"Lorne in Tokyo" 1951.jpg"
 
 

      "PROUD TO BE A" CANADIAN"

I Proudly served in the  "Royal Canadian Engineers"

1949-1957

"Headquarters Building"
Royal Canadian school of Military Engineering
Chilliwack British Columbia
Winter 1949/50

A Pontoon Bridge built by the Royal Canadian Engineers No. #2 Troop, 57th Fld. Sqn. RCE. (1952)  during the spring monsoons. To evacuate  troops, ours, British and Australian forces, that were trapped on the other side. The Chinese and North Korean forces were only 2 miles away on each side, time was our biggest enemy, and the rushing flood waters of the Imjin River.

(All were evacuated successfully, no casualty's)

Except for me this is where I injured my back.
 

I have been stationed at the following places.
Chilliwack, B.C.-Japan/Korea, 1951-52- Ste.Therese, Quebec

    I was very proud to be part of the
    Corps of Engineers. I was taught many trades and became very
      proficient in several  areas of construction and
  de-struction. This exceptional training has helped me a
              great deal in civilian life.

"My Korean Buddy"

Here are two men who saved a lot of kids from starving to death.. "Kim" deserves a medal for  all he did to save a lot of  kids lives  in his country. A true hero in my books.

"Lorne and Kim Kwan Bey"
(Almost sober)

After my discharge from the army I joined the Royal Canadian Legion Branch in Laval West, Branch # 216 in the spring of 1958. I was the youngest President of that Branch in 1962.

I have served the Legion for over 34  years.   I was a member of the Korean War Veterans Unite #55 of Montreal until 1999.

Now a member of #Unit 19 in Sudbury Ontario. With a good old buddy Jack Ranneli who was with me in Korea.A man with no fear dealing with "Mines or Boobytraps".
 
 

"Another Proud part of my history"

Photo Taken from the "WAR AMPS OF CANADA" Web Page
 
 

Basement on Church street in Toronto around 1925
 
 

Here is a amputee sitting down having his new leg adjusted  by my father, "Jack Warner" (in the white shirt) he too has a leg off. He was one of the founding fathers of this was great organizations. This was the beginning in the early 1920's of the "War Amps of Canada" Veterans helping disabled veterans from the "Great War"
Started by four men , all amputees. Jack Warner, Percy,Charlie and a another man I think was named 'George'.

"They would be proud men today, to see what 'their' work has developed into.
"The  War Amps of Canada"

 Hero's of the past war of.
1914-1918

At the age of sixteen had been kicked out of every recruiting depot in Quebec and Ontario until he turned seventeen. He then enlisted in the R.C.E.M.E.

The war ended before he got overseas

I also had two Uncles and a Aunt that served, one died on the beaches of Dieppe 1942 France
 

"Old Jack Remembers"

 By Lorne "Sonny" Warner

      Shifting his weight in the wheelchair to find a more comfortable
   position, Jack sat at his bedroom window looking at the shining
  stars as they begin to lose their brilliance. The rain was over and the dark clouds were gone. Its going to be a good day today he thought, not a
     cloud in the sky now. Dampness often brought pain to the stump, where his right leg used to be.

       Jack could see a change in the quality of the light on the misty
    horizon, indicating it would soon be daylight.  He spends most of his
  days now,  sitting by the window and watching the sky line and
   the bustling movement in the street below. He  has always said to everyone, that he enjoyed the sunrises the most.
 

The years have caught up to Jack now, he is nearing his 75th birthday.

          His steel blue eyes gazed over at the old oak cabinet, filled to
   capacity with gold and silver soccer trophies and medals, now tarnished
  with age.

He smiled to himself as he remembered the huge crowds in the
   stadium who used to roar and clamor, calling him by name, and cheering      him on to victory. He could see himself waving and clowning around for the crowd.

        This scene in his minds eye suddenly changed, in a flash, to one of war.
 

       He was suddenly back in the muddy front line trenches in France, facing a
very determined enemy.

It was a quiet night, this one night he would remember for the rest of his life.
 

The putrid  stench of death was all around him. To break the tension, he wanted to tell someone about his soccer games of the past, his love of the game, the roar of the crowds.

He wanted to sing, do anything, to break the sound of the constant barrage of the German shells that were falling all around them. Hour after hour the  barrage went on

He wished he were not in France today , as a erie dark feeling passed over him.

His thoughts went back to how the early morning sun had crested through the distant rolling hills -- an illusion of peace.  He sat down on a wet ammunition box, then thought, what a nice day it was going to be, the rains having stopped.  Perhaps there would be some relief from the incessant rain  and noise.

        The  heavy barrage of German artillery shells burst and
   explode around him.

The sky  blackened with smoke,  the air acrid
    with the smell of gun powder filled  and burned his lungs.

The onset continued relentlessly for hours.  There was no place to hide from the violent, blinding explosions of death.

        Jack still could vision the fear, and panic, he felt as he looked at his comrades. All young men, who he had just got to learn their first names.

   Now they lay in pools of their own blood, their young bodies torn apart.

Young Tommy, maybe just 17 years old,  he had just met today at morning mess call for breakfast. Now his arm, still bleeding and still moving, lay across Jacks chest. He was pushing it away from him as tears ran down Jack's dirty blood stained muddy cheeks.

He closed his eye's  to erase this scene of brutal horror.  He lay there in the blood soaked mud. His  hands with the same mud covering his eyes. Hearing his comrades screaming from the excruciating pain of their wounds.

Then a warm soft hand touched his cheek. Struggling to open his eyes, he saw a faint  outline of a woman in white, she wore a red cross on her breast.

Truly, "She must be an angel", Jack thought. He looked around for the scarred and battered trench for his comrades. They were all gone.

          His eyesight still blurry, he saw the dull, gray walls
   of what he thought to be an old church lined with rows and rows of beds. Lanterns moving from place to place. Darkness was all over, except for the lanterns. Jack began to hear voices.

    He began to feel a biting, tearing pain beneath the bandages of his
   hands, arms, and chest and back.  His eyes wandered to the foot of the bed
     in absolute terror, he saw an empty space below his waist.  His
   leg was gone. Tears welled up in his eyes and rolled down his cheek.

Back to the reality of today, he turned his attention away from the cabinet.
Brushing the tears from his eye's.  Jack turned toward the window and watched the people below scurrying off to work and going about  their daily business.

  Jack wondered what his life might have been like with two good legs.  To go  to work and play soccer with, like before. He seldom spoke  much about the old days.  I could see and hear the pain in his heart. He lived his life a proud man, dedicated to helping his fellow amputees to the best of his ability.

He was one of the foundering fathers of the "WAR AMPS OF CANADA" and would be very proud of the success of his efforts today.

And how proud I am of "Him" my Father.

"He will never know"

  A tribute to my Father "Jack Warner"

 1890  *** 1965