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Remembrance Day

Heroes Remember

Transcript
Well, we go up to the war memorial and it’s a very touching moment, you know. I had a very good friend, Vic Starr, and uh, Vic went missing during the war in the air force. We think he went down in the Channel somewhere, you know. I think about him. I think about those paper boys and other fellas I’ve known over the years, you know, yeah. It’s a very touching day for us. Not that I don’t think about these people throughout the year, I do, but it’s all brought together at that time, all brought together, yeah. Then we go down to the war museum and we talk to people. I know a lot of the fellas say “Oh, forget about it, you know, It’s past!” You can’t, you can’t.. You get up in the morning and you think about some little incident, you go to bed at night, you think about some little incident. Just might pass through your mind but he’s always with you, it’s always with you. But then you take a 17 year old boy and you make him a man overnight. I know raising my sons, I have three sons, when they reached that teenage rebellious age, you know, 16-17, it was very foreign to me because at 17 I was suddenly a man.
Description

Mr. Bowen describes the emotional impact that Remembrance Day has on him and discusses how the war robbed him of his youth.

Gerald Bowen

Gerald R. Bowen was born in Ottawa, Ontario on October 13, 1925. He attended Lisgard High School, and was a paperboy. His family had prior military experience. His uncle had served in the Air Force and his father in the Army, later becoming an historian with the Department of National Defence. Mr. Bowen enlisted in the Navy where he became a telegrapher, serving aboard a Royal Canadian Navy frigate on convoy duty in the North Atlantic until the war ended. He left the service for a brief time and re-enlisted in the Canadian Army, where he became a paratrooper and a specialist in sabotage. He later served as a peacekeeper in Cyprus. Mr. Bowen’s extensive experience in the Canadian military offers us some very informative and perceptive anecdotes.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
1:59
Person Interviewed:
Gerald Bowen
War, Conflict or Mission:
Canadian Armed Forces
Branch:
Army
Units/Ship:
Royal 22e Régiment
Rank:
Major

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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