Battlefords veteran advocates for remembering their service

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“We all enjoy our freedoms that we have today because of people that served in the military,” he said.

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Tim Popp and his unit in the Canadian Armed Forces. (submitted/Tim Popp)

Joining the Armed Forces in 1976, Popp was stationed with light infantry, training for multiple tasks, including the operation of heavy machine guns. During his three years of service, he spent six months in Cypress, as a deterrent to tensions there. The decision to serve was an easy one.

“We all volunteered to go there, the whole unit,” Popp said. “We were there to keep the peace.”

“It was so hot you could fry an egg on the tin roof of the observation tower at our post.”

Popp later went on to serve in the RCMP for over 26 years and has been heavily involved with the Legion as well. He said it’s nice to see people continuing to wear poppies, but also hopes people take the time to really reflect on who their ancestors were.

“You have to sit back and think about who this guy was, as a farm kid, a fisherman from Nova Scotia or a miner from the Yukon,” he said. “They were from all over [Canada], but they all decided what’s going on in Europe isn’t right.”

Popp said it’s critical to sit down with veterans from World War 2 right now, since there are few of them left. While he didn’t see combat, former peacekeeper remembers stories from his uncles, one of whom shared harrowing descriptions of seeing a grisly scene of a Nazi death camp.

“They went to deal with issues that were causing world strife,” he said. “When they came back, they had to [struggle] to assimilate back to civilian life. So we need to show them respect for that.”

And in sitting down with veterans, Popp stressed that everyone must have patience.

“We have to listen to them and talk to them, but let them discuss things when they’re ready,” he said.

“The first thing a lot of them will say is let’s not have any more wars. Let’s have those fights with boxing gloves [instead].”

You can see the live stream of the North Battleford Remembrance Day ceremony here.

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josh.ryan@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @JoshRyanSports