Hello to everyone who is OUTCAN from wonderful Naples, Italy. The MFS Advisory Council members have been asked to write a quick article on life OUTCAN and what it means to us, and what it could mean to you during your OUTCAN posting. So, I have a challenge to all of you here in OUTCAN Europe.
One of the many items that I think is very special for us here is having the ability to see historical things in person that we normally only see on television or through movies. We are in a unique position that the majority of Canadians will never be able to experience for themselves, for one reason or another. Specifically, I am talking about being able to take part in our military history.
There are many opportunities for battlefield tours of areas where we either have a military or family connection and where we can connect someone we know to a battle or location. I am talking about Ortona, Sicily, Dieppe, Vimy, Arras, Passendale, the Scheldt, and the liberation of Holland, to name a few. We do not need to pay thousands of dollars to a tour company to do it (while there is nothing wrong with that and I have done it in the past), and can often simply get in your car and drive an hour or two from your house. See these significant historical sites for yourself! Visit the local museums; the small ones with local guides are the best as they care for their collection with passion. There is also the ability to visit many of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemeteries (CWGC) within Europe from World War I and II.
In Italy alone, there are 54 CWGC sites and I have had the honour to visit four so far in my family’s posting to Naples. I recently had the honour of visiting one location where connections on Facebook, led me to get a photo of a headstone that a family has been trying to get for years since they have been unable to visit the site themselves. I was the first Canadian to sign the visitation book in over 5 years. I have been on the CWGC website (https://www.cwgc.org) and have noticed that most of the cemeteries while having a full listing of who is buried there with full name and data, do not have pictures of the gravestones themselves. The websites, for the limited number I looked at, often say “coming soon” in their headstone photo search, even when all of the other info on the individual is there. I think this is wrong.
So, my challenge to all of us is this: go visit the local battlefields and remember our recent history. And while you are at it, take pictures of the headstones of our Canadian fallen and send them off to the CWGC website so that families might have the chance to see their family member’s final resting place and that “coming soon” sign can finally be taken down.
Ian Mollison,
MFS Advisory Committee Italian Rep