And then there was one

I remember when I was a very little boy going to the Remembrance Day service on November 11th at Vancouver’s Cenotaph in Victory Square. We went because my dad’s uncle was in charge of all the arrangements for the World War One vets. And there were hundreds of them. And there were thousands more throughout the country.

They weren’t all that old then, these guys who had slogged in filthy, stinking, corpse-strewn trenches on the so-called Western Front for four years so that corrupt and equally stinking European monarchies could maintain their hold. The monarchies justifiably lost (and deserved to), but so did millions of young men from 1914-1918.

Anyway, lots of great-uncles and my grandfather served in that war. I loved hearing the tales. One of my great-uncles would periodically have to pick out shards of shrapnel that would still protrude from his skin after having made a long journey through his lymphatic system. My grandfather still had screaming nightmares until the end of his days.

When I was first in the newspaper business they used to have a thing called Vimy Night, at which all the remaining ‘Old Contemptibles’ (as they were called) would lift a few glasses and remember old comrades. There were lots of guys then.

Then Vimy Night in a few years diminished to Vimy Luncheon, and then ultimately to nothing as the last of the Comox Valley vets faded into that “long-long trail.”

I only bring this up because I noticed an item in the newspaper over the weekend that said that only one World War One vet in Canada remained alive, and he is 105.

Now that conflict can truly become ‘history.’ So, ultimately will all others. Issues that seemed so vital at the time may or may not be resolved, but the people who go to serve ultimately are resolved.

My father and his contemporaries served in World War Two. They are old now, and their numbers get fewer.

I grew up during Vietnam. Vietnam vets are becoming geezers. How can that be? They went off listening to the Stones and the Doors, how can they be old? But, they are.

And they’ll someday pass from the scene, too. As will those in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is not a pacifistic screed. Sometime wars must be fought – I guess. But, at the end of it all, you are still left with the question as to whiter it was worth it.

I have no answer for that.