Nick Cusack has seen the scars of war, ravaged eternally in the ground of France.
The 17-year-old member of the 3069 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps (1 Field Ambulance) was one of only 20 Canadian cadets (out of approximately 50,000 in total) to attend a special tour through the United Kingdom this past summer. The tour was called the Maple Leaf Exchange and despite taking place in lands far away, it was just more nationalistically Canadian than most of us have experienced.
The excursion was mostly for training purposes and included weapons training and tactical exercises, plus basic infantry camp, teamwork and leadership drills. The five-week sojourn also included a special one-day trip through the Chunnel into France to visit Vimy Ridge.
"That was my second time going to Vimy Ridge. This time around it wasn't raining, which was good. The first time I went it was brutal," he began.
What he was struck by most this time around was how similar the setting is to his prairie home here.
"France really reminds me a lot about Alberta. The landscape is very similar. It's not necessarily flat. There's a bunch of rolling hills around," he continued. "The ridge itself is just this massive protrusion up. The village of Vimy is just down the hill. It's a 50-foot incline suddenly, not necessarily a cliff but it's a really steep hill."
The site in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region was where the Allies fought three divisions of the German army in the First World War during the Battle of Arras in April 1917. The success there was a major coup for the Canadian Corps, as all four Canadian divisions fought with remarkable unity during a considerably complex assault.
At the top of that steep hill is where visitors can get a good look at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, the immense monument designed by Walter Seymour Allward. It was carved from 6,000 tonnes of limestone that sits on a base of 11,000 tonnes of concrete and steel. The pillar walls bear the names of 11,285 of this country's soldiers who were killed in France and whose final resting place was then unknown.
It took 11 years to construct. The magnitude of the site serves much to prompt one's humility of the sacrifices of the men and women on the battlefield. Cusack did not remain unaffected. The experience, even for the second time, was still impactful to him.
"Without the people that had sacrificed their lives there, I don't think that we necessarily would be living the lives we do today. I don't think people necessarily understand the severity of what people did to keep the freedoms that we have."
"People have always made pilgrimages to it. It's considered Canadian soil because of all of the Canadians that died there because we took the ridge."
He also visited Beaumont-Hamel, a site that was close to the front line during the First World War and also saw heavy combat, especially during the Battle of the Somme, the largest Allied offensive of the whole war.
"It's a massive site. There's trenches everywhere. A lot of people go there … just because of the significance. It's very significant in the way that Canadians fought and died in World War I."
About the corps
The 3069 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps (1 Field Ambulance) parades at the Kinsmen Korral Hall at 47 Riel Dr. They regularly volunteer at various occasions around St. Albert including helping with the annual poppy campaign and the Remembrance Day tribute at the cenotaph.
The 3069 was honoured as the Best Urban Army Cadet Corp in 2006. To learn more, call 780-937-3069 or visit www.3069army.ca.
