Re: Saving stories of war service.

In reading, Saving stories of war service, I was pleased to see that Lawrence Williams has taken the initiative to retrieve and retain veterans' stories from the war years. Many of us have relatives or friends that served in the wars but have never taken the time to try and record their stories. Collecting and documenting the war memories of veterans will add to our community's collective awareness of some of the most decisive moments of the last century.

The Remembrance Day holiday is a key factor for the preservation of such memories. Although many stories surface at this time of year, I am sure they are just the tip of the iceberg, which rapidly dissipates from memory as the year moves forward.

Focusing on such events and personal experiences should serve to remind us of the reasons behind such momentous events.

Undoubtedly, one of the difficulties in uncovering war stories is that the majority were tragic and have been blocked from memory because of this. Every veteran is entitled to keep his memories to himself and should, by no means, be forced to dredge up memories they would sooner forget. However, even the shared stories slip through our minds and risk never being accurately retold. Often, they regretfully go unrecorded.

This Remembrance Day, I wondered whether remembrance will always favour the conjuring up of unpleasant war memories. Thinking about the past isn't always 'cool' and often does not seem to be relevant to the up-and-coming youth. Maybe it is just me, but it seems that the impression this generation is being left with is, that war is so terrible that no reason or cause justifies it. From the past we see that this is not the case. If this thinking persists, the desire to preserve and record the firsthand war experience will be significantly diminished. This will hinder generations to come from perceiving and avoiding imminent danger.

I want to commend Larry William's initiative and branch #62 of the Royal Canadian Legion for co-operating in this important project.

I strongly agree that we need to preserve war memories and share them for the next generations, so they know why it happened and, hopefully, can either avoid it or, if need be, be ready for it.

Nathan Stoney