Canada is commemorating the 100 years that have passed since the Battle of Passchendaele with a series of events in Belgium this week and a military member from 22 Wing CFB North Bay is there.

Aerospace Control Operator Master Corporal Michael Braam is a member of the Honour Guard flag party.

He says it’s quite the honour to be involved.

“As a part of the flag party, I escort the Canadian Flag onto and off of all of the parades that we do,” he says.

4,000 Canadians were killed during the battle in 1917, with another 12,000 wounded.

MCpl Braam says their sacrifice is not lost on those taking part in the events.

“It is an absolutely beautiful country and landscape, and then you realize how much has actually taken place on the very ground that we walk, and it becomes a very somber moment,” he says.

MCpl Braam also says he grew up with an understanding of the importance of a military.

His grandparents came to North America from the Netherlands after the Second World War.

“They were liberated by Canadians and the Allied Forces, so I grew up understanding at least a part of the sacrifice that has to be made for some people to have the freedom that we enjoy every day,” he says.

MCpl Braam says today they took part in a ceremony at Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest Commonwealth war cemetery.

Tomorrow, on Remembrance Day, they’ll be involved in events at the Menin Gate in Ypres.

(Photo used with permission, courtesy of the Royal Canadian Air Force)