According to Canada’s Department of Veteran Affairs, the following is what you will be solemnly remembering this week during the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th month of 2015:
October 11, 1899
South African War begins
October 30, 1899
First Canadian soldiers leave for South Africa
February 18, 1900
Battle of Paardeberg begins
November 7, 1900
Battle of Leliefontein
March 31, 1902
Battle of Hart’s River
May 31, 1902
South African War ends
August 4, 1914
First World War Begins
April 22, 1915
Canadians see first major action at Ypres
July 1, 1916
1st Newfoundland Regiment goes over the top at Beaumont-Hamel
April 9, 1917
Canadians take Vimy Ridge
November, 1917
Canadians capture Passchendaele in muddy battle
November 11, 1918
Armistice signed ending the war
September 10, 1939
Canada officially enters the Second World War
August 19, 1942
Canadians take part in Raid on Dieppe
July 10, 1943
Canadians come ashore in Sicily
June 6, 1944
Allies come ashore in Normandy on D-Day
May 5, 1945
Canadians complete Liberation of the Netherlands
August 15, 1945
V-J Day: official end of the Second World War
June 25, 1950
Canadians enter Korean War
April 24-25, 1951
Canadians see action in the Battle of Kapyong
October 2, 1952
HMCS Iroquois hit off Korean coast
July 27, 1953
The Korea Armistice Agreement is signed ending three years of fighting
November 24, 1956
First Canadian peacekeepers set foot in Egypt
August 9, 1974
Nine Canadian Forces Peacekeepers die in the Middle East
1988
World’s UN Peacekeepers awarded Nobel Peace Prize
August 2, 1990
Iraq invades Kuwait, setting off the Persian Gulf War
1992 through 2003
Canada participates in several missions to support peace in the Balkans region
2001
Canadian soldiers deploy to Afghanistan
September 2006
Canadians see intense combat in Afghanistan during Operation Medusa
January 2010
Canadian Forces deploy to earthquake-ravaged Haiti
March 2014
End of Canada’s mission to Afghanistan
However, according to the Canadian War Museum, this list is incomplete.
Although Canada was not officially involved in the Vietnam War, Canadians certainly were. As a veteran of that war, America’s fourth largest in terms of casualties, I was amazed at the number of Canadians I ran into over there, most of whom acted entirely on their own by crossing the border and joining the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines.
Though the Canadian Department of Veteran Affairs seems to have overlooked the ones who paid the ultimate price, the War Museum has not, so here are the names of Canada’s forgotten warriors, which are chiselled onto the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial “North Wall” in Windsor, Ontario.
Please read the list slowly and say their names out loud to honour their lives - lest you forget, like our government apparently has:
John A. Anderson, Alfonso P. Bartaloti, Fidel J. Bastaracha, Gaetan J.G. Beaudoin, Alvin K. Bencher, Vincent Benard, Guy A. Blanchette, Daniel A. Bolduc, Greogory L. Bomberry, Ivan C. Broeffle, Thomas E. Brown, Peter N. Bruyere, Gary Butt, Michael F .Campbell, Randall K. Campbell, Bernard J. Caron, Dave S. Chamberlain, Larry R. Collins, Mark P. Collins, Andrew C. Conrad Jr., Austin M. Corbiere, Normand A. Corbin, Frank E. Crabbe, Donald P. Davies, Patrick J. Dearborn, Francis J.D. Delmark, Brian J. Devaney, Douglas W. Devoe, Richard P. Dextraze, Guy D. Dickie, Michael J. Dunn, Gordon P. Eadie, Ronald R. Fillmore, John F. Francis, Thomas E. Fraser, Joseph O. Frigault, Gerard L.J. Gauthier, Leslie N. General, Danny E. Goodwin, Gilbert P. Graham, Larry Green, Randolph E. Hatton, Wayne L. Hawes, Robert W. Holditch, Willis F. House, George V. Jmaeff, Andrew J. Jobey, Harry D.C. Kellar, John W.S.G. Kelly, Bruce T. Kennedy, Robert W. Kenny, Johnathan P. Kmetyk, Adolf J. Kroisenbacher, Paul S. Laverock, Darryl D.S. Lawson, Kevin D. Low, Geoffrey J. Lukey, John W. MacGlashan, David K. Manning, Maurice J. Marier, Joseph H. Marshall III, Alan C. Martin, Michael J. Masterson, Ian McIntosh, Rob G. McSorley, Cyril Mitchell Jr., Regan A. Monette, Donald W. Morin, Calvin I. Nesbitt, James P. Nichoson, Allan W. Persicke, Roger M. Pisacreta, Willian M. Price, John H. Reeves, William R. Robson, John W. Roden, Robert J. Santoro, Charlie F. Sauler, Daniel L.P. Sauve, David B. Savage, Dennis R. Schmidt, Stephen J. Scott, Ronald Scott, Larry S. Semeniuk, Edward G. Sharp, Gary F. Shaw, John C. Sherin III, Eldon W. Smith, Frank J. Somers, Tadeusz Sosniak, Stefan Z. Stalinske, Robert J. Steel, Alan M. Sturdy, Melvin H. Suthons, Vernon J. Thosteinson, Murray D. Vidler, Baxter Warren, Rutherford J. Welsh, Gordon G. White, Thomas M. Williams, Richard C. Williams, Paul H. Wolos, Gerald F. Young
Doug Sack was the first sports editor of the Yukon News and later a longtime sports editor of the Whistler Question and a columnist and features writer for Ski Canada magazine. He is currently semi-retired in Whitehorse.