Could we have done it?

Re Remembrance Day Each Remembrance Day, I look at my father Len and I wonder if my generation, or any generation after mine for that matter, would have had the courage and sense of duty to do what his did. My father was an RAF bomber pilot in a war that stole five years of his youth. He survived two crash landings and at age 20, his anxiety might have been a smoking engine at 10,000 feet, deep behind enemy lines. Mine might have been a surprise test at college. We have enjoyed such a long period of prosperity and peace in Canada that the term “ supreme sacrifice” seems to have been drastically downgraded. Today, it seems to apply to someone who had to wait a few days to be evacuated from a hurricanevacation destination or has to pay the world price for gasoline because a natural disaster has temporarily cut supplies. How ever would today’s average Canadian cope with five years of shortages and wartime rationing? I remember my grandfather in England telling me how they came one day during the war and cut down the wrought- iron fence in front of his house. Seems they needed it to make tanks and ships

At the St. Lawrence Market last weekend, we spotted an elderly veteran selling poppies from behind his walker. My wife struck up a conversation. His card read “ Victor Billett, Highland Light Infantry of Canada.” He was part of D-Day he told us, but too young to go in on the first wave. He beamed with pride when we lifted his D-Day and Juno Beach medals from his chest for a better look. When my wife thanked him for his service , he modestly and quietly replied, “ There were many, many more of us.” Kevin Hodges, St. Catharines, Ont.