Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day or Veteran's Day if you are not in Canada.  It is an important day to me.  Today, I wear the poppy over my heart and I think about all the men and women who have served for their country.  Some of them have lost their lives fighting in wars overseas, others have made it home and all of them deserve our respect.

Remembrance Day, to me, is a day to remember the sacrifices that veterans made for us and to be thankful for everything that they did.

Everyone, regardless of where you live, knows a veteran.  I have known several throughout my life but one that really means a lot to me is Colin McClelland.  He was the co-founder of RAFM, which was one of the first miniature manufacturers for gaming.  I grew up with Colin, who was and is my dad's best friend.  They have known each other since they were kids.

When the Vietnam war broke out, as soon as he was old enough to enlist, Colin went down to the States and enlisted in the US Marine Corp.  He fought in Vietnam, not because he had to, but because he thought it was the right thing for him to do.  He  was injured in Vietnam.  First by a concussion grenade that caused internal bleeding and the second time when he took a gunshot wound to the shoulder.  The bullet traveled through his shoulder where it bounced off his shoulder blade and exited out his neck.  The helicopter that came to medivac him out was shot down with him in it and he had to continue fighting for 8 hours (+) with the wound as they waited for evac.

I grew up hearing about some of his stories, many he kept to himself but some of them trickled out over the years.  It is through him that I found my love military history and it is him that I often think about on Remembrance Day.

So I want to end this but simply saying thank you to all our veterans, all the soldiers we have lost and all the soldiers that are fighting right now.