My Favorite Veteran

My dad loved freedom and wide open spaces. He was born in Ontario, Canada in 1890.  In his late teens he worked his way across Canada wrangling and taming horses, until he ended up in northern Wyoming. When World War I broke out, he tried to enlist in the US Army, but failed the physical because of an old eye injury.  Because freedom was so important to him, he returned to the land of his birth and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army where he served in the Canadian Railway Construction Corp.  When the war was over, he returned to Wyoming and enlisted in the National Guard until his discharge in 1924. He knew that freedom was worth fighting for even when obstacles were thrown in his way.

In Flanders Fields 

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) 

Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow 

Between the crosses row on row, 

That mark our place; and in the sky 

The larks, still bravely singing, fly 

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago 

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 

Loved and were loved, and now we lie 

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: 

To you from failing hands we throw 

The torch; be yours to hold it high. 

If ye break faith with us who die 

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 

In Flanders fields.