Master Corporal Jared Archibald and Cadet Caleb Reurink, with Corps 2618, place flags on graves of vets interred in the City’s Memorial Park Cemetary        250News photo

Prince George, BC – With fewer war veterans available to speak with them, it is now events that really bring the meaning of honouring and remembering ‘home’ to young people…

Today, members of Cadet Corps 2618 took part in a Flag Placement ceremony at the City’s Memorial Park Cemetary, carefully marking the gravesites of local veterans with a small Canadian flag.

Cemetary Manager, Sandy Hewitson, and Caretaker, Linda Wilson, have been placing the flags in preparation for Remembrance Day for years.  And Wilson says she’s pleased the cadets are now involved, "It brings to mind for the young people just how many vets are in here and we feel the flags are a huge part of it."

Officer Cadet, Gary Archibald, agrees, "It’s these events that start to carry the message."  With no remaining WWI vets, and many WWII vets, like his uncle, now in their 90s, Archibald says it’s difficult for the younger cadets to really get a ‘feel’ for what Remembrance Day means.  "Anything we can do to improve that means a great deal."

Archibald had a very personal connection to today’s ceremony with a flag being placed at his father’s grave. 

Leonard Archibald was a veteran of World War II, going off to war in 1940 and receiving a compassionate discharge as the war ended in 1945 to return home when his wife was place in a sanitarium for tuberculosis.

He was a subconductor in the Royal Canadian Ordinance Corps.  His son says proudly it was a very rare rank with just three such officers in the Canadian Army at any one time.

Each cadet paused a moment after placing a flag and saluted the individual being recognized.  Fourteen-year-old Caleb Reurink says the morning made honouring veterans who fought and died for our country very ‘real’ for him. 

The cadets will gather again at the cemetary for a Church Parade on November 3rd, along with the RCMP, members of the Royal Canadian Legion, and a contingent from the Rocky Mountain Rangers Reserve Corp.  This will be the third year for the event, with large flags lining the road inside the cemetary, and a parade to Memorial Rock to ‘honour the vets in their place’.  The parade is open to the public and Wilson is hopeful city residents will stop in to observe, "It’s a beautiful display and it would be nice to have more and more people come out to it."