A younger veteran addressed senior veterans, elected officials and members of the public at Thursday’s well-attended Remembrance Day ceremony at Essar Centre.
This year’s guest speaker was Sergeant Jason Kent.
Born in Sault Ste. Marie and raised on St. Joseph Island, Kent joined the 49th Field Artillery Regiment in 2003 while still attending secondary school.
“Growing up on St. Joseph Island, I had a fascination for military history,” said Kent, who now resides in the Sault, is married, and works as a city employee.
“I watched movies, documentaries and read books, even though I was too young to fully understand how someone could go off to war and put their life at risk and be so brave, I never could really understand it.”
Kent eventually found out.
He served during the Afghanistan war with the 2nd Royal Canadian Horse Artillery from May 2010 to December 2010 as a forward observer detachment member in Kandahar province, during the hottest months of the year.
“I learned that the right to call one’s self a veteran is not a privilege that is given, but only a privilege that can be earned,” Kent said.
Kent, who served overseas when he was 24, paid tribute to past veterans who were much younger when they stormed the beaches of Dieppe, took Vimy Ridge and fought in the Somme.
“I feel it’s our courage that makes us veterans,” Kent said.
“When faced with adversity, danger and threats, we responded with our heightened senses, awareness and focus which allowed us to perform under extreme situations…when danger was imminent, our training kicked in, and our minds and bodies reacted.”
“Though we fought in very different wars, times and countries, our end goal was the same, to protect and safeguard freedoms.”
“We live in a country today where we have freedom of expression, religion, thought, press and assembly…these freedoms were granted through the courage of our veterans,” Kent said, praising those who served and died in war.
“I ask you to remember them,” Kent said to Thursday’s audience.
Kent also reminded veterans who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of the importance of seeking help.
Sault Mayor Christian Provenzano said “I can think of no greater work in my capacity as mayor of our community than to be here with you on this day, to come together, to share thoughts, to pay respects alongside each other.”
Provenzano reminded the audience that veterans of the Second World War and the Korean War are aging and becoming fewer in number.
“I suggest to you that although it is the case that we must lose people, we do not have to lose the benefit of their experience, their knowledge and their teachings,” Provenzano said.
“That is why I speak of remembrance as an act. Remembrance is not passive, it is an action we must commit to continually.”
“Let us commit to using the freedoms afforded to us as Canadians to build a better, fairer and more peaceful world, and commit to keeping Remembrance Day as a sacred day,” Provenzano said.