MORE PROFILES IN COURAGE
You continue to send us wonderful stories honouring Canada’s war vets; here are more samples of the inspiring tales we received
In honour of Remembrance Day, here’s a selection of inspiring stories that pay tribute to our brave men and women in uniform.
Honour & Valour
My 98-year-old father, Nicholas (Nick) Turchyniak, is sipping a happy-hour brandy and enjoying a piece of kielbasa sausage. He has a faraway look when I ask him about the war, which ended more than 70 years ago.
Reminiscing, he shares his past. He was born on September
3, 1920, near Prud’homme, Sask., and was one of eight children.
His father, John Turczniak, came to Canada from Poland in
1905 at 15 years of age. Nick’s mother, Josephine Swidzinski, was born in 1903 in Saskatchewan. The family did mixed farming including raising cattle, horses, chickens and pigs, and provided wheat for the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
World War II broke out and, in 1941, Nick volunteered to join the Royal Canadian Air Force just before he turned 21. He trained in Brandon, Man., as a pilot then as a navigator and was assigned to Dafoe, Sask. He eventually joined the ground school in Toronto in the armament section.
Throughout the war, Nick found himself stationed across Europe, including England, France, Holland and Belgium. In France, he dug field trenches, putting logs over top of them as German troops flew over. He also helped ground troops load theirp anti-aircraft guns. The Germans attacked fields and aircraft, so Nick was close to the action! Nick remained overseas in Europe until VE (Victory-europe) Day in June 1945. He earned five war medals including the Defence Medal, the France and Germany Star, and the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, for his war service involvement. Gloria Lauris, Ottawa