Barris - Breaking the silence: veterans untold stories from the Great War to Afghanistan

Ted Barris is an accomplished author, journalist, and broadcaster. As well as hosting stints on CBC Radio and regular contributions to the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and various national magazines, he is a full-time professor of journalism at Centennial College in Toronto. Barris has authored sixteen non-fiction books, including the national bestsellers Victory at Vimy and Juno. In 1993, he received the Canada 125 Medal for service to Canada and community. In 2004, the Remembrance Service Association of Halifax recognized Barris and his military history writing with its Patriot Award. In 2006, the 78th Fraser Highlander regiment awarded Barris its annual excellence Bear Hackle Award to recognize his contribution to the awareness and preservation of Canadian military history and traditions. In 2011, in acknowledgement of his continuing efforts to assist and recognize veterans in Canada, Barris received the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation.

ALSO BY TED BARRIS

MILITARY HISTORY

Behind the Glory: Canadas Role in the Allied Air War

Days of Victory: Canadians Remember, 19391945 (with Alex Barris, 1st edition, 1995)

Deadlock in Korea: Canadians at War, 19501953

Canada and Korea: Perspectives 2000 (contributor)

Juno: Canadians at D-Day, June 6, 1944

Days of Victory: Canadians Remember, 19391945 (Sixtieth Anniversary edition, 2005)

Victory at Vimy: Canada Comes of Age, April 912, 1917

OTHER NON-FICTION

Fire Canoe: Prairie Steamboat Days Revisited

Rodeo Cowboys: The Last Heroes

Positive Power: The Story of the Edmonton Oilers Hockey Club

Spirit of the West: The Beginnings, the Land, the Life

Playing Overtime: A Celebration of Oldtimers Hockey

Carved in Granite: 125 Years of Granite Club History

Making Music: Profiles from a Century of Canadian Music (with Alex Barris)

101 Things Canadians Should Know About Canada (contributor)

BREAKING THE
SILENCE

VETERANS UNTOLD STORIES

FROM THE GREAT WAR TO AFGHANISTAN

TED BARRIS

THOMAS ALLEN PUBLISHERS
TORONTO

Copyright 2009 Ted Barris
First paperback edition copyright 2011 Ted Barris

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems without the prior written permission of the publisher, or in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Barris, Ted

Breaking the silence : veterans' untold stories from the Great War to Afghanistan / Ted Barris.

Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-88762-805-4

1. CanadaArmed Forces--Biography. 2. VeteransCanadaBiography.
3. CanadaHistory, Military20th century. 4. CanadaHistory, Military21st century.
5. Barris, Ted. I. Title.

U54.C2B372 2011 355.0092'271 C2011-903265-1

Editor: Janice Zawerbny
Cover design: Gordon Robertson
Cover image: Stefano Rellandini

Published by Thomas Allen Publishers,
a division of Thomas Allen & Son Limited,
390 Steelcase Road East,
Markham, Ontario L3R 1G2 Canada

www.thomasallen.ca

The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of
The Ontario Arts Council for its publishing program.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada.

We acknowledge the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporations Ontario Book Initiative.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

11 12 13 14 15 5 4 3 2 1

Text printed on a 100% PCW recycled stock

Printed and bound in Canada

For Charley Fox... the torch bearer who served his
country, never forgot his comrades, and helped break
the silence.

CONTENTS

The process of acknowledging veterans began the first time I attended a Remembrance Day observance and realized I didnt know what I was supposed to remember. Its taken a good part of my life as a journalist, broadcaster, author, educator, and Canadian citizen to solve that dilemma. The assembly of this book has helped me recognize the gaps in my knowledge of veterans experiences. Its dispelled some myths. Its introduced many truths. Its given me an array of personalities and stories that I can recall whenever Im asked to explain who veterans are, what they went through, and why their time in uniformed service deserves our attention. Its also allowed me the privilege of sharing my revelations.

I first offer thanks to each man and woman veteran Ive ever encountered. They number in the thousands. I wont list them here because you will meet many of them in the pages that follow. But I do wish to acknowledge that for them sometimes giving the gift of memory was painful and seemingly unrewarding. Often it took telling and retelling for me to understand. On occasion it led us into uncharted emotional territory. I just hope this book begins to compensate that unexpected pain, that repetition, and all those hours spent on the porch, at the kitchen table, or in the downstairs den with that guy holding a microphone and notepad. The blessings of my association with veterans are the close friendships Ive found among them. The curse is that their age has often cut short our time as friends. Too many have passed during the creation of this book.

For many years, the fraternity that has drawn veterans together inside and outside the militaryhas likewise invited me into its confidence. Legions, institutes, societies, publications, and commemorative associations have delivered contacts, provided much-needed context, and have always encouraged my work. Similarly, the traditional information sourcesmuseums, archives, libraries, government records departmentshave dutifully provided ample data whenever Ive requested it. As well, the not so traditional sourcesmilitaria collectors and war history clubshave always stepped forward too. Most have asked for nothing in return, but to keep veterans stories in print, on the air, and online. Perhaps all these organizations have come to realizeif a little latethat veterans deserve a higher public profile.

Though it may sound odd, I would also like to acknowledge my good fortune. Its not a spiritual thing, but sometimes the reason I picked up the phone and called that day, followed a gut feeling or instinct, saved that odd news clipping from the paper, or sometimes in frustration relied on simple guesswork, was serendipitous. My wife, Jayne MacAulay, has often insisted that my encounters with so many of these people and these wartime events were meant to be. Neither she nor I is a fatalist, but neither do we want these delicious coincidences to stop. Nor would I want the attitude of my family through such enterprises to change. Like my parents always did, Jayne, our daughters Quenby and Whitney, and their husbands (John David Massey and Ian Ross respectively), as well as my sister Kate Barris, have sometimes wondered about my preoccupation with veterans and their recollections. They have never doubted my conviction to write this personal account of what I found.