A Veteran's Day story

I remember being at an annual farm meeting, in the early 1970s. The guest speaker, a farm leader from British Columbia, at a jam session in hotel after official meeting, met some Nova Scotians, he had served along side in Navy during the war. These guys talked about an accident off Nova Scotia, involving British, American and Canadian Navel Ships. These guys did not elaborate much, other than I do know numerous lives were lost, and it was a case of mistaken identity. Clearly the Nazis were trying to bring the war to the shores of North America.

Having been born, 60 miles north of Halifax in 1942, I don't remember a lot about the war and military exercises in the area. My first recolection of the war was probably about 1947 or 48, going to Halifax with my parents. We traveled Route 2, which incidently runs all the way from Halifax to Windsor ON, and built during the early 1940s. To many rural Canadians that was the first paved road. It's construction time frame was also sped up as a result of the war.

One of the sights I vividly remember on that day was the massive amount of navel ships parked in Bedford Basin. Bedford Basin being about 15 miles long and 1 to 2 miles wide, at the head of Halifax Harbour. There was so much military hardware parked there you could not see water only on the shoreline along Route 2. I'm told by guys in the Navy, you could actually walk from one ship to another, they were packed in so tight. It was quite an impressive sight for a young 5 year old.

Being a Vet gives me some insight that many people who toss around terms lightly do not seem to understand.

I do not mean to insult or anything, but rather to comment on the insults some Vets have been suffering for years.

Veterans are any man/woman who puts on the uniform of THEIR country's Armed Forces and Defends that country. Whether or not you are a vinner or a loser, you are still a Vet.

Guess what guys. My Dad was a Vet. He was conscripted into the Luftwaffe in 1944. He was 13 years old, had lost his Dad in 1939, his Mom and his sister depended upon him to make sure that they were taken care of. He had two choices -

1. Accept conscription
2. Accept the consequences of refusal. There was no such thing as a conscientious objector in Germany prior to 1946. Those consequences involved the expenditure of usually a 9mm or a 7.62mm shell - excecution style.

My Dad chose option number 1.

This is historical fact and is unrefutable.

Are you going to tell me my father was a Nazi? I truly abhor stereotyping and when it comes to the two great wars, Germans are ALWAYS the goat.

In WW1.. it was a not the Germans that started the war ... read your history. This url will provide a lot of clarity -->Link

Treaties>Link signed years before as mutal support or non-aggression pacts where what decided what side one was on. WW2 was a direct outcome of WW1 and the socalled Weimar Republic that was created after the Allies stripped Germany of everything she had.. Think about it -- if your country was the most modern industrialized country in Europe and it was turned back 100 years into a totally agrarian economy, would you not be a little P-R-off?

Nazi is the abbreviation for the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which is a political party. It is not the Military nor is it the individual soldiers there-in.

You can read about this at this url:>Link

My>Link Dad was a Vet. He also was a staunch nationlist. He was not and never could have been a NAZI. He was the prime reason I joined the Canadian Forces. To make sure that a totalitarian government such as the one that ruined his country, could ever hurt mine. For that I am proud to have served.

It is about time in this day and age where people who are apparently so well educated, understand their history. They must stop uttering Politicall Correct garbage and actually understand what they are saying. Ignorance is not an excuse for hurt or insults.

Remember, John Fitzgerald Kennedy once said that If you do not know where you have been, you cannot understand where you are, and you will never figure out where you are headed. History is important...

For those who use the term NAZI lightly... I would suggest you revise your definitions and usage.

Oh, it would be nice if we the next generation of those who suffered under that regime did not have to bear the sins of the leaders of their forefathers. Mostly because of ignorance which has oft been confused with intelligent discourse.

I'm not about to get involved in any discussion on what caused the various wars of history making around the world. I know it takes two or more people to fight. I've yet to witness one person fighting with themselves.

I only posted on your post because your post happened to be germaine as was the post previous. The following were no longer about the same thing. It certainly was not personal. Anyways...

You said:

I'm truly sorry if I offended you in anyway with my use of the word Nazis.

Well, I certainly did not mean to indict you personally either. And I am sorry if I offended you.

However I am very, very tired of hearing that word used incorrectly, and there comes a time when errors need to be addressed. Most of the first generation German kids I grew up with felt the same way. It does not describe soldiers, sailors or airmen, it is a perjorative term used by far too many who have no understanding of what the word NAZI means.

As stated, it is an abbreviation or a 4 letter acronymn to describe a Political Party.

Doesn't anybody get it??

For a supposedly educated peoples, many of us have absolutely no clue as to what the term NAZI meant or means...

You also said:

Perhaps you should enlighten me as to what those U boats should have been called or better still to whom they belonged.

Well quite simply they belonged to the people of Germany, just as our Navy belongs to us! Ahh duhh... oh, I forgot.. those new subs we got from the Brits that like to sink... they belong to Chretien??? Like that is idiotic. Sooo.. how can you say a German U-Boat belongs to Hitler?? It didn't. It belonged to the German Nation as a whole....and just so you know, they were duly commissioned units of the Kriegsmarine.. or the Navy....

Sometimes I wish that I could just be like every body else. My whole life sure would have been simpler..but I can't. I am who I am and I am proud of my heritage and my history.

Fortnately my Dad taught me some extremely important lessons about Freedom. MY Dad taught me that to truly understand Totalitarinism, one must first understand what Freedom truly means. He learned it the hard way. A way that no Canadian or American ever had to experience. And why... because of men like my father.

Freedom does not mean to hurl epithets at people you don't like.. Freedom means to have the choice to stand up and take a stand, to defend a person's beliefs whether you believe them or not, simply because they have the right to those beliefs. If you do not understand that, how can you understand the removal of that right?

So, when you call German soldiers NAZI's you are not insulting me. You ARE insulting my father and thousands like him. And I am sorry, no one has the right to disparage or dishonour my Dad or any other Vet.

Those who use that term are disparaging the memory of hundreds of thousands of German soldiers who died trying to defend their homeland from the stupidity of a madman and the ignorance of the Allied politicians who could not nor would not confront Hitler before he became too powerful.

Again I go back to what I said earlier :

Remember, John Fitzgerald Kennedy once said that If you do not know where you have been, you cannot understand where you are, and you will never figure out where you are headed. History is important...

It is unfortunate that we cannot learn from our mistakes... and that we are doomed to repeat them over and over and over again.....

You are a goo dman to post that. From time to time I find myslef doing what I want, farm or carpentry, whatever, and then I thin of our brave men and woman in Iraq and Afgan and I say, " Man, those folks are fighting a war and nobody seems to pay attention " We have short attention today and it is not like it was when this country fought the world war. I am 41 and I do pray for those who are there and would not trade my position withthem, and only hope they come home to do the things I do daily. You are right, God Bless them and I pray they will stay safe.