OLDS — Three military veterans — Roy Norman Malmo, 103; Betty Reader and Canadian Army reservist Terrance Dodd, 87 — were presented with Quilts of Valour for their service to the country on Oct. 17.
The ceremony was performed at the Seasons Olds retirement facility by Nicole Langlois, the Quilts of Valour-Canada central Alberta region representative, and Leslie Manchur, poppy chair of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 105 in Olds.
All three were nominated by Manchur.
Langlois led the presentations.
She could relate to the veterans, having served as the first female gunner for the 78th field battery Red Deer in the 1990s with the 20th Canadian Field Artillery Regiment.
She undertook a peacekeeping tour in Cyprus in 1992 and later received her own Quilt of Valour. Manchur also received one.
Langlois addressed the group.
“I want to say thank you so much for all your services. Without your service for our freedom, we would not be here doing what we are here,” Langlois said.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for our freedom,” she added, sparking applause.
Quilts of Valour-Canada began in 2006 when Lezley Zwaal of Edmonton presented quilts she had made to three injured Afghanistan veterans as a way to thank them for their service.
Since then, 15,575 quilts have been presented, according to the organization’s website. The goal is to present 20,000 quilts by the end of this year.
As she presented the quilts and wrapped them around each veteran, Langlois read inscriptions written into each quilt.
“Handmade with love, respect and gratitude for your sacrifice to Canada. May the hugs stitched into this quilt give you comfort, strength and love,” the inscriptions read.
The Albertan interviewed all three veterans.
Reader joined the armed forces in 1942 and after undergoing basic training in Vermilion, was stationed in Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg.
She played down her contribution to the Second World War effort.
“I was an office worker, that’s all I did. I worked in the office,” she said, adding she created “everyday reports.”
Reader served in the reserves after the war.
Reader was pleased to receive her quilt.
“I’m quite impressed,” she said. “I didn’t expect anything like this.”
Malmo served as a wireless operator for the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. He joined in July, 1941 and was discharged in September, 1945.
He served two years in Canada and two years in England
Malmo remembers some scary times when the bombs fell.
In one case, he was on leave in London from his base in Yorkshire.
“There was a bomb raid on London,” he said. “I was pretty well scared and one other guy, he crawled under the bed.”
Malmo said at least one bomb even hit No. 10 Downing St., the prime minister’s residence. But Prime Minister Winston Churchill was OK.
“It was surprising how quickly the English cleared,” he said. “There wasn’t a stick laying around. It was all cleaned up in a hurry, some places.”
In another case, he was in a camp outside of London when buzz bombs were dropped.
“You couldn’t hear them but they’d come down anyhow. And it knocked down 12 houses and we laid there in our tents and grabbed our hard hats and put them on and stayed still,” he said.
“We were not too far away from that. It was pretty scary too.”
Dodd was in air cadets for six years; then joined the Canadian Army reserves, serving in Olds, Wainwright and Calgary from 1950 to 1953 and from 1958 to 1968.
He served with the King’s Own Calgary Tank regiment.
That was a tense time, Dodd said, noting the Cold War was in full force.
“If the Russian bombs didn’t reach United States, well we would have to evacuate part of Calgary, wherever,” he said. “So we did a lot of schemes; stuff like that.”
Dodd said they would set up convoys that would travel to Three Hills and back to Calgary to rescue people if necessary.
“When I first started, we had a tank that we used to drive around,” Dodd said, adding he drove it from time to time.
He admitted with a laugh that it’s not easy to drive a tank – or to park it.
Manchur said she was “honoured” and “very proud” to be involved in the quilt presentation ceremony.
She is anxious to ensure that Quilts of Valour are presented to all veterans who have served our country but is aware that not all vets belong to the Royal Canadian Legion, so they may be harder to track down.
“So if there’s any veterans that are out there, we would love for them to contact me at the legion,” Manchur said.
