Colonel Gray students gathered in the gymnasium on the 6th of November, 2024, in order to honour Remembrance Day with the school’s annual Remembrance Day ceremony. The ceremony was led by Doga Yesil as the Master of Ceremony.
The ceremony began with the national anthem, performed by the Colonel Gray Choir. This was the choir’s first public performance. A group made up of Army, Air, and Sea cadets then performed parades. The Colonel Gray Band was absent from the ceremonies this year.
The guest speaker for the event was Capt. Danny Kelly, a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces. He is also the current mayor of Morell. Kelly spent his career serving in a variety of countries, including Iraq, Jordan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Haiti, and Libya.
Kelly started off by discussing teamwork between different branches of the military and between the militaries of different countries. He then moved on to the history of the First Special Service Force, also known as the ‘Black Devils’ and ‘The Devil’s Brigade’, a joint American-Canadian unit that existed from 1942 to 1944. He talked about finding the name of someone from his home community on a poster, listing the members of the unit and asking his aunt about it, only to find out that the man was a close relative.
After this, Kelly talked about three men who died during or after their military service, Master Cpl. Anthony Klumpenhouwer, Sgt. Andrew ‘Drew’ Doiron, and his friend Rob, whose last name was not given.
Klumpenhouwer was a member of Joint Task Force 2, and served in Afghanistan. On the 18th of April, 2007, Klumpenhouwer was repairing a communication tower recently damaged by a dust storm, when he was electrically shocked, causing him to fall to his death.
Sgt. Andrew Doiron was killed on the 6th of March, 2015, in Iraq, when a severe communication error led to Kurdish forces opening fire on his detachment after mistaking them for IS militants.
Kelly then talked about his friend, Rob, who worked in communications at the Prince Edward Island Regiment. Rob died unexpectedly at his own hands less than a year ago.
With each of the stories, Kelly emphasised the families and colleagues that the soldiers left behind and the pain caused because of their deaths.
Part way through the speech, a student experienced a medical incident, and the student body was evacuated to the cafeteria while the student was provided with medical attention. Rob MacAdam took to the cafeteria stage to tell students that everything was under control and the assembly was then moved to the cafeteria. Kelly resumed his speech.
Following Kelly’s speech, Mr. Jean-Paul Pendergast thanked students for their co-operation, and informed them that a message had been received by the student’s family stating that the student was doing well.
The ceremony then continued with the reading of William MacRae’s poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ by Serena Perrin. Ruben Mehta then performed ‘The Last Post’, which was followed by a moment of silence, the Reveille, and the reading of a section of Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For the Fallen’ by Doga Yesil.
The students then departed the crowded cafeteria and went their separate ways.
Written by: Kevin Li
Photos taken by: yearbook photographers
Reviewed by: Tony Liang, Zack Rayner, Liew Gorman, Ariel Wu, Nancy Milton
Published by: Ariel Wu
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