Hundreds of people will gather at Prince George’s cenotaph on Saturday (November 11) to pay their respects to those who fight, fought, and died for our freedoms.
Donald Mitchell, a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Canadian Navy, will be one of them.
Mitchell has been serving in the Armed Forces for 34 years.
He said 32 years were spent on the “regular force” in the Navy, and has spent the last two years on the naval reserve after he retired.
“I have served on… both the east and west coast on pretty much every type of ship in the Navy,” Mitchell told My PG Now. “I have [been deployed] to the coast of Haiti, South America, Indonesia, the Gulf of Arabia. I have sailed pretty much all around the world.”
On November 11th, Mitchell said he remembers friends in the Armed Forces he has lost.
“They were young when they passed away, so I remember those people,” he said. “But I also remember all the people that served before us and have served in hostile areas. They put their lives on hold, did their job… and really dedicated their life after their time in service to make the country the best it could be.”
He said to him, November 11th all boils down to service.
“When I talk to kids, I talk to them about service,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you have to be in the Armed Forces or the police service or firefighting. Just being a good citizen is part of service.”
Mitchell continued, saying “We in the military, I don’t consider us super special. We signed up to do a job, we pledged our lives to the defense of the nation. But when we do our job and get [told] goodbye, we still carry everything we do with the military and what we did for the service of Canada.”
“We spend that one special day, those two minutes to think about our friends and comrades, our fellow Canadian citizens,” he said.
Prince George’s Remembrance Day Ceremony will be held at the Civic Centre on Saturday, organizers are asking people to be in their seats by 8:30 a.m.
The marching of the colours and the indoor ceremony begin at 9:00.
The service will march to the cenotaph outside City Hall following the ceremony at 10:15, where the outdoor portion of the ceremony will take place.
This will include wreath laying, a flyover from the Prince George Flying Club, and two minutes of silence.
“We are living in a pretty good country,” Mitchell said. “I give thanks that we are able to have a functioning society, and a military service that people can look up to and don’t fear.”
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