Snaps Diary

A Veteran speaks out

Published on November 11, 2005 By snapdragonxx In Life Journals

Some call it Veterans Day. Some call it Rememberance Day. Some Call it Armistice Day.

The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month.

Soldiers both old and current of every nation remember this day with pride, sorrow and loss. This is THEIR day. This is the day that both old and new memories come back and haunt our minds. Of lost friends and places. of humour and sorrow. Of grief and laughter.

I'm a former soldier who has lost close friends in combat - many of them. At this time of year their faces haunt my sleep, their untroubled laughter rings in my ears in the dead of night and their freely given friendship and comradeship in troubled times long lost and deeply missed. Young men through their choice of doing what they thought was right and by their own free will gave their lives so others might have just that little more self-determination and freedom of choice to live their lives as they wish to live them.

I look in the mirror on a morning and see an older face that does need a shave. In my mind I see lots of young faces of lost friends. Their faces over the years, unlike mine, hasn't grown old. These are the men and boys who never got to live a long and fulfilling life.

Should I waffle on about how much is owed to these men both living and dead by those alive today? I think not because a picture is worth a thousand words.. maybe more.

For those reading this who visit Europe and for those reading this that live in Europe there are places both large and small that are the final resting place for many a brave man and youth and I urge you to visit these places and take a moment or two to feel the quiet dignity of these places. You might find an old soldier in there visiting his firends who didn't come back and he will more than likely be weeping.

I leave you with my own photo of the final resting places of 1754 Airborne trooops at the Military Cemetery at Oosterbeeck near Arnhem who died during Operation Market Garden, 1944.

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