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A veteran’s appreciation tea was held Sunday at the Royal Canadian Legion branch 362 in Saskatoon.
“We do it once a year on veterans week,” said Diane Robson, chair of the Saskatoon poppy campaign.
“It’s just a social afternoon for them, we have a display set up at the back, by a fellow named Rod Dignean, then we will have some musical entertainment for them to enjoy.”
The display consisted of several artifacts including three different uniforms and various military medals, photos and badges.
World War Two veteran, Al Scott, was at the event with his two daughters. He says he enjoys veterans week because it keeps you in tune with what used to happen.
Remembrance day events usually have a strong focus on the world war veterans but often don’t have the same amount of focus on some of the more recent war veterans. Robson says that is something they are trying to change.
“Our Theme for today is, yesterday, today and tomorrow. So for most people when you are thinking of veterans you are thinking of the yesterday veterans, World War one, World War two and Korean war. Our today veterans are more of the Afghanistan, Bosnia and our peacekeepers. Then of course there is tomorrow where we look towards our cadets, whats happening with them and how they may go on with their careers,” she said.
“We are trying to put more focus on the today vets trying to get them more involved and get them more recognition.”
Two Korean war veterans, Jim Dockstader and Jim McKinny, say that it took a long time for them to get recognition for their service but it was a very meaningful experience the first time they were part of a remembrance day service.
“I think the reason for that is [the Korean War] happened so soon after the second world war I don’t think Canadians really wanted to talk about war. And the Korean war really started as a police action, it wasn’t supposed to last long. It lasted three years. It was upgraded to a conflict and then finally upgraded to a war. We lost 514 people in three years which was more than what happened in Iraq in 10 years,” said McKinny.
“I can remember the first service I went to here in Saskatoon, and I was paraded out and I saw all those people in the stands cheering, it was quite a humbling experience.”
It didn’t matter if it was veterans, family members or Legion volunteers, when asked the best way for people to show respect and remembrance, they all had the same answer; wear a poppy and attend a Remembrance Day service.
A remembrance day service is scheduled to be held at the Sasktel Centre at 9 a.m. on Monday, November 11th. It is one of the country’s largest services.