Veterans identified and honoured in Medicine Hat ceremony

Veterans who antecedently laid beneath nan ungraded without a headstone person now been honoured pinch a imperishable remembrance of their service.

2024 is nan centennial twelvemonth for nan Royal Canadian Air Force, yet Canadian soldiers still served successful nan skies earlier 1924.

Harry Dobbin was calved connected Sept. 2, 1897, successful Vancouver. In 1919, while serving pinch nan Royal Air Force, nan precursor to nan RCAF, Dobbins died connected nan one-year day of nan First World War ending.

His assemblage was brought to Medicine Hat, Alta., wherever his family resided. Upon being buried successful Hillside Cemetery, Dobbins’ assemblage remained without a tombstone.

Over a period later, this has changed.

On Thursday, nan Last Post Fund held a ceremonial honouring Dobbin and 13 different soldiers who received long-overdue nickname for their service.

Glenn Miller is simply a retired Warrant Officer and he presently serves arsenic president for nan Alberta and Northwest Territories branch of nan Last Post Fund. He says it is an honour to springiness these fallen soldiers their well-deserved headstones.

“We do everything because of 3 elemental words: Lest we forget,” said Miller.

A sedate marker offers remembrance for a fallen soldier, moreover though it whitethorn beryllium decades aft their passing.

“Who advocates for a seasoned (who) has nary voice? That’s what we effort to do done our mislaid veterans initiative… to extremity up pinch that stone, truthful their sound is ever publication erstwhile personification walks by that stone,” said Miller.

Some veterans are near pinch thing to retrieve them by erstwhile they walk away, leaving a situation for those hoping to place them.

“I deliberation nan longest I ever looked for a seasoned was a small complete 8 years,” said Yvonne Sugimoto, a unpaid interrogator pinch nan Last Post Fund.

She says her activity is unwavering because each chartless and unmarked worker has a communicative worthy telling.

“Often times, nan graves that (my colleague) and I are researching, nan men were azygous and they died acold from location pinch nary 1 who cared astir them. So, that’s why their graves aren’t marked.”

In galore cases, nan graves were marked, but pinch unsustainable materials that person since disintegrated complete nan years, decades and centuries.

“These folks would person been honoured pinch wood crosses, which was nan modular astatine nan time. But, we cognize wood deteriorates complete time, truthful this gives a much imperishable spot to retrieve without having it get mislaid to nan ages of time,” said Justin Wright, MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat.

The Last Post Fund operates disconnected donations for their services. The authorities grants 600 tombstones each year, though location are thousands much still waiting to beryllium recognized.