Thank you, MP Blaney. Yes, you're right, it's weird.
I've been part of the Memory Project with Historica Canada now for several years. I quite often get invited to various schools in my area to make a presentation.
For example, I went to a middle school. I waited until all the students were in the gym, then made some quick calculations in my head. I told everybody to stand up, and I said they were the Royal Newfoundland Regiment on July 1, 5:00 a.m. Then I had them all sit down except for the first two rows and I said they were the Newfoundland Regiment on roll call, July 2. Seven hundred of the 800 men who went over the top that morning died or were wounded, and only 63 showed up the next morning for roll call. That impact, that visual, makes an impression on the students, on the teachers. Words get lost, but visuals embed a memory of that moment.
When I went to Vimy Ridge on Remembrance Day 1990, I was one of only four Canadians there. The irony is that the brigade had deployed for training to head to the Gulf War. There I stood under a memorial on Remembrance Day, and we were off to war again. That memory is embedded in me forever because I lived it. Being able to share that memory with youth makes all the difference in the world. This is why I'm so eager to make sure that kids have the ability to meet veterans like me, World War II veterans who are still with us. We have one locally, Carl, who I hope will still be alive to make that final trip to the Netherlands to be recognized for the liberation. I'd like kids to meet Carl because he is a living embodiment of a moment in our history. Nobody can tell that history like a person who has lived that history.
As Dr. Windsor mentioned, you can't talk about the Medak Pocket and expect people to understand it. You need to have somebody who was at the Medak Pocket to understand it. My buddies came back from that messed up, but they need to share that story. It's important, as you can tell.