*** Cross Posted from my Blog. See below for the link ***
War themed first-person shooters (FPS) are more popular than ever. In fact, the Call of Duty series are the post popular games in the history of the FPS genre. But how many of us know our history or will take time to remember the sacrifices of the men and women who gave their lives for our freedom in the World Wars?
My paternal grandfather Frank was a field medic at the bloody battle for Vimy Ridge in 1917. He returned to the second world war as a surgeon in the Canadian army. I never knew him, but I can only imagine the horrors he witnessed. No video game can or should attempt to capture that.
My maternal grandfather Gerald S. died ten years ago this spring. He was the bravest man IaEU(tm)ve ever known. Gerald fought proudly overseas with the Pictou Highlanders of Nova Scotia from January, 1942 through to the end of the war. Gerald drove munitions trucks to the front lines of heavy combat in Italy before contracting malaria. But this didnaEU(tm)t get him sent home.
Gerald recovered on a hospital ship in the Mediterranean and was redeployed to France, where he found himself driving trucks through Belgium, the Netherlands and into Nazi Germany. Gerald was part of the occupation force in Berlin until October 1945. In the last years of his life, he related stories to me of things he saw in Berlin that no human being should ever have to experience. My grandmother told me he was never the same after the war.
Your new Call of Duty is to turn off your PC or Xbox on November 11 at 11:00 am and observe a moment of silence for those who fought real wars so that you can enjoy the luxury of leisure time virtual combat. Better yet, go to your local cenotaph for the memorial service. The game can wait for a few hours.
Take time to remember. Lest we forget.
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
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Excellent suggestion. My father fought in the South Pacific and was part of the first troops that entered Japan after the surrender. He would never talk much about the war. I remember as a kid that we could only eat baked beans when Dad was out of town, as he would not eat them. Said he ate them too many times during the war. A very powerful book that is well worth reading is "The Greatest Generation Speaks" by Tom Brokaw. It's been awhile since I read it, but I cried several times while reading it. My parents were raised during a deep Depression that lasted nearly until the war started, then went through their teens or 20's in battle, or waiting at home for notices of the death of friends and loved ones, while living life based on ration stamps. When I was trying to get my son out of WoW, there were days I wished I could fly him to France and stand on Omaha Beach and tell him that this is what real combat is all about. Maybe someday I will.
"Small service is true service while it lasts. Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,
Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun." -------William Wordsworth
My father was born in 1915, during World War I, in what later became north-eastern Poland (at the time, Poland temporarily did not even exist as a country!). When World War II started, he was taken as a prisoner to a concentration camp in Siberia. However, when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, he was released and joined the Polish Free Corps that were supported (e.g., with supplies) by the British. He fought the Germans and Italians through several middle East countries and in Italy. On the other hand, my mother was born in 1932, also in north-eastern Poland. As such, she was only 7 years old when the war started and she suffered under German war-time occupation for about 6 years. Neither one of them talked very much about their experiences to me or my brothers, but I can imagine that they both saw and experienced atrocities that I can only imagine and be grateful that I have not had the misfortune to endure or even see myself. This is one of the reasons that I wear the poppy every year, to show that I remember the sacrifices made by our soldiers on our behalf. I fully concur with bgh's suggestion to at least turn off your video game to have a moment of silence in remembrance.
- John O.
[em]Carpe Diem![/em] (Seize the Day!)
thank u for remembering vets. war or "conflicts" is no game.no matter how "real" games claim it its not. no rebooting. =(
Take the first step in faith. You donaEU(tm)t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.
~Bob Newhart
The minute you alter your perception of yourself and your future, both you and your future begin to change. ~Marilee Zdenek
What's a Cenotaph?
"There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative." --W. Clement Stone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenotaph
"Small service is true service while it lasts. Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,
Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun." -------William Wordsworth
A moment to remember is a great idea, i'm about to buy a poppy myself soon. My Grandfather was at Dunkirk in world war 2, he was in France as part of an artillery regiment but he lost most of his friends there. He moved to train for piloting after that tragedy, otherwise he says he would of been promoted, which was on offer at the time. His eyesight wasn't good enough so he began training Australian navigators and met my grandma at his new post, flying missions as a navigator in between training sessions. It was fortunate he moved to the airforce because his regiment was eventually involved in what in his words, was the bloodiest battle of the war, which after being in Dunkirk is saying something, The Battle of Monte Cassino, many people from his home city were lost in that battle.
A brilliant idea. Both my grandfathers were born in 1906 and I know that they were both deployed during WW2. Shame that I never asked them about it before they passed on. Will definietely switch off at 11:00am tomorrow. Then I will ask my parents for stories from the grandads.
There is only one Canadian WW 1 veteran left. He's 107 years old and completed his high school diploma at age 95. We should remember that when we get down in our recovery and think there's nothing we can do to better ourselves. This same man plans to "take a college course because you can never be too **** smart."
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
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