cent of Canadian veterans screen positive for post-traumatic stress disorder, known commonly as PTSD.
For some of these men and women, the condition will prevent their return to normal life. For some, it has led to marital breakdowns.
For some, it has led to die by suicide. And the condition has extended to the families and friends of those who suffer from the condition.
Yet all the people presented in these profiles share a common characteristic. None regret their service, and all say they would do it again. It’s a level of courage that deserves our acknowledgement and respect.
