The poster for Veterans' Week 2020 (Veterans Affairs Canada)

By Justin Goulet

Recognizing their sacrifice: Veterans’ Week starts today

Nov 5, 2020 | 7:05 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Today marks the start of Veterans’ Week.

As a lead-up to Remembrance Day on November 11, people across the country are asked to stop and reflect on the sacrifices of veterans, their families and loved ones.

Retired Warrant Officer Glenn Miller, who volunteers with the Lethbridge Legion, spoke with Lethbridge News Now on the importance of recognizing the services of all those involved in the armed forces, past and present.

He put a focus on younger generations learning about the sacrifices of wartime heroes.

“It’s important to just start thinking about it [remembrance] because there are many activities that can be done year-round, but for school-aged children; they start talking about remembrance,” Miller told LNN.

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“We’ve just completed Halloween and have dealt with the sugar rush now, so now we can kind of start focusing on the acts of remembrance – why do we even stop and pause to remember? This opportunity throughout the week; you’ll see in a variety of [media] dealing with the military, so it just gears up towards the culmination on Remembrance Day.”

Miller suggested local residents visit the Lethbridge Military Museum, located by the Lethbridge Airport.

“Outside is a courtyard [and] recently, a number of guns and equipment have been re-allocated in a courtyard atmosphere,” he said.

READ MORE: New temporary display and courtyard renovations unveiled at Lethbridge Military Museum

“A poppy is the focal point of a cobblestone area [of the courtyard] and on the outside [around the poppy] is a bunch of stones in memory of veterans for the museum. People can even purchase that [a stone] for $150 if they would like to do a tribute to a family member.”

The poppy design in the courtyard of the military museum (Lethbridge News Now)

More information on purchasing a Legacy Stone can be found through the Lethbridge Military Museum’s website.

In addition to the courtyard, a temporary display was revealed at the museum last month, honouring this year’s 75^th anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands and end of World War Two.

The temporary display honoring the Liberation of the Netherlands (Lethbridge News Now)

“The area that’s on display was also the area [where for] the first time, the Canadian army used surface-to-surface rockets and the unit that used it actually came from Lethbridge – it was the 112^th Battery…as the war advanced and technology advanced, they retrained into rockets for a number of months and that was the first time rockets were employed by the Canadian army to great effect,” Miller remarked.

VETERANS CAN BE ANY AGE

Miller added that with it being Veterans’ Week, he wants to dispel a common assumption that all veterans are in the senior age range. However, that’s not always the case but there is a reason that assumption is sometimes made.

“Historically, after the First World War, veterans were in the younger population,” Miller told LNN.

“Then we had the Second World War and those people who participated were younger people for the most part, but as they grew older and we remember more, that whole demographic aged and always will continue to age. We’ve had people post-Korea who are a veteran and they’re getting older as time goes by. I never consider myself old [as a veteran], so I try to tell my kids that yes, I’m a veteran.”

Miller encourages everyone that when they drive by someone with a veteran’s license plate, to try and take note of who is driving that vehicle, saying it could be an old person, or it could be someone in their early 20s.

More on Veterans’ Week can be found through the Veterans Affairs Canada website.