While many people make fitness their New Year’s resolution, a retired soldier wants residents to make supporting veterans a regular goal for 2022 — specifically, by sending postcards to active and retired personnel.
Master Warrant Officer (retired) John Thomson served for 20 years with the Royal Canadian Medical Services as a medical technician and a physician assistant. He deployed three times to Afghanistan and once to Sri Lanka with the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), while he also served as a paratrooper and submariner.
Thomson retired in February 2021 and, after moving to Moose Jaw, started a blog called “Unbloused” to share his stories and those of fellow veterans. In less than a year, the blog has acquired about 400 followers.
“I was looking for some way to contribute … to the veteran community, and I thought sharing stories would be a good way,” he said.
Unbloused is a military term where combat pants are unrestricted at the ankle, while it’s also an expression of freedom and non-conformity, Thomson explained. He chose that term so blog contributors could share their stories openly. This would ensure that readers, fellow veterans and civilians better appreciated their experiences.
Thomson’s goal is to support non-profit groups that work with serving and retired military personnel while ensuring those stories are not lost, as many have with the disappearance of Second World War and Korean vets.
“Because once they’re gone, if you don’t pass that story on, it’s lost forever,” he added.
Convincing modern soldiers to share their stories and see them as important is challenging because military life is unique and is not something civilians understand, Thomson said.
“Just because your story may not compare to significant conflicts of the past doesn’t mean that it’s not important,” he added.
Veterans interested in sharing their stories can submit them via www.unbloused.com, by snail mail or over the phone.
Through the blog project, Thomson has started a fundraiser called Operation Postcard. The goal is for Canadians to engage with veterans and serving members by sending them handwritten thank you notes and asking them to share a story about their service.
Each pen pal kit consists of five postcards, one pen, one sticker, one set of instructions and one entry into a prize draw. The kits are $40 each, and since Thomson has assembled 100 kits, the fundraiser could generate $4,000. All money raised will be split between CANPRAXIS — an equine-assisted therapy provider for veterans and first responders — and the Saskatchewan First Nations Veterans Association.
So far, the project has raised $250.
“The big thing is to increase the awareness of what life is like in the service … ,” said Thomson. “I think it’s getting harder for Canadians to connect with the military because those stories — of conflict (and) life in uniform — are not part of our society as much as they were when that (older) generation was around in larger numbers.
“You see that in the decrease of poppies being worn.”
The idea for postcards arose when Thomson was in Afghanistan and regularly sent letters to his parents. He appreciated receiving letters — and still does — since they made his deployments more enjoyable.
“I think there’s value in having that tangible piece of paper that someone took the time to write and send, versus an email note because we get bombarded by (many) social media messages these days,” he said
Thomson agreed that sending postcards would help the public remember veterans more than once a year. He thought that if more Canadians participated in organizations that helped veterans or supported veteran-owned businesses, Remembrance Day would have more meaning.
“(Those actions are) an act of remembrance,” he added, “and it doesn’t have to be just one time a year.”
