Canada's war dead have usually been buried in the countries where they fell. If was not practical to repatriate the remains of thousands of war dead and that was the policy. Recently however, Canada has started to follow the American tradition of repatriating our war dead. It may have started with the casualties of peacekeeping missions, I do not know.

I think that the idea of bringing our war dead home is a good one, because our casualties in the past have been "out of sight, out of mind." My mother lost an uncle in WWI and as far as we know no one from the family has ever visited his grave in far off France. Imagine how difficult it must be for Canadians with dead relatives buried in Hong Kong, Burma, Italy etc.

Now during the War on Terror where we have troops fighting, dying and being injured in Afghanistan in a war that is not even called a war, but rather "a mission" and is, or at least was, believed by some ignorant Canadians to be a "peacekeeping mission". In fact, it was an invasion and we are presently on occupation duty fighting not "insurgents" but rather the local "resistance" as we called such actions in WWII when the shoe was on the other foot and we were supporting resistance movements in Europe and Asia.

For the first time in half a century, Canada has INVADED and OCCUPIED another country. We are not peacekeepers, nor are we liberators as we were in France, Belgium and Holland in 1914-1919 and again in 1940-45. We are invaders as we were in Italy in 1943  and in Germany in 1945. I am not discussing whether we should be there or not, I am simply arguing that we should tell the truth and call a spade a spade.

The graves in the Canadian "National Military Cemetery of the Canadian Forces" (NMC) are for the most part those of veterans who have died of natural causes. Interspersed among them are the graves of military personnel, some of those who have been killed in the War on Terror in Afghanistan, but you would not know it unless you happened to recognize the name, as there is nothing on the headstone to tell you where they died. The dead are buried by date of death, with the strange exception that some of the soldiers killed in war are buried at intervals of about three plots apart.

It is good that Canada has finally started to bring our war dead home, and I believe that EVERY Canadian should visited this cemetery. The challenge is finding it. It took a long time for me to find it as it was not marked on maps and even the Tourist Information Centre front desk staff did not know where it was. They had to get the office supervisor to come out and tell me where it was. It is hidden inside a large civilian cemetery and the access is very poor. It is difficult to get to and even more difficult to find once you enter the cemetery with its narrow meandering roads. Sadly Canada did not create a new cemetery in an easy to find place, but rather added on inside an existing civilian cemetery.

When you find the Sherman tank and the four cannons, you think you have fund it, but this is a secondary older cemetery military  section only. The NMC is actually on the hill above it and I would have missed it except for some other visitors who clarified that there was more up on the hill above it.

Here are a few of the graves. Not all of our war dead from Afghanistan are here - as some are buried in their home towns.  Later I shall add photos of these people.  They are not in any particular order. There are more whom I shall add later.

This web page is a private tribute to those who have died and is not affiliated in any way with the government.

The official web site for the National Military Cemetery is http://www.dnd.ca/hr/nmc-cmn/engraph/home_e.asp

MAP TO FIND THE NMC: http://www.dnd.ca/hr/nmc-cmn/images/english/beechwood-map_e.gif

MAP OF THE CEMETERY http://www.dnd.ca/hr/nmc-cmn/images/map-of-beechwood.jpg

What is NOT shown the the large section of veterans' graves that is surrounded by the 4 cannons and Sherman tank. This is the small field between 27 and 100 on the map. I for one originally assumed that this was the NMC but it is not, not is it part of it!

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