Like anyone else, Gideon Luty has everyday frustrations – including the often slow going annoyance of his daily commutes to and from Toronto.
But few have the raw insight to put those inconveniences in their proper place.
“When you’re in a helicopter flying over what used to, or should have been land, and as far as the eye can see it’s water. And we’re coming up to a farm and there’s property owners clinging to a roof waiting for help and the carcasses of the livestock… they’re basically drowned, It gives you perspective,” said the local veteran, recalling his five-year service as an army medic in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves that included humanitarian relief during Manitoba’s devastating Red River floods.
“You can have a lousy day and complain about being stuck in traffic, but in the grand scheme of things, you feel blessed and fortunate in being able to help someone else.”
For Luty – now a corrections officer in the city – the call to serve came early.
Coming from what he described as a dysfunctional family, the Toronto youth longed for structure and purpose.
“Just learning the importance of being a good citizen, a good person in general in dealing with people around you. I needed some guidance. I found that outside the home environment… I found it through (air) cadets.”
Soon after joining those ranks, Luty discovered the Royal Family’s Duke of Edinburgh Award program – which threw down the gauntlet when it comes to such things as fitness, citizenship and volunteerism.
Rising to those challenges, he’d earn the initiative’s highest level (gold) possible and represented Canada in a coveted youth exchange – highlighted by an award presentation from Prince Phillip.
With trusty service dog Labradoodle Toby by his side, Luty’s continues to serve beyond his active military days.
He volunteers as a Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary marine search and rescue crew member, as well as in a similar capacity with the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association.
Luty also finds time to be a Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor to four kids and recently took on a peer support role for fellow veterans through the Mood Disorder Society of Canada.
“We’re just there to talk, advise them to possibly seek counselling (if needed) or some organization that can help, and to listen to anything they have to vent, because sometimes people just feel like nobody cares.”
While the Milton Legion’s new Legacy of Honour banner campaign comes as welcome news to Luty, he feels more needs to be done to boost awareness about veterans’ services and sacrifice.
“I’m disappointed with the amount of school education to remembering history,” he said. “If you ask youngsters who were the Axis and who were the Allies?, it’s not a PlayStation game; they may not even have a clue.”
Luty believes the government has also fallen short when it comes to veterans and first responders, characterizing many support programs as ‘one-time buyouts’.
He points to one Korean War veteran he came to know when speaking to that, recalling how the government would only pay for one round of medication when his doctor prescribed two for the fleshing-eating disease VRE he’d contracted while overseas.
“To save his own life he threw a cinder block through a department store window, got incarcerated and now he has the medication for free. I just think something’s wrong with the system when you have to resort to that," said Luty, who'd like to see more shelter dogs destined to be euthanized saved and paired with veterans with PTSD.
“Not enough is done (for veterans). If say 300 soldiers are killed in Afghanistan, no one has any clue how many actually take their own lives after the war is over. They lose their housing, they may lose their loved ones, turn to alcohol and drugs. This diminishes their mental health to the point where they think suicide is the way out.”
On a more uplifting note, Luty and Toby eagerly await the Christmas season, when they’ll once again hop aboard their motorcycle and sidecar to delight area residents.
“We try to uplift spirits around that time,” said Luty, looking ahead to reprising his beloved role as either Santa Claus or The Grinch.
But before that comes a time for reflection.
And while most Second World War veterans are now gone, Luty says that passing must not signal an end to Canada’s collective tribute and recognition on Nov. 11. And always.
“It’s more extreme for us (now) to remember, for all their sacrifice not to be in vain,” he said. “For what the country stood for, the values of what we have today, someone had to shed blood and step up to make sure we keep those values.
“It was worth fighting and possibly dying for.”