Thousands attend services across the city to mark Remembrance Day
As bright sunlight streamed through windows onto wreaths honouring Calgary’s war dead, hundreds attending Remembrance Day services at the Kensington Legion were reminded that “the reality of war is only as far away as a veteran.”
The first Remembrance Day service at the Kensington Legion since Branch No. 264 moved into a new building last June attracted more than 300 people, and was just one of many services across the city attended by tens of thousands of Calgarians.
Following the service, veterans in attendance joked and shared memories over bowls of chili and pints of beer on the second floor of the new glass-clad building on Kensington Road.
George Couture, 92, who served in both the Second World War and the Korean War, attended the service in Kensington Saturday along with his wife and children.
He said the stirring sound of the Piper’s Lament and the Last Post brings back memories.
“I remember all the boys that got killed,” said Couture, who served in the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.
“I was captured at the D-Day landing and spent 11 months in a German prison camp — it was a good place to be on a diet,” Couture said.
“We were finally liberated after about a 1,200-mile march on the road.”
Weighing just 98 pounds when he was liberated, Couture returned to Canada and Calgary. He reapplied to the military and was deployed again in the Korean War, ultimately serving around 30 years.
“The worst part is being away from your children as they’re growing up,” Couture said. “That was hard. My wife did all the work.”
Saturday’s service also paid tribute to newer veterans of the Afghanistan War.
Flanked by cadets from the Calgary Highlanders Cadet Corp, Calgary police Sgt. J. Nolan placed a wreath in tribute to servicemen and women killed in Afghanistan, some of whom he served with when he was deployed there in 2008 with the Lord Strathcona’s Horse Regiment.
“I served in Afghanistan. I lost good friends over there,” Nolan said.
“This isn’t about me, this isn’t about us. It’s about remembering them — the good men and women that fought and served and died for this country. That’s what brings me out every year.”
Nolan said he’s touched to see Calgarians, including those with no immediate military connection, attending sunrise ceremonies each day in November at the Field of Crosses along Memorial Drive, or attending Remembrance Day services in droves services across the country.
“It’s not just us remembering our friends, it’s everybody remembering them, and that speaks volumes to me.”