At 101 years old, Alvie Burden is one of the oldest surviving black Canadian veterans.
The Armstrong resident recently received the Quilt of Valour for his service in the Second World War.
Born Jan. 20, 1922 in Tisdale, Sask., Burden served with the Saskatoon Light Infantry after enlisting at the age of 19.
“The only black man in his company, Burden served over 21 months split between the Italian and Dutch campaigns,” said Kim Hong, Armstrong Legion 1st vice president.
Burden was injured in Italy when an enemy tank shell landed behind him and the shrapnel pierced his head and wrists.
“We are thankful he is still with us at 101,” said Hong.
And there was more than one Burden in Armstrong.
Alvie’s brother Orville was an active member at the Legion.
Born Oct. 22, 1919, Orville joined the Westminster Regiment in the spring of 1940 at the age of 20.
He trained in New Westminster and Dundurn, Sask. and then went to Camp Borden in Ontario before being shipped overseas to England.
Orville’s regiment fought its way through North Africa and Italy. In Italy he lost the flip of a coin and had to take a hike out of the foxhole to fetch a kettle of tea for his patrol. While he was doing so a mortar landed in their foxhole. He was the sole survivor of his patrol.
Orville developed yellow jaundice while in Italy and was eventually sent to a hospital in Birmingham, England and months later after the war’s end was shipped home to Canada to Shaughnessy Hospital in Vancouver which was a military hospital at the time.
Once he recuperated he was discharged from the army.
He had been gone for five years.
Orville passed away at the age of 97.
Like the Burdens, several veterans call/called Armstrong home.
To honour these local men’s sacrifices, the Legion has erected banners on city streets with their names and service.
Like Richard Lewis Mellish, born July 26, 1920, the son of Richard and Bea Mellish of Armstrong.
Mellish was a flight sergeant, air observer, and paid the ultimate sacrifice May 24 1942, when died at the age of 21 in service.
He is buried in Buckland Monachorum Cemetery in Devon, UK.
Alfred Masur, son of Paul and Annie of Armstrong, was born in Melville, Sask., in 1914 and died in 1987.
Masur served as a private during the Second World War, starting in Italy and finishing in Holland when the war ended.
He served along with his two brothers whom were among the fortunate to return.
Ronald Nasadyk joined the Army in 1957 at the age of 18 in Vancouver.
He did basic training at Shilo Manitoba Artillery, then joined 1-LAA Regament in 1958, the Honest John Missile Battery Germany Berlin Crisis in 1961 and returned to Canada in 1965.
He spent
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