The Red Poppy

I had vaguely remembered seeing people wear red poppies on their jackets before but I never really knew why. When I was in Canada last year in October, I saw many people wearing red poppies. Not just men but women as well. The men wore them on their jacket lapels or collars and women wore them in varies ways from hats to jackets to pins and emblems.

One of the Canadian engineers who were there at transmitter school was wearing a poppy. I tried to figure out a nice way of asking what the poppy was for. It was obviously something of national significance since everyone and everywhere you went you saw them displayed. On the final day there, I asked him what the significance of the poppy was for.

He explained how the red poppy was a sign of remembrance to the veterans and the custom which is conducted throughout the old British Commonweath nations came from a Canadian military doctor named Lt Col John McCrae. He had written a poem called "In Flanders Fields" in 1917. The poppy was chosen because of the poppies that bloomed across the battlefields of Flanders, Belgium in World War I. The red color representing the blood spilled in trench warfare. They start showing the poppy about a month before "Remembrance Day" November 11, which of course we call Veteran's Day.

This morning I saw a British official on TV wearing the red poppy and it brought back the memory of my conversation with the Canadian engineer about the poppies. I decided I would surf the net and see if I could find Lt Col McCrae's poem.

As we pause to remember our brave veterans on this Veteran's Day, we should also take a minute to remember our Allies who also have sacrificed along beside us in many wars on their Remembrance Day. To our USA Vet's on Veteran's Day, you are not forgotten and we salute you and thank you for your service to our country no matter what war you serviced in. To the Vet's of the British Commonweath, you too are remembered on Rememberance Day and your service is also remembered and appreciated by your friends, the American people.

How fitting of a tribute to all of the fallen veterans everywhere.

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.