‘I often think about the horrors’
Veteran George Cake shares what Remembrance Day means to him
George Cake, 82, of Corner Brook, attends Remembrance Day ceremonies every year on West Street.
Cake served more than 30 years in the Canadian Armed Forces and for another 30plus as an active member at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 13.
In 1958, he was one of 15 young men from his hometown of Lamaline, on the Burin Peninsula, who joined the military. After completing basic training in Alberta, he was stationed to Ontario before a stint in West Germany with NATO forces in the 1960s.
Cake has trained all over the world, including the Mojave Desert with the Canadian Airborne Regiment and American Special Forces, in Australia for jungle training and in Norway where he lived in snow caves.
In 1970, he was deployed to Quebec during the FLQ crisis and was made a prison guard.
He saw action in Cyprus during the Turkish Invasion of 1974. His final military posting was as a teacher at the CFB Cornwallis Canadian Armed Forces Training Centre for Recruits.
He put through 1,600 recruits in his five years teaching.
After retiring from the Canadian Armed Forces in 1991, he joined the Royal Canadian Legion, where has served on the house committee as sergeant-at-arms and on the ways and means committee. He has helped veterans obtain benefits from Veterans Affairs Canada and assists annually with the legion’s Poppy Campaign.
Each year, he helps plan Remembrance Day activities, visits local schools during Veterans’ Week and can be found at the branch daily.
Earlier this year, he received the Legion Dominion Command’s Meritorious Service Medal, the highest awards that can be granted to a Legionnaire.
Much goes through Cake’s mind on Remembrance Day.
He recently shared some thoughts with the West Coast Wire in the following Q&A.
Q. What does Remembrance Day mean to you?
A. I often think about the horrors of the First and Second World War and I also think a bit lately about the families at home, the mothers with the children. Can you imagine over there in France in the trench — right full of mud and dirt and everything else — and here you have back home, you have a wife and four or five kids and what was going through your mind? I think about that quite often.
Q. Have you ever read any letters they would send home?
A. Yeah. Dad was a sailor, so he was gone most of the time, and mother would be very anxious to get a letter from (him). She used to get the kids all around the kitchen and she’d read the letters to us. And we’d say, “When is he coming home?” and she couldn’t give an answer.
I also remember the soldiers coming back from the Second World War. I was up at my hometown of Lamaline and this great big military truck was coming to town and so a big bunch of soldiers jumped out of the truck. As the truck went by, they’d stop at certain houses and they’d throw a kit bag over and then they’d jump out and then they’d go to the next house. I chased the truck down the road right to the end.
Q. During your time in the military, was there anybody you lost who you think about on Remembrance Day?
A. I got a lot of friends that joined up when I joined. In the early '60s, when I was in Germany, we lost seven of our boys over there through accidents and military maneuvers. These were people you trained with, you lived with, you slept with, you’d get together as buddies. They’re always fresh in your mind … I think about one good buddy of mine.
His name was (Ivan) Companion, and I’ll never forget him.