Military veterans share memories of service

Many Canadians commemorated the sacrifices of their armed forces on November 11, Remembrance Day. Whether they attended any of the patriotic observances that mark this annual event, they should remember that many of their friends and neighbors served in the armed forces. The Quoddy Tides spoke to three military veterans from Grand Manan, Campobello and Deer Island about their service.

The experiences of war

Army veteran Lyndon Small of Grand Manan served on the front in Europe during World War II for two years and credits his survival to a group of women back on the home front. "I didn't get wounded. I did well, and I blame that on the ladies of Seal Cove praying for me."

Small signed up for duty in 1942 with fellow Grand Mananers Wally Brown and Harvey Bleumortier as well as Maurice Green of Wood Island. Assigned to the Carleton-York Regiment, Small was sent to England. "Then to Italy. Then to France. I went up through France to Holland and then Germany."

"When I was in Italy, I drove a truck from Naples to Florence, but then they just passed me a rifle and sent me to the front lines," he recalls. "It was quite an experience."

"I saw too many battles," points out Small, who says one his worst experiences was crossing the Rhine River with about 100 other soldiers. "We had no bridge. It had been bombed out. So we had small boats with planks laid sideways for us to step on. All the time, the whole unit was under fire. It was like going over a waterless well. And then we were climbing a hill the whole time."

Small says one of his closest calls came on his first day in Germany. "I'd just gotten ashore when a German shell just buried me alive. I was covered with mud and rocks, but there was no damage."

Shortly before he signed up, Small married Ardis Richardson, and they enjoyed 67 years together before she passed away last November.

"I started a trucking business," says Small of his post-war life. "When the high school was built in 1947, I did most of the trucking. Then I drove the bus for 34 years until I retired."

The duty to serve

William Allison Darke of Lambertville, Deer Island, spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy, signing up back in 1965. "I chose the U.S. Navy because I felt it had more to offer me than the Canadian Navy and that I could actually get into what I wanted to get into C engineering."

"I wanted to learn the auxiliary side of engineering," he recalls. "I went on a destroyer tender, and a second class machinist mate asked me a couple of questions, and I answered them correctly." By his second year of machinist school, Darke was taking care of laundry equipment, air conditioning, refrigeration and the main engines in whatever vessel to which he was assigned. "About 15 of us out of [a crew of] 800 were machinists or machinist mates."

Another reason Darke enlisted with a branch of the U.S. armed forces was "I saw all these people during the Vietnam era coming to Canada from the U.S., and that bothered me."

Darke stayed in the Navy for "20 years, three days" and retired on April 24, 1985. He hadn't planned on returning to Deer Island but had married a Tennessee woman, and when Wilma Mae saw his island home, "she fell in love with it." The Darkes moved to Lambertville, and Wilma passed away four years ago.

On Remembrance Day, Darke usually goes to the cenotaph at Deer Island Point. "I've always believed it's the duty of everyone to serve when they're needed. I've never believed in someone shirking their duties."

Keeping the memories alive

Omer Brunet of Campobello, who founded the Royal Canadian Legion branch on the island, spent many years in military service. The Ontario native signed up for the Royal Canadian Air Force back in 1960 and was stationed in many places before his retirement 20 years later. "I was in Elmer, Ontario, and then [Canadian Forces Base] Greenwood, Nova Scotia, from 1961 to 1963. From 1963 to 1967 I served over in Europe C in Germany. In 1967 I was stationed at [CFB] Trenton, Ontario, for three years, then [Canadian Forces Station] Val d'Or, Quebec, in 1970 for four years."

Brunet was assigned to CFB Cornwallis, N.S., until 1977 when he went back to St. Jean, Quebec, until his retirement in 1980. Although he was born and raised in Ontario, he met Campobello native Sandra Tinker in Europe where she was serving as a medic, and they married. "On my first visit to Campobello, I said, 'I love this place!'" recalls Brunet. "I've been a lot of places, but this was special."

The Brunets are parents of two daughters and a son, and the latter is currently serving in the Canadian Navy.

"I started the Legion here in 1981, so I've been very active in it," says Brunet of the branch which currently has seven regular members and six associate members. "I love it."

"People need to keep the memory alive of the veterans who have served, but also remember the boys serving now. They are fighting for the liberties we enjoy today."