Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (Nov 15/02) - Peter Dimaline counts his father and grandfather among those to whom he pays tribute each Remembrance Day.

A Wolverine Air plane flies overhead as the procession of Rangers, RCMP, firefighters and Parks Canada staff stand at ease in front of the cenotaph. - Derek Neary/NNSL photo

Dimaline, Fort Simpson's recreation co-ordinator, is an 18-year army veteran who served in the artillery corps. His father, Hugh, was a member of the armoured corps in World War II and his grandfather William saw action with the infantry in World War I.

"It's a pretty religious holiday for me ... it's one of the biggest days of the year," Dimaline said of Remembrance Day. He recalls playing with his father's war paraphernalia when he was young, such as German Luger pistols and an MP-44 machine gun. Yet he said he never gave much thought to enlisting in the military until after high school.

One day while constructing bridges with his brother, he had an epiphany.

"I said, 'Nah, I don't want to do this. It's too boring. I want a little excitement, and I joined the Forces," said Dimaline, who grew up in southern Ontario.

He donned his blue United Nations beret for Monday's ceremony. It is the same beret he wore while serving a six-month peacekeeping tour in Cyprus, south of Turkey, in 1982.

His grandfather passed away while he was a child and his father has since died, too.

When each Remembrance Day rolls around, Dimaline places their many war medals on his right side in their honour. He wears his own three medals on his left side.

Among his father's decorations is a battle citation for being a member of a Lake Superior regiment, which captured Bad Zwischenahn, one of Adolph Hitler's resort towns.

"My father, frankly, never talked much about it until I actually enlisted (in the army). Then it was common ground, so that's the only time he actually talked to me about what happened over there," said Dimaline.

His mother, Yenny, who is also deceased, was a war bride from Holland.

It's all part of Dimaline's daughters' heritage, too.

He plans to pass on to them all the commendations he has earned and inherited, he said.