TUESDAY, November 10, 1992

PROFILE

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day. We all know that it means we get a day off, but do we really know what Remembrance Day is all about? | Canadians have set aside one day a year to pay homage to our men who have served in

war, but one day a year will never be enough to show our gratitude to these brave soldiers. Remembrance Day is not just poppies, or another day off. It is a day we as a country pay homage to all the men who fought and died in war. These veterans are not just someone we read about, or images we see on TV. These are flesh and blood men, people who have survived incredible opposition.

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é S$ are people who have witnessed the carnage and horror of war, the war that was fought with family blood. These people were our brothers, our fathers and our uncles, who risked all they had to fight for everything that is often taken for granted.

To all these men, we respectfully thank you for the price you paid. We have asked three veterans of war to share part of their stories with us, so we can all | better understand the price many had to pay to keep Canada a free country.

Lith hour

Story Karen Kerkhoff

Photos John Van Putten

STEVE MELNICK

Steve Melnick also served in World War IL.

The memories that touch him are much the same as his comrades, but one’ thing that he says he will always remember.is how innocent chil-

“The hardship...especially that of the children is what touched us. Everybody suffered, but the children suffered the most. That was the hardest. One morning there were two little Dutch kids, and we were sitting there eating our rations. Every time we'd take a spoonful, they would open their little mouths. So we shared our food with them. This was in the morning. When we came in for dinner there were four or five of them. Of course we weren't supposed to give them our rations. So we would stand there talk- ing and we'd have our food behind us. These lit- tle kids would come up with great big tablespoons and we would know what they were doing, but we wouldn’t bother looking back. We glanced back towards the houses where they came from, and their mothers were standing looking out the windows.”

Melnick feels that initially the war-ravaged residents of Holland thought that Canadian ser- vicemen were cruel.

“They soon found out differently, because here we were sharing our food with the chil- dren.”

RENE ARCHAMBAULT

Rene Archambault was a sergeant in the Royal Highlanders, Black Watch division during World War II.

Archambault doesn’t regret going to war.

He feels there were things worth fighting for.

“Tt was necessary, Hitler had to be stopped.”

“T'd go again if I were younger.”

Archambault also brought home a souvenir from overseas.

While leading a platoon in Holland, and engaged in hand to hand combat, he lost his right eye to an exploding hand grenade.

Archambault reminisced about the years he spent fighting, and about the many friends who died.

At times his eyes seemed distant, rerunning horror movies in his head. Memories that were meant for his own private viewing, but should be shared and remembered by all of us.

There are memories that haunt Archambault, but the biggest one is D Day, June 6, 1944. This was the day the Allied troops landed in Normandy. It is also known as the invasion of continental Europe. é

“I was in England until the invasion. Then I went to France with the invasion force. I think we walked all the way to Holland. I was in the infantry. It took three to four months to walk there, we were fighting hard all the way. -

“The biggest thing was D Day, the invasion. Our outfit took the city of Cannes, France. We had 600 bombers out. It was a day much like today...warm, and clear as a bell. The bombers went in and bombed the city for at least a couple of hours. When they were done it

mid day, but it was dark out. We couldn't see the sky or the sun, there was a lot of smoke and dust, like when you get a bad forest

Though D day was a victorious memory for Archambault, he has another memory, one of pain and loss.

“We went into another small town in France. We had five hundred men in our battalion. We lost well over 300 men that day. The Ger- man intelligence knew we were coming.”

“We had to withdraw and reform with reinforcements from England.”

To Archambault, the worst part of the war may be that people have forgotten the price many people had to pay to keep us a free coun- uy.

“T'm upset that many people have forgot it now, even though these things aren't that pleasant to remember.”

Even with the memories that haunt him, Archambault is not sorry that he went and served his country,

“I'm glad I went over there. If I hadn't, I'd wonder what it was like.”

Although Archambault feels that World War II was necessary, he feels that war is now avoidable, with the technology, and informa- tion available to us in the information age.

“The way it is today, I think a lot more can be accomplished through negotiations than through war.”

PETE LAVOIE

Pete LaVoie left behind a wife and three young childgen when he joined the army.

At the time, Lavoie was employed as a cab driver in Medicine Hat, and the money he earned as a driver was minimal.

“We were getting two bits a trip. That wasn’t even a meager liv- ing, even in those days.”

LaVoie admits that part of the reason he joined was for better Pay.

“I thought that if I went in the army I'd get money for me, and for my wife and children. Then if I was killed, my wife and chil- dren would get looked after.”

LaVoie would not go to war again if called.

“I don’t think I'd go back to war. I don’t think our government handled it properly. Japan, Italy and Germany should have been made to pay for that war. They weren't asked to pay one iota. We paid for the war.”

LaVoie feels that the Canadian government should not have entered into war without more preparation.

“Canadians were the least prepared for war. When we went over we didn’t even have uniforms. I'didn’t even get a pair of shoes until after the first year. | was wearing my own shoes.”