Under billowing clouds of an August day in northern France, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial looms over the ridge where Canadian soldiers carved the country its rightful place in the world. Its walls bear the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers killed in France but whose remains were never identified. [Stephen J. Thorne/LM]

Vimy today: A photoessay

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

As far as war monuments go, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial is widely regarded to be among the most magnificent, if not the most.

It is set on the ridge where all four Canadian divisions—100,000 troops—fought together for the first time, won a great victory, and thus staked their country’s place at the table and in the world.

Surrounded by battle-scarred field and forest where trenchworks and shell craters still disfigure the landscape and live ordnance renders much of it impassable, the memorial looms over the Douai Plains of northern France.

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Retired corporal Kate MacEachern takes a break at Kate’s Café in Ballantynes Cove, N.S.

[Annie Bowers]

Canadian veteran talks service at home and in Ukraine

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Retired corporal Kate MacEachern understands the true meaning of service. To the Ballantynes Cove, N.S., native, it meant joining the Canadian Armed Forces in 2005, training as a tanker with Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) until an accident left her with critical head and spinal cord injuries that transformed her military career. Her service, however, continued through to her medical release in 2014, although not even discharge papers could end her dedication to the uniform.

MacEachern has since carried out three charitable walks across large swaths of the country, amounting to more than 5,000 kilometres trekked—all to raise awareness of post-traumatic stress, something she has dealt with herself. In doing so, she has also collected over $100,000 for various military charities and similar institutions.

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The distinctive Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial at the site in northern France where the Newfoundland Regiment was all but wiped out on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. [Stephen J. Thorne/LM]

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STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Time has softened the battlefields of First World War France and Belgium.

The grey-brown mud and deep red blood have surrendered to shades of green and gold, the fields of battle now verdant forests, placid pastures, and crops of corn and grain.

The trenches and craters of 1914-1918 have long since turned to undulating, grass-covered mounds and soft folds and bowl-shaped cavities in the landscapes of places with iconic names like Ypres and Passchendaele, Vimy and the Somme.

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Mike McGlennon, now vice-president of the Persian Gulf Veterans of Canada Association, poses with a comrade during his deployment in the conflict in January 1991. [courtesy of Mike McGlennon]

Persian Gulf War veterans’ fight for “past due” recognition

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“What is a war—and what does Canada consider a war?”

Such questions, and many more, come from former serviceman Mike McGlennon. Rhetorical though they might appear, they’re nevertheless questions that the vice-president of the Persian Gulf Veterans of Canada Association expects the federal government to address—and soon. Already, he adds, answers are well “past due.”

“War” is not in the organization’s name for a reason. Despite the deployment of at least 4,458 Canadian service personnel after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, and despite those same military members later earning battle honours prior to the Feb. 28, 1991, ceasefire, none were legally recognized as “wartime service” veterans, instead attaining a “special duty area” designation.

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