Remembrance Day

[Occhidiangela]

Today is Remembrance Day, here in Canada, where we honour those who served our country - both those who fell in so doing and those who came home.

I usually quote "In Flanders Fields" at this point, but instead, I offer this, as it is a much more poignant reminder.

A Pittance of Time by Terry Kelly.

Remembering....
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As for memories . . . I wonder how vivid the memories are for the guys who were in it.

Thursday, October 27, 2005 BY Gurpreet Singh
BORDEAUX, France - Rene Moreau, one of seven remaining French soldiers who fought in World War I, has died at the age of 108, a veterans' association said Thursday.

Veterans were expected to attend a funeral for Moreau on Saturday in the southwestern French town of Angouleme, the Office for War Veterans in the Charente region said. It said he died Wednesday in Angouleme.

Moreau was born Sept. 8, 1897, and was drafted in 1916.

http://www.keralanext.com/news/index.asp?id=417510

10 English veterans of the first world war survive. Some coverate on 6 of them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwo..._gallery.shtml

This was in our paper this morning:

WASHINGTON -- Lloyd Brown remembers Armistice Day in 1918 as few -- ever so few -- veterans can.  "For the servicemen there were lots of hugs and kisses," recalls Brown, of Charlotte Hall, Md., a teenage seaman aboard the battleship USS New Hampshire, in port stateside when the fighting stopped. "We were so happy that the war was over."

Now 104, Brown adds, "There's not too many of us around any more."
No one knows exactly how many of America's World War I veterans will celebrate Veterans Day, which marks the armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, that ended what then was considered the Great War. An estimated 2 million Americans served in Europe after the U.S. entered the war in 1917.
Today, the Department of Veterans Affairs lists just eight veterans as receiving disability benefits or pension compensation from service in World War I.
The Census Bureau stopped asking for data about World War I veterans years ago. Using a report of 65,000 alive in 1990 as a baseline, the VA estimates that no more than 50 remain.

Occhi