November 11th for us is Everyday

Interviewer: And each year, November 11th, we all take time to reflect. What goes through your mind on that day? You know, what goes through my mind is the same thing every day. It’s not, November 11th for us is every day, seeing our friends face and seeing what the war could do. Some of my friends since I came back killed themselves because of what they saw and the atrocity is always going to be in our eyes. November 11th for any Veteran is every day. The fact we see all those people. One problem I am running with is people are thanking me. I don’t want to be thanked because I made it back, my friend didn’t. For me, most of the time what I wear here, I don’t look at it. You don’t look at your medal because you see a face on the bloody medal. You see a face of a friend who didn’t make it. I wear them because I have no choice but I don’t look at it and I don’t talk about it because it bring back bad memories. But November 11th for us is every day.

Mr. Drapeau shares his thoughts on Remembrance Day.

Daniel Drapeau

Mr. Daniel Drapeau was born September 11, 1957 in Charny, Quebec. After attending high school in Quebec, Mr. Drapeau made the decision to join the Canadian Forces. He held rank of private and became a tank driver with the Armoured Corp. After obtaining his training in Val Cartier, in 1974 Mr. Drapeau accepted deployments to Cyprus and the Middle East. After a year of service, Mr. Drapeau was medically discharged from the Canadian Forces. With the assistance of a service dog, Kenya, Mr. Drapeau maintains a good quality of life finding time to volunteer his service. Mr. Drapeau now resides in Ottawa with his family.