{Snapped at Maupertuis Airfield, France, this photo shows Lt. Col. Oris B. Johnson standing in cockpit of a plane with an eye-catching nose art design that says "No love! No nothing", though somehow I doubt that was entirely true of a man such as in uniform.}
{In this image from February of 1944 we see a Canadian solider on leave back in Canada standing with his wife two young children in Hamilton, Ontario. I can't help but think how bitter sweet times like this must have been for families, who, while elated to see their son/husband/father again, were also stricken with worry over the fact that they'd soon be returning to active duty.}
{Integral to the war effort back home, thousands upon thousands of women - such as this 1942 trio who are diligently working on the front end of fighter plane - took part in military related factory work during WW2.}
{A young sailor poses with a little girl in this sweet image. Given that the chap scarcely looks like he's out of boyhood himself, I suspect the girl was likely his sister or perhaps a cousin, not his own daughter. Whatever their relation to one another, they certainly make for a heartwarming pair.}
{Though time has had its way with the colours in this shot, the image itself is still in tact and one can instantly spot that this man, identified as Lt. Edward William Gibbons, is recovering from an injury - a bullet wound, the Flickr poster tells us – obtained in battle.}
{Payday on a Navy cruiser - though one cannot put a price on the incredibly hard work and ceaseless courage of those who served during the war, military personnel of course received a regular salary, much of which many of them often sent back home to help support loved ones during their absence.}
{Whether on the home front or abroad with the troops, nurses - such as this young woman hard at work at the Baxter Lab in Glenview, Ill. - played an invaluable role in the war effort of both the Great War and WW2.}
{While there is, unequivocally, nothing glamorous about war, that doesn't that women during the war years were restricted from looking as glam and gorgeous as all get out - even with rations on everything from stockings to rubber swimming caps. Case in point, these two curly haired 1940s lasses and their equally sharp looking Navy beaus.}
{Three female factory workers drilling a wing bulkhead for a transport plane at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas during October of 1942. I love that even though one, of course, had to adhere to strict clothing/uniform regulations for the sake safety, women still found little ways to inject style and a sense of femininity into their outfits - such as the gal in the middle with her cute hair bow.}
{Whether before being deployed, during the war (such as when home on leave), or immediately afterwards, thousands of couples (such as this handsome pair from 1945) made a point of tying the knot while one - or both - of them was on active military duty, even with the worrisome uncertainty that the future held in store. }
{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image,
please click on it to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}
Firmly, adamantly, and with great conviction, I believe in peace. Yet, it would be foolhardy and naive to say that that there are not times when war may become necessary. This is not a pretty thought. It is a harsh truth, and though (I feel) far too many nations have rushed into war needlessly, there have been times when the fate of a nation - if not humanity - as a whole called for great men and women to defend the rights, freedoms, and very existence of our species.
The twentieth century was plagued by wars both big and small, and few places on the globe remained truly untouched by the effects of these horrific battles. One might have thought that the First World War, the so-called war to end all wars, would live up to its nickname, but tragically, it did not, and just a couple of decades later, huge chunks of the planet once again saw battle and bloodshed of an almost unimaginably awful magnitude.
Like many people today, I have relatives (one of my paternal great-grandfathers and his brother) who fought in WW2. Both men were in the Canadian Military, however unlike many of their brothers-in-arms, these two had been born in Germany, immigrating to Canada, and becoming Canadians, with their paraents when they were young boys.
Little was ever spoken about my great-grandfather, who passed long before I was born, or of his time in the service. I have no idea how he felt about the war as a whole, if part of him was torn between his homeland and the adopted country for which he was defending, nor if ever thought about how likely it would have been that he'd have ended up fighting for Germany if he had grown up there instead on Canadian soil.
I wish he was still here today so I could talk to him about all of these things and many more, but he's long gone and no one else ever seemed to ask such things, so responses to these questions- much like that of why humans still feel compelled to start wars at - remain largely unanswered.
What I do know is that war changed him, and that, like so many who had experienced life in the thick of the battle, his character was forever altered (and not for the better) by what he had witnessed, carried out, and survived. The same was true for countless other soldiers and civilians alike on both sides. It always is. Times and reasons by change, but ultimately the events and repercussions of war remain the same.
Tomorrow, November 11th, is Remembrance Day, a solemn, dignified time in which we reflect back on all those who fought - whether, like my great-grandpa they came home again to waiting loved ones, or like his brother, they became a memory while on the battlefield - and served our country so that we, and all those innocent civilians in other countries, too, could once again know freedom and peace.
I can never thank these brave men and women enough. I have had the profound honour of experiencing peace firsthand my whole life in very large part because of the valiant efforts, unyielding courage, and the fact that they knew that sometimes you have fight in the name of all that you believe is right, in order to achieve it.
