There can never be enough said or done to honour veterans of war.

[kickingfrog]

http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3354222

 

Veterans photos. stories featured in book

By DAVE DALE The Nugget

Updated 2:00pm

There can never be enough said or done to honour veterans of war.

 

But there can always be more and the book, 'Honour' published by Chartwell Seniors Housing does a good job of capturing the essence of why Canadians enlisted for military service seven decades ago and how the experience shaped their lives.

 

Frank Kelly, 87, of Barclay House on Chippewa Street, would have fit right in with the stories documented by photographer Yuri Dojc as he travelled across the country meeting veterans coast-to-coast. Proceeds of the book and DVD released this year go toward organizations committed to the remembrance of Canadian veterans, including the War Amps Operation Legacy.

 

Kelly was 17-years-old and not quite finished high school at Scollard Hall when he joined up in 1942. He was shipped around for training at various bases in Canada, eventually landing in England and assigned to the Royal Air Force during the summer of 1943.

 

He served 44 missions dropping bombs from Lancasters with two RAF units, one mission shy of finishing his second tour.

 

"It was certainly interesting," Kelly said Tuesday.

 

His job was to aim through a sight and drop the bombs while also manning the front gun turret if attacked in flight.

 

While none of the big Lancaster bombers he was flying in were shot down, the front Plexi-glass cone in the front was blown out twice and they dodged shrapnel more than once.

 

Kelly wears his medals to honour his many friends who didn't make it back from the war.

 

"It's more or less to honour all the people I knew in the war," he said, describing how many of the friends he grew up with in North Bay went to war and never came back. "The medals are just a way of honouring them."

 

Kelly was among the lucky ones to survive and return to start careers and raise families.

 

After finishing high school with extra courses at the North Bay Normal School — now the local office for the Ministry of Corrections — he attended the University of Toronto to become a mining engineer.

 

He worked for Inco in Sudbury for decades before returning to North Bay in 1988 for retirement. Two of his daughters live here and visit him at Barclay House often. He has 13 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren to keep him busy as well.

 

Kelly will be on hand at the Barclay House Ladies Auxiliary tea Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. to share his experience. Members of the public are welcome to attend for $3 and copies of the 'Honour' book will be available for sale at $10 each.

 

Barclay House is at 600 Chippewa St. West.

 

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[craigdritchie]

We owe our vets - all of them - a debt that can never be repaid. Saying "thank you" doesn't seem anywhere near enough, but it's the very least we can do.

[aplumma]

Actually as a vet thank you is enough in my eyes. I signed up to protect the rights of everyone and even offered to lose my life to fight for freedom of all nations that my Commander and Chief deemed in need of our help. I did not do it for glory nor for people to stop me on the street and thank me I did it because it was what I believed in. I am lucky and while I was trained to fight I was not called into battle but it was something that could have occurred. If you see a Vet thank him for his fight to give you the freedoms you have and for the ability to sleep well in a free country. Take the time to listen to his stories if you are lucky enough to be blessed with them for we are doomed to repeat the past if the future does not heed the voices that endured the past.

 

 

Art

[bigugli]

Show up at the Cenotaph on the 11th hour of the 11th day.

 

Take the time to look into your family's past, you'll find a veteran there to remember.

[Billy Bob]

[mercman]

Great tribute KF

 

Dad was a Master Warrant Officer in the Royal Canadian Electrical Mechanical Engineers.(RCEME) He spent 13 months in Korea,following the infantry and artillery, maintaining and repairing the equipment on the frontlines.He saw alot of action, and cleaned up alot of blood from his fellow soldiers while there.He was proud to serve his country, but seldom spoke of his ordeal in Korea.

I had an Uncle who sacriced his life for us on Vimmy Ridge in WWI, and another who landed on Juno Beach,and survived, only to spend his life in an institution, victim of shell shock and PTSS.

Dad volunteered to participate in the early testing of Agent Orange in Gagetown, back in the 60's in the hopes it would help end Vietnam sooner.The effects of this, cost him his life.

 

All were proud soldiers, all wouldnt change a thing in thier lives.

 

God Bless them all.

 

Paul

Edited November 3, 2011 by mercman

[Paulus]

Agreed. I was lucky enough to know a gentleman who was part of HQ for the Queen's Own Rifles, and who was in Normandy on D Day. He passed away 10 years ago, doing what he loved, but I learned a lot from him while he was alive. It was through him that I came to understand how little so many of us know about the many incredible contributions of the canadian military in history. You're right. We can never thank them (you) enough.

 

p.-