My name is Jim McMullin. I'm 82 years old, and I served my country faithfully and honourably in a military uniform for 38 years: 17 in the ranks, 21 as an officer and the last 10 as a major. My position within the military was financial administration.
My dad went ashore on D-Day and fought in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. My oldest brother died in Germany, a lance corporal serving at Soest. He is buried in Hanover, a product of the Cold War. My younger brother served 25 years, including in Cyprus, and my sister Winnifred Chafe was selected as a sponsor of the ship HMCS Glace Bay.
Too young for Korea and too old for Afghanistan, I have served Canada from Victoria in the west to Halifax in the east, which included two tours in isolation, in Pagwa River and Moosonee. I was taken by DOT helicopter to Moosonee, as a representative of the Canadian Forces and as a universal blood donor, to give blood on at least eight to 10 occasions. I also served five years outside of Canada: two years with Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and three years in headquarters at the Canadian Forces Base at Lahr, Germany.
I have been married to the same lady for 62 years, who has supported me in my military life while raising three sons through 12 moves. In retirement, I have no contact with the military nor with any political organization. I have, however, spent my retirement promoting the work of Canada's military. For these initiatives, I have been recognized on television and in newspapers. They include books I wrote: one on a First World War Victoria Cross recipient, one on wartime airmen from Cape Breton and one on Cold War veterans. I have also made approximately 40,000 placemats depicting all aspects of our past and present military, for display in our son's restaurant in the weeks leading up to Remembrance Day.
However, the reason for my presentation before this committee is to convince Veterans Affairs that they have an obligation within their mandate to promote recognition and remembrance for all veterans.
The seventh Book of Remembrance is a commemoration that keeps with the original intent of all Books of Remembrance, that is, to be a substitute grave for loved ones who may never be able to visit the actual grave of a husband, son, daughter or other relative to see their name inscribed in memory. My brother is interned in a grave in Hanover. He was killed in an automobile accident and is not in the Book of Remembrance. There is no substitute grave where his family might ever recognize his death.
In the early fifties, to support its obligation within NATO, Canada moved land-based troops to northern Germany as a component of the British army on the Rhine, while the air division was set up in France and southern Germany. From the onset of the mission, the number of deaths among our military serving to fulfill our Cold War commitment was a problem, with the first occurring in the northern sector in December 1951. Eventually, in total, over 200 were buried in Germany and 300-plus were buried in France, Denmark and Great Britain.
Any death in the military is investigated. A board of inquiry determines if the death was directly attributable to the military and, if so, generally provides survivor benefits. There is also a summary investigation, which goes deeper and could include legal action. Their results were never used for entrance into a Book of Remembrance.
Initially, when the seventh Book of Remembrance was approved, I, like many Canadians, understood it would include the names of all military members killed and buried outside Canada since the sixth Book of Remembrance. My brother's exclusion only came to my attention after my younger brother attended the Memorial Chamber in the Peace Tower in Ottawa with the intention of viewing his older brother's name. However, it is not there.
Over the next 10 years, I reviewed every military cemetery in Europe with interned Canadians and cross-referenced the graves with the seventh Book of Remembrance. I have learned that approximately 396 of our serving members are not remembered. The Book of Remembrance was commissioned to give those miliary personnel and their family a memorial in Canada, the nation for which they served. For example, the Book of Remembrance for the Second World War includes those killed in action, those who died as a result of accidents or illness while in service and those who subsequently died of injuries relating to service.
Why are those who died during the Cold War treated differently? In Europe in the old days, our troops faced a defeated and sometimes defiant society. I personally witnessed this during our first tour in Europe in 1971 while trying to find my brother's grave near Hanover, which was considered a hotbed of animosity. I was driving a vehicle with SHAPE's—Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe—Belgium plates. We were chased, hollered at and refused accommodations in a hotel, to the extent that our children were terrified. If it was so terrible in 1971, what was it like in Hanover in the early fifties?
The high rate of deaths among our military, with the exception of air accidents investigated separately, was probably caused by a combination of events, including cultural adjustment, boredom, highway speeds, alcohol and animosity created by a defeated society. For example, an area around Werl, Germany, was named “suicide corner”, revealing the carnage suffered by our military members. Similar deaths were occurring in the south, where our air element was located.
To resolve some issues, recreation specialists were even tasked with requesting local families to take in military members for visits during holidays. In the case of my brother, a Dutch family volunteered. They had made friends with Canadian soldiers who liberated their village on the road to Nijmegen during the Second World War. It is possible that he was coming back from visiting them when he was killed.
I have used all my resources to get the names of all deceased veterans who were posted, died and buried outside Canada during the Cold War into the seventh Book of Remembrance, but I have failed. In reviewing your strategy, I will pass on the hope that you will take the time to appreciate the meaning of the Books of Remembrance and use your power to ensure all deceased veterans who were posted in foreign lands and where they died—for whatever reason—and are buried, are given a place of remembrance in the nation they served and will always be remembered.
This appearance is the culmination of a quest that has occupied more than 10 years of my life. There were times, based on negative responses I have received from both Veterans Affairs and the Legion, that I wanted to quit. However, I still believe that all war veterans who have died serving overseas—where they were sent and are buried—deserve to be properly thanked by their entrance into the seventh Book of Remembrance. Further, their families deserve to have them returned home, at least symbolically. This committee has the power to make this happen, and I'm sure it would be met with approval from the hundreds and perhaps thousands of relatives and friends of the deceased.
At this time, honourable Chair, I will end with a plea to all present. All our deceased veterans buried outside Canada deserve to be remembered. They died while representing Canada, but some are completely forgotten. Please use your power to get them remembered.
I thank you very much.