Canadian Valour

http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/index_e.asp?results=1&Firstname=&Middlename=&Lastname=&City=&Province=&TypeID=mvd&Honours=&AwardStart=&AwardEnd=&npp=25

My friend the Bugbear posted this on his blog. Unlike his usual rambling, skeptical rants or his inexplicable fascination with things involving hot coals, this link was one worth spreading around more generally.

We, living in Canada, often take for granted the efforts of our Armed Forces. They go to places we would shy from, they face horrors we would quail if faced with, they deal with implacable foes and confounding allies, they try as best they are able to execute the missions given them by our Government with skill and integrity, and where they are permitted and able, they work to make the world a better place - safer, more secure, and better for normal, peaceful folk to live in.

As Canadians, they put their lives in our wonderful country on hold, leave their families worried, and go off into harm's way at the behest of our Government and effectively at the behest of our people. This commitment to public service and to a life of sacrifice and risk willingly endured so the rest of us can be safe and our Country's goals in foreign policy can be realized is something alien to most of us who consider rush hour commutes on a 400 series highway to be high drama.

It's worth taking a few minutes to visit the attached link and read some of the citations. The shocking thing isn't that these men and women rise to the heights of courage that they do, the shocking thing is how few of them are reported and how commonly acts of at least as much courage go unheralded - we only see the tip of the iceberg.

Canadian Forces, part-time or full-time, active service or retired, I salute you.