Remembrance Day - A Memorial

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Mighty Hiker

Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 31, 2009 - 12:29am PT
There is some footage of Jim's uncle in In the Shadow of the Chief, the movie about the first ascent of Squamish's Grand Wall by Jim Baldwin and Ed Cooper in 1961. He was then the mayor of Squamish (as he was for many years), a lumberjack, and was behind getting the town (maybe village, then) to support Baldwin and Cooper.
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C. Small wall climber.
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 11, 2009 - 03:43pm PT
Well, it's just about 11 AM, which is the 'official' time for commemoration today - the exact time that the armistice started in France. But close enough.

Remembrance Day is a major civic event in Canada, and a statutory holiday. For the event, and in the week or so leading up to it, people very often wear poppies, in commemoration both of the Canadians who died in both (and other) wares, and of John McCrae's poem.
So if you get Canadian television, e.g. the CBC, and were wondering...

I also wear a pin, both at this time of year and on formal occasions at other times. It is of a Lancaster bomber, and was given to me at the memorial for my uncle three years ago.

This is what a Lancaster bomber would have looked like in daylight - they were mostly flown at night.
There's lots of information about them on the web, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Lancaster Some relatives had a look at one of the last surviving airworthy Lancasters, in England, a year ago.

Far up thread, I reported that after sine effort I'd been able to locate two of the six other families of uncle Richard's crewmates. Well, this week, out of the blue, a third contacted me. Bit of a story, but one of the two sisters of FO John Travis.
em knot

Trad climber
isle of wyde
Nov 11, 2009 - 04:20pm PT
Blinny wrote:
>"World War II and Korea killed him - it just took some time. A pound of
> bacon and six eggs a day - coupled with all the cigarettes he could
> smoke - followed by becoming a finance guy after his stint. . . all
>bein' heaped on top of bein' a hardwired anal retent, sorta did him in."

ditto here...my dad, Charles John Robba, was at Hickham Field in Honolulu the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor. My mom recently told me about that day: when the Japanese planes arrived to attack Pearl Harbor, they first struck Hickham Field and destroyed all but one of the U.S. planes which were there to defend Pearl Harbor. The pilot of the lone plane that was left immediately took off against the whole Japanese airfleet and was shot down. My dad was one of the gunners on the ground trying to defend against the attack. My grandmother, who was Austrian (and detested Hitler) used to have a torn-up piece of a Japanese MIG on her wall. I never really understood the full significance of that until my mom told me the story.

Great courage.


>"Here's to dads who gave their all!"

Thank you Anders, for reminding us to remember. A salute to all who serve(d), then and now.
cleo

Social climber
Berkeley, CA
Nov 11, 2009 - 04:25pm PT
My Poppop (granddaddy) on a WWII troop carrier


My Grandpa, also in the Navy


Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C. Small wall climber.
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 11, 2009 - 08:59pm PT
A related thread: http://supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1007764/Veterans_Day

And another: http://supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1008403

German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy laid a wreath today at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris. It was the first time that a German leader has attended Armistice Day ceremonies in France since the end of the war in 1918 - essentially, ever. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/world/europe/12france.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Topic Author's Reply - May 1, 2010 - 02:02am PT
The people at Stoke Rochford, the place where my uncle's plane crashed in 1945, have a modest memorial each year on the anniversary, April 28th. A photo of the memorial plaque and tree, taken this morning:

And a rainbow over the crash site:
Watusi

Social climber
Newport, OR
May 1, 2010 - 02:21am PT
God Bless them, one and all!!
flakyfoont

Trad climber
carsoncity nv
May 1, 2010 - 02:27am PT
In remembrance,also:my Great Grandfather Amers. Member Northumberland Fusiliers. Killed WWI . RIP
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 11, 2010 - 11:13am PT
Annual bump. The Great War ended 92 years ago today.
Barbarian

