I had to share this.
For those of you who don't know, the bodies of fallen Canadian Soldiers are repatriated to the air base in Trenton, Ontario, and driven to Toronto, Ontario for a final autopsy. Even in death, these fine men and women continue to give, by teaching our medical community about the damage done and possibly better ways to treat the wounded.
The stretch of highway between Trenton and Toronto that the fallen soldiers and their families travel has been legally re-named by our government "The Highway Of Heroes". It is roughly a 2 hours trip by car. By tradition, all other vehicles pull off and the procession passes unhindered, and every single overpass, and the streets of Toronto along the route, are filled with people wearing red, holding flags, honouring the fallen, and offering support to the ones left behind.
Every single time.
An American Vietnam vet I know broke down and cried when I showed him a video clip of one of our boys coming home for the final time; his comment was if they had received a reception anywhere close to that, there might be a whole lot more of them still around now.
May 14, 2010 — "Highway of Heroes", was co-written and co-produced by The Trews and Gordie Johnson (Big Sugar) and was inspired by the 2006 death of Captain Nichola Goddard from The Trews' hometown of Antigonish, NS. Canada's Highway of Heroes, is the section of the MacDonald-Cartier freeway named to honour those who have sacrificed all in service of country. The single will be available on iTunes as of May 18th and net proceeds from sales will benefit the Canadian Hero Fund (www.herofund.ca), an organization that assists the families of Canadian military personnel through academic scholarships.
The video was directed by Tim Martin.
Monday, May 17, 2010
1 comment:
I can see from StatCounter that some of you are trying to comment, but those comments are not making it through. I was unable to comment on Blogs while using Internet Explorer; I had to switch to Google Chrome.
I love hearing your thoughts, and do publish everything that isn't spam.
If you are having trouble, you can also e-mail me: wolfandcrowblog (at) yahoo (dot) ca
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Add a few more tear drops from a vet of that era. That is a great video and a wonderful tribute by the Canadian government. And I agree with my brother Nam vet, our guys deserve better treatment.
ReplyDeleteI served with many good men, some were assholes, some were funny, some were very talented in art and playing musical instruments. But they were all serving a bigger cause and they deserved the respect for doing the hard stuff while other pussies stayed home or ran to Canada (nothing against your country - just the ones who ran.)
They changed the flag rules in the US and a veteran can salute the flag now instead of putting his hand over his heart. I do! And I know when there is a hero burial in my area and I am on the side of the road saluting, too. Just my simple way of saying thanks.
I appreciate you, too, for how you handle yourself and your support for your country.