Category: Military

’nuff said

On the 18th of February 2010, Master Corporal John H. F. Babcock, the last surviving Canadian veteran of the First World War, passed away at his home in Spokane, Washington.  He was 109 years old.

With the passing of Mr. Babcock, there are now only 3 remaining WWI veterans in the world, two British and one American.  In November 2006, Parliament voted unanimously to accord a state funeral for him as the last Canadian veteran of the war, but Babcock declined.

As a nation, we honour his service and mourn his passing.  The passing of Mr. Babcock marks the end of an era.

His family mourns the passing of a great man. Canada mourns the passing of the generation that asserted our independence on the world stage and established our international reputation as an unwavering champion of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

-Prime Minister Stephen Harper

May he rest in peace.

Where to begin with this one?

The sordid tale of Col. Russell Williams is starting to read like one of the more poorly written episodes of Law & Order, or maybe NCIS, take your pick. As bad as what he’s accused of is, the slime that some of our media outlets have been excreting over the whole affair might even be worse.

Let me get something straight to start off with; and I’m speaking here as someone who’s actually worn the uniform and is in no damned mood for any excuses from any quarter. (more…)

…Always a soldier.

[This was originally posted on December 17, 2006 and now I make a habit of dusting it off every year at this time. It wasn’t written by me; my son wrote it (most of it, anyway) and today’s the best day to let everyone have another look at it. So kick back and enjoy, and I’ll say it again: Edward, you did one heck of a good job.]

Aside from the not-so-occasional “I told you so” that I rather enjoy beating Lefties over the head with, I’m not much one for tooting my own horn. I do not, however, have any problem at all with bragging up my boy.

Elementary school ain’t what it used to be, what with some of the useless feel-good social engineering crap that they try to to cram down kids’ throats these days. It seems sometimes like nothing of real value, especially history, gets taught anymore. But I’m not going to be ranting about that right now. Nope. Nosiree. Because when it came time to pick a project, my boy didn’t have to “get stuck” with anything. He chose his own topic and not only am I proud of his choice, I think he did pretty darned good at it, too.

Yeah, yeah; proud dad = BIG surprise, I know. 🙄 But here it is in its entirety, nonetheless. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

[And before anybody wonders, “how much of this did dad do,” the answer is: not too darn much. My part consisted of helping look up specific info and offering suggestions on spelling and grammar; some of which he took, some he didn’t. After all, this is his project and so they are his decisions and he takes responsibility for them. There’s more to be learned here than just history. 😉 I also added the graphics and links that appear in this post but are not in his essay, just to spice up the page a bit. The rest, and the credit for it, is all his.] (more…)

Plopped down with no comment because I don’t have time for anything lately…