“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.”
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae

I anticipate that War is always a tricky subject, I even suspect that some people might find the act of Remembrance offensive.



I do not speak lightly of those involved in War efforts. I myself am in the application stages to become an RAF Air Traffic Controller. My father was a Royal Engineer. My Uncle served in the Royal Air Force in the Falklands. My cousin and his wife have just returned from their posting in Afghanistan.
They came back. And I am thankful everyday of this.



But so many did not come back. Remembrance or Veterans Day is not a day of bitterness for those still fighting. It is a mirror that we should hold high to reflect the price paid by those that did.



No Servicemen or Women ever chose their conflicts. And we dishonour them by forgetting this or forgetting them.

“They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We will remember them.”
-- Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)