Happy Remembrance Day weekend Bermuda! It is right and a good thing to honour every person who has served in wars throughout the history of mankind as well as those who have lost their lives fighting wars. Bermuda has its own extensive list of war veterans and today I salute them.But I would also like to modernise the THANK YOU and extend thanks to the current and most recent veterans who have been serving in the most recent wars being fought, by allied forces in the Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. There is a terrible trend wherein many modern-day soldiers from allied forces are losing limbs to improvised explosive devices. Every war leaves its mark on the men (and women nowadays) who fight them. In Afghanistan, the war is maiming men in the most intimate way possible. More on this after the top 20.Improving to No. 1 is ‘Put Your Hands Up (If You…)’ by Kylie Minogue. Tumbling to No. 2 is Chris Brown’s hit entitled ‘She Ain’t You’. Down one space to No.3 is ‘Rolling In The Deep’ by Adele.Quantum leaping to No. 4 is ‘She Will’ by Lil Wayne featuring Drake. Climbing to No. 5 is ‘Party’ by Beyoncé featuring Andre 3000. Slipping to No. 6 is ‘I’m Into You’ by Jennifer Lopez featuring L’il Wayne. Sliding to No. 7 is ‘Fly Away’ by Mavado. Down to No. 8 is another hit by Mavado, but this one is entitled ‘Pepper’.Shifting gears to dance music, down to No. 9 is ‘Party Rock Anthem’ by LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock. Tumbling to No. 10 is ‘I Wanna Go’ from Britney Spears. ‘Motivation’, by Kelly Rowland featuring L’il Wayne, drops down to No. 11 this week. Tumbling to No. 12 is ‘Last Friday (TGIF)’ by Katy Perry.Holding onto the No. 13 slot is ‘Give Me Everything’ by Pitbull, Neo, AfroJack & Nayer. At No. 14 is Enrique Iglesias’ current hit ‘Tonight I’m Loving You’.Improving to No. 15 is a former essential new tune and one of DJLT’s faves ‘Moves like Jagger’ by Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera. Up to No. 16 is last week’s essential new tune, ‘Mr Saxobeat’, by Alexandra Stan. This is my current favourite dance anthem. My mom and I have always loved the sound of a saxophone and this track highlights the bright, clear and beautiful sound of this most outstanding instrument, and places it atop a monster and fast-paced dance beat. Clearly a match made in dance music heaven.Up to No. 17 is ‘Sexy And I Know It’ by LMFAO, another hit from the new pop dance kids on the block. You have to check out their CD; it’s loaded with hits. The soca music is fading in popularity a little and slipping to No. 18 is the Latin/soca ‘Anthem Danza Kuduro’, by Don Omar, Pit Bull, Lucenzo, DJ Laz and Qwote. Down to No. 19 is ‘Wotless’ by Kes The Band and tumbling to No. 20 is ‘Bend Over’ by Machel Montano.Now back to this week’s topic: saluting all war veterans worldwide and the impact on soldiers of modern-day battle. The world cannot thank or ever repay war veterans for their sacrifices. No amount of money or therapy can compensate a soldier for what they give up to fight a war. Yes, I’ve been a soldier but I’ve never had to fight a war. Even talking to my international soldier colleagues on courses and joint training exercises could not simulate what some of these heroes have had to endure to keep the world somewhat safe. I’m an empathetic person by nature but even the most empathetic among us just cannot imagine the horror, the travesty, the eternally enduring psychological, mental, physical and emotional wounds caused by war. It’s also difficult to imagine how this can just sap your spirit forever, rendering even the most decent person or a social misfit scarred for life with the feeling that even with the ultimate sacrifice (one’s life or limbs), one is still inadequately or generally unappreciated by the very world they sacrificed to protect.That’s the normal feelings of a war veteran. But today, the way the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are being fought and there is a high incidence of allied forces men losing legs, arms, and now genitals due to the aforementioned improvised explosive devices (IEDs).These IEDs are deadly and the impact they have on victims can be beyond anyone’s worst nightmares.I can tell you that even the thought of losing my family jewels makes me cringe. I remember once, at about age 15, playing in a bantam league soccer game for North Village versus Dandy Town at the Desert (yes I’m a proud Pond Dog). I refused to let Vorhees Astwood have a free shot at my goal. His powerful shot struck me directly where no man wants to be hit. I prevented him from scoring but can remember the pain as clear as if it was today my eyes were shut so tight that it took minutes for them to open. Harold (Doc) Dowling and my teammates helped me to my feet to try to shake it off. The physical pain lasted for hours after the game. Thirty-two years later I can still remember it as clear as day. And that was just a football imagine an IED!Imagine a man on a patrol, shocked and blown by an IED blast that not only propels him high into the air. When the dust settles and he realises that he is still alive, and he reaches down if he has his arms to where his legs should be, to find that there is nothing there! Imagine that same man then reaches, as is a man’s natural instinct, to where his genitals should be, only to find that there is nothing there either. I am here to tell you that this man’s life, as he once knew it, is over!Modern medicine is doing all it can and has been able to surgically recreate genitals, but we all know that this will never replace what men in this predicament lose, because the repaired or created genitals not only don’t work quite like the original band. And psychologically, that man knows that he is not the same as he once was and will forever be scarred with the loss of his manhood and all that this means to a man.Of course, there is hope and there are people who will rightly try to convince the veteran that all is not lost, his life is not over, and that there is still something worth living for, as long as he is prepared to fight. But there is very little that anyone can say to such a man, to comfort, console, encourage, uplift him. Psychologists can help and are doing great work to help all war veterans deal with post traumatic syndrome as well as the demons and vestiges of war. But the only person who could ever effectively counsel such a man is another man who has experienced the same loss. So my hope is that those who suffer such a terrible fate will be able to be counselled by others who have experienced the same loss.Some of us will pray with and for persons who have suffered such loss; because prayer changes things. We should pray for all of mankind but at this time of year, we should especially pray for war veterans and their families, because these men have made the ultimate sacrifice. They have sacrificed the potential of doing other things that might have given them different rewards, different lives, lives they might have preferred, all in the name of serving mankind to create a better, safer world, where freedom, independence and basic human rights prevail and are available to all.Lastly, we should pray for world peace, so that one day there are no more living world veterans, because there is no more war. Here’s to World Peace . . . DJLT