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Commonwealth Remembrance Day in Hawaii 2021
Remembrance Day 2021 By COL Ret. Arthur Tulak, Ed.D.
Every November, the nation is focused on Veterans Day, which first marked the armistice going into effect on Nov 11, 1918 on the Western Front, ending most of the fighting of the First World War. Now known as Veterans Day since 1954, when Congress passed a law changing the name to honor all who had fought in various American wars, not just in World War I. For the British Commonwealth, November 11 is observed as Remembrance Day, which usually includes reading of Major John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields”, and observing two minutes of silence at 11:00 am on November 11, the time and date of the World War I armistice in 1918.
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For the past 9 years, the Canadian military delegation in Hawaii has hosted a Commonwealth Remembrance Day Ceremony at the site of four Commonwealth graves at the Oahu Cemetery in the shadow of the Puowaina Volcano Crater that is now the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, a.k.a. “Punchbowl.”
I had the honor of participating in the 2021 Remembrance Day in Hawaii, in sight of the GAR plot in Oahu Cemetery, and representing the American Armed Forces as the senior ranking officer. I was part of the official party, listed below:
Australia: Ms. Andrea Gleason, Consul General for Australia in Hawaii and MGen Daniel McDaniel, Deputy Commanding General at U.S. Army Pacific Canada: BGen Alex Day, RCAF who serves at USINDOPACOM as the Deputy J3 New Zealand: CDR Wilson Trumper the NZL LNO to USINDOPACOM United Kingdom: Brigadier General Alan Lister, USINDOPACOM Deputy J5 United States: COL, Ret. Arthur N. Tulak
In attendance were members of the Consular Corps, representatives from Daughters of the American Colonists, and of course service members and their families. This was a great event that the Commandery should support in the future.
BGen Alexander Day recites the poem from memory “In Flanders Fields,” by Canadian Major John McCrae.
Following the event, individuals view the decorated graves and read the names of the Commonwealth service members buried there.
Companion Tulak, BGen Alexander Day, and Canadian Liaison Officer to HQ, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, LTCOL Adam Barsby, who has presented MOFW medals at Punahou JROTC.