Trad climber
The great white north, eh?
Nov 11, 2010 - 11:24am PT
Bumped it before I got to it. Thanks to all veterans!
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 11, 2010 - 12:02pm PT
Somewhere way up thread, I mentioned a memorial that was held in 2006, at Stoke Rochford, where my uncle and his crew died. We've been able to find three of the other six families, and this September one of the younger sisters of John Travis, one of the crew, visited Stoke Rochford with some of my cousins. (Alleyne is from Nova Scotia.) The first time any of of the families has met in person. I'll try to get some photos from cousin Jane.
Spider Savage

Mountain climber
SoCal
Nov 11, 2010 - 12:10pm PT
To Louie wrenching in the the Phillipines, WWIi
George of the 10th Mtn, Muleskinning in Italy.
My pal Steve in Nam.
Gaurd Savage, horsethief for the Union
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 11, 2010 - 01:48pm PT
War-related deaths during World War II, by country:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

Pretty grim stuff.
dogtown

Trad climber
JackAssVille, Wyoming
Nov 11, 2010 - 10:35pm PT
My wife is a VA nurse of fifteen years, its Veterans Day everyday for her and colleagues. Our troops make sacrifices that most of us can hardly imagine. We went to the service at the hospital today it was truly moving. Not a dry eye in the crowd.

DT.
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 2, 2012 - 01:08pm PT
There is one surviving airworthy Lancaster bomber in the world, which flies regularly on summer weekends, sometimes with other vintage war aircraft. For the royal jubilee a few weeks ago, it flew over London, together with four Spitfires and a Hurricane.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
[Click to View YouTube Video]
nita

Social climber
chica de chico, I don't claim to be a daisy.
Nov 11, 2012 - 11:46am PT
I heard this beautiful story on ~The California Report...

Violins for Veterans...watch the video, too.
http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201211091630/c

eKat, I think you would enjoy this video.....
Jennie

Trad climber
Elk Creek, Idaho
Nov 11, 2012 - 01:16pm PT
Great link Nita...and thanks,again, Anders for sharing the story of the uncle you didn't know.

... the grim paradox of war...while conducting to the fore the most destructive and fatal aspects of human behavior...it frequently brings out humanity's finest and most transcendent attributes.

...such stark incongruity.

Gratitude and deference to the loyal who served...honor and remembrance to the brave who were lost...
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Nov 11, 2013 - 11:52am PT
I love that Lanc vid, Mighty! Churchill's words were, if anything, understated.

I thought there was a flyable Lanc in Ontario?
Ihateplastic

Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
Nov 11, 2013 - 12:55pm PT
My dad was a trainer for pilots learning to fly the Lancaster. As the war was a bit heavy in the UK he was stationed for a while in western Canada.. He crash-landed a Lancaster somewhere in Edmonton! I am fortunate that I can see him occasionally on late night TV if they show the film Dambusters. He was Sir Barnes Wallis' model maker and, as a result of his top secret work and because he built the real testing device, he was cast in the movie.

Best dad Ever.
Jan

Mountain climber
Colorado, Nepal & Okinawa
Nov 11, 2013 - 01:19pm PT
While moving my mother to assisted living this summer, I discovered my father's military records. He was a photo mapping officer - "received aerial photos of enemy and friendly territory, layed in mosaic patterns in accordance with ground surveys or steroscopic survey data. Drafted map outlines, border information and scale, corrected foreign maps, etc. In the Phillipines, performed all offical photography for AFWESPAC. Received the European African Middle Eastern Service Medal, Army Occupation Medal (Germany), World War II Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic Pacific Service Medal".

All he ever told us kids about the war was that he spent most of it crossing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on a slow boat zig zagging to avoid submarines. He ate nothing but turkey while crossing the Atlantic and Spanish rice over the Pacific, and never could stand either after that. He also used to entertain us with songs they sang while marching such as "B.S. makes the grass grow greener". It was only some years ago when we opened a box of his war photos including those of the European death camps and Santa Tomas Prison Camp in Manilla, that we realized a lot of his melancholy must have come from the war. I believe everyone who served made sacrifices, many of which we were never aware of.
Messages 41 - 60 of total 72 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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