The time to honour our nation's soldiers and their sacrifices is upon us.
And a 30-year veteran in Chatham is hoping some additional education this year will help local residents to better appreciate the sacrifices that are commemorated on Remembrance Day.
First of all, Legion Branch 642 President Len Maynard is reminding local residents that Remembrance Day falls on November 11 for a reason.
"The eleventh month, the eleventh day, the eleventh hour is when the guns fell silent, bringing the end of the First World War. That's when the armistice happened and eventually we adopted that as our Remembrance Day," he said.
But Remembrance Day isn't just about remembering the World Wars. It's also a time to honour and remember modern-day veterans like Maynard, who began his 30-year military career at the age of 17.
"I did the first decade of my service as an Infanteer," Maynard explained. "Served in the Royal Canadian Regiment, the Essex and Kent Scottish, and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI). And then I took a trade and I became a military firefighter for the next two decades. Because I was an Air Force firefighter, I had to do time on ship."
After he finished his time on the frigates, Maynard went back to the air bases.
Maynard said there are countless veterans in the Chatham-Kent area as the Essex and Kent Scottish, a reserve unit, is located on Bloomfield Road in Chatham. He said that many of the soldiers in that unit also choose to stay in the community when they finish their service.
In Chatham, Remembrance Day will be recognized with a parade that will form up on William Street at 10:30 a.m., before marching to the cenotaph on King Street for a ceremony at 10:45 a.m.
"It's one of the rare cenotaphs that's historically on a battlefield," Maynard explained, noting the Chatham cenotaph is at the site of a battle that was fought in the War of 1812.
He said that history makes the site even more special to veterans adding that recent rashes of vandalism are frustrating and disappointing.
"I see kids and youngsters and people sitting on it, spilling their coffee, letting their dogs urinate on the thing, putting their cigarette butts out, using the big flower pots as cigarette butt cans, in the letters - crayons were rubbed into it, spray painted on the thing, writing little notes on it... It's just heartbreaking to a vet," he described.
Maynard added the monument isn't meant to just honour the dead, but also those who come home broken mentally and physically, calling it a place for those who survived war to remember.
"It's a hard time for some of us, because we've lost people. It's a time to remember the good and the bad and never forget," he said. "What people don't realize - they say we paid the price, we're still paying the price. Every day a serving member pays that price -- a veteran pays that price. He's got to live with what he went through."
As the Remembrance Day Parade Commander for the last several years, Maynard said it means the world to march in the parade, lay the wreaths, and just remember.
Maynard also believes that more education is needed when it comes to ongoing humanitarian missions and the realization of what more modern veterans have gone through.
"The public always talks about WWI, WWII, Korea. They don't realize that the job didn't stop," he noted. "Our people that have been [in] Afghanistan, Somalia, Bosnia - they have seen the worst side of this world. These are the modern vets that people don't realize, they went through this. I see them every day when they come to the branch and I remember serving with them. It's something that we as Canadians have forgotten."