Having decided that I wanted to place a footstone on my father's grave to recognize his military service I emailed the Canadian government for details of the footstone design. They sent them to me quickly; however, I was informed that I would have to obtain permission to use the military crest as it was copyrighted. Again, I contacted the appropriate office. They sent me the forms which I promptly filled out and sent in. As time went on I realized that I was not going to get timely permission to use the crest. I used it anyway - good thing as I still have not received permission for a one-time use of the crest...still no permission as of August 1, 2015! They are slo-o-w ;-)

I had the monument company obtain the stone from the same quarry in Quebec, Canada, that the Canadian government uses for its military markers.

11-2-15: I have received my Dad's war record, or all that the Canadian government is willing to send to me. In it is a "Confidential" report from the Department of Veterans Affairs which ends with, "A tall, slim, good looking man with a quiet reserved personality. His educational history is above average as is his ability. He has returned to his pre-enlistment employment but will soon be seeking new employment in the same electrical field. His service in the Navy has been of a specialized nature in connection with intricate electrical cypher machinery." His rank was also listed as a Chief Petty Officer. This is the only mention that I have been able to find of Dad's work with cypher machines. He was part of a top secret mission which was to capture the latest Nazi cypher machine, the Enigma with 4 rotors. Ca. 1978 when there was a TV program centered around this top secret mission about 8 Canadian and mostly Navy personnel who succeeded in capturing the latest Enigma cypher machine Dad acknowledged to me that he was on this mission and sworn to secrecy. It wasn't much of a secret anymore as it had been on TV, and we had watched it together. He told me that the Enigma cypher machine shown at the end of the show was the older model with 3 rotor wheels as the new one had 4 rotor wheels. He was still able to rattle off the various Enigma model numbers, how they worked and the serial number of the model which they had captured. I was dumb struck! The program said that this mission hastened the end of WWII and saved countless lives. Now that the war has ended and the men on this mission have all passed on it would be a nice gesture if the Canadian government would acknowledge their successful mission and send a Commendation or make some sort of gesture to their families so that they would know the important part in history that their men had done in WWII contributing to the end of the war and peace...just my thought...