'Keeps our memory bright' EDITORIAL STAFF The Guardian

The City of Charlottetown held its fifth annual Veterans Recognition Awards night Wednesday at the Charlottetown Hotel. Attending were, from left, James Ward, Sergeant Gordon McConnell and Mayor Clifford Lee. Guardian photo

The City of Charlottetown gave recognition to 13 veterans, residents of the city who “felt the personal pain of tremendous sacrifice.”
“Tonight, and for every passing year in the future, the City of Charlottetown will keep our memory bright,” said master of ceremonies Vern Murphy.
Honour was given to James Wilfred Ward, Allan D. Glass, George Davis Carson, Morgan Regan McGaughey, Sergeant Gordon McConnell, Constable Darren MacDougall, Russell Downe, Keith K. MacDougall, Catherine Frances Griffith and Frederick Pound.
Also receiving recognition but not able to attend the dinner were Gordon Stewart, William Toombs, Thorley M. Burke, and William Crockett.
“We pay a special tribute to those brave men and women who live amongst us, are our friends, are our neighbours, and have never been truly thanked, on a local basis, for what they did for us during those horrendous years of 1914 to 1918, 1939 to 1945, 1950 to 1953 and all the years since Canada became the world leader in keeping peace in troubled countries around the world,” said Murphy.
“Wars have come in part through the folly of forgetfulness,” he said. “Peace has been lost because nations did not realize that it is their common cause, and their common work. Wars came because nations did not come together to deter aggression or to turn it back.”
The citations read for each recipient showed a wide range of service.
Ward was a gunner with Navy, even serving on Canada’s aircraft carriers after the war.
MacDougall of the Charlottetown Police Force was deployed to Kosovo in 2003 on a nine-month, eight-person mission. He was assigned to a major-crimes unit in Prestina, with a focus on organized crime and homicides, including potential war crimes.
Morgan McGaughey was a wireless operator in Newfoundland for much of the way, and then posted to the air navigation school in Summerside.
McGaughey served in the Royal Canadian Legion for over 50 years and the RCAF Association for 55 years and was provincial president of both.
McConnell served in Kosovo in 2003. He was the officer in charge of police operations in Decani.
“Toward the later part of the deployment, tension in the community escalated to the point that in excess of a 1,000 people were rallied to burn a church and lay siege to the police facility,” read his citation.
“With gunfire erupting in the background, McConnell and a second senior officer were able to communicate with the insurrecting groups and defused the situation.”
Carson became a member of the signals division of the army and was attached to an anti-aircraft unit that served through the beaches of D-Day and the push inland through to Germany that followed.