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Timing is everything!
Nov. 10th, 2010 10:18 pmJust in time for Remembrance Day, my cousin Justin is due to arrive home from Kandahar. He'll be landing in Ottawa tomorrow; with luck, he'll be downtown in time for the ceremonies at the war memorial.
Now that he's home he's out of the army; to stay in he'd have to go back to Afghanistan, not a plan he's fond of (almost being killed twice in as many weeks will do that!). Still, he has training as a mechanic for large military equipment, so he shouldn't have trouble finding a job.
And now my generation has someone who has done their bit for Queen and Commonwealth. I think every generation except my parents' generation has had somebody in uniform.
* My paternal great-uncle Alan trained in the RAF, finishing his pilot's training in time for VE Day (my grandfather was in engineering so he was too valuable to draft)
* My maternal great-grandfather Gustave served in the French Army in WWI, where he was gassed. His life wasn't a pleasant one, by all accounts :(
* A distant cousin several times removed was one of the first volunteers in the Royal Canadian Navy, serving on the HMCS Niobe
* Distant relatives were in both Bosnia and the Boer War
And we can't confirm it, but we're thinking that someone in my maternal grandfather's family smuggled Jews (or somebody) out of Denmark during WWII. He died when his boat struck a mine, also killing his wife and "all the men aboard" as one family story put it.
Hopefully the number of people in uniform per generation will continue to drop.
Now that he's home he's out of the army; to stay in he'd have to go back to Afghanistan, not a plan he's fond of (almost being killed twice in as many weeks will do that!). Still, he has training as a mechanic for large military equipment, so he shouldn't have trouble finding a job.
And now my generation has someone who has done their bit for Queen and Commonwealth. I think every generation except my parents' generation has had somebody in uniform.
* My paternal great-uncle Alan trained in the RAF, finishing his pilot's training in time for VE Day (my grandfather was in engineering so he was too valuable to draft)
* My maternal great-grandfather Gustave served in the French Army in WWI, where he was gassed. His life wasn't a pleasant one, by all accounts :(
* A distant cousin several times removed was one of the first volunteers in the Royal Canadian Navy, serving on the HMCS Niobe
* Distant relatives were in both Bosnia and the Boer War
And we can't confirm it, but we're thinking that someone in my maternal grandfather's family smuggled Jews (or somebody) out of Denmark during WWII. He died when his boat struck a mine, also killing his wife and "all the men aboard" as one family story put it.
Hopefully the number of people in uniform per generation will continue to drop.
