RED Friday Talks: Visualizing Veterans' Inner Battles

RED Friday Talks: Visualizing Veterans' Inner Battles

In a quiet, in the dimly lit legion basement, three veterans sit in a triangle of chairs. In just jeans, flannel, and the weight of service memories.

The Canadian flag hangs modestly on the wall behind them.

Their silence is loud, their stillness heavy of stories and histories too raw for words.

One is a Black man in a hoodie, staring past the floor as if watching something we can’t see. Beside him, a woman veteran in a denim jacket holds her posture with quiet resolve. The third, an older man in a flannel shirt, wears the lines of time and trauma on his face. They are civilians now, but the deployment isn’t finished with them, PTSD and other occupational stress injuries haunt them.

Behind them, memory becomes visual: a ghostly M113 armored personnel carrier creeps through mist; a spectral helicopter hovers soundlessly above; an explosion blooms mid-air—frozen in time, like the moment just before waking from a nightmare. These apparitions are not special effects. They are a metaphor for the invisible battles carried home.

This image—cinematic, surreal, and deeply human—challenges us to look beyond the surface of military service. It serves as a reminder that for numerous veterans, the effects of multiple deployments endure long after they return home. It lingers in the background, sometimes vivid, sometimes faint, but always present.

What makes this composition powerful is not just its artistry; it’s the quiet truth it reveals. In today's digital era, images and empathy combine, inviting us to witness humanity rather than mere heroes.

These people are putting in the work, to get better and to cope and have earned our respect and support as Canadians!

Let this be a call to listen, to see, and to remember—not just on Remembrance Day, but always.