Medicine Hat veterans were honoured this weekend. (Adrian St.Onge/CHAT News)

By Adrian St.Onge

Veterans remembered as Medicine Hat celebrates Decoration Day, new plaque

Jun 3, 2024 | 11:42 AM

Hillside Cemetery houses Medicine Hat’s fallen soldiers and this weekend, the headstones were carefully cleaned and then honoured as cadets, legion members and veterans payed tribute with poppies and wreathes.

Veteran and legion vice-president Scott Schall said that Decoration Day is crucial in remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

“This is a little bit unique. This tank has some history. It never made it into combat, it was a training tank. But we had some people, some extraordinary people, come from this city that became veterans,” Schall said.

“If you ever get a chance to read the plaque and you go around the front of the plaque, it’ll tie those people to this community, to this monument, so that we don’t forget people like that. These extraordinary people that dropped everything they were doing and went across and did something extraordinary,” he said.

Mayor Linnsie Clark was present a the laying of wreaths at the Hillside Cemetery and later unveiled a plaque commemorating Duffy the Tank at the Riverside Veterans’ Memorial Park.

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The plaque tells the story of Ernest “Duffy” Gendron and William “Danny” McLeod, Medicine Hat High school friends who enlisted and served together.

“Duffy” Gendron was the first Southern Alberta soldier to die in battle after his tank was destroyed, and it was said that “Danny” McLeod never had a friend like him again.

Clark said the story told is why she was honoured to commemorate the tank and make sure the history of Hatters in the armed forces are never forgotten.

“I think the support veterans provide each other is truly important and we saw a lot of collaboration between those groups today and just the importance of learning from our history,” Clark said.

“Two world wars were fought and more wars since then. It’s a real sacrifice and that should be remembered and honoured,” she said.

While MLA Justin Wright was not in attendance, he made the proclamation in Edmonton that June 1st of every year in Alberta will be Canadian Armed Forces Day.

Schall said that the ease of working with the city, the declaration made by Wright and the beautiful weather during the ceremony meant one thing.

“When I see things come together this well, and everything ties in and everything shows up, everything is where it’s supposed to be on the day of the event and nobody is sweating, it was supposed to be,” he said.

“The big man upstairs is making sure we’re doing the right thing. And we’re doing the right thing. It’s just vindication that you’re doing the right thing.”