SERGEANT CHARLES LAVERS, 32 FROM PICTOU COUNTY, SERVED IN AFGHANISTAN
My thoughts 100 years after the Great War is what a lucky time it is to be a Canadian.
We take for granted, I think, every day the liberties we have here in the First World and it’s just hard to wrap your mind around it, to think of the sacrifices that not only soldiers from Canada at the time made, but all their families.
Everyone took part in the world wars. I think it’s just amazing, the efforts and the length that people went to, to defend what we have here to enjoy today. Global history is really important. Of course, it’s one of the first steps we take to try and avoid repeating history. Maybe that’s impossible to do, but more people should become aware of it, youth especially.
Don’t forget. Don’t get complacent and lazy. Once those people are gone, it becomes even more important to carry on in our memorial traditions, because those voices are next to being lost. I served in Afghanistan in 2009. I volunteered to go with the Royal Canadian Van Doos and we were there as a provincial reconstruc- tion team and provided security at some of the bases in Kandahar Province.
It made it a lot more personal to me of course, and it opened my eyes to just a fraction of the sacrifice the people before us in the Canadian Armed Forces have endured and chose to make. Research. Take a look at what our involvement was.
We didn’t necessarily fix the country as a united nation, but we made a lot of progress. We helped a lot of people and that was really important. Changing the minds of the youths there. That was so important. I think a lot of people benefited while we were there.