What was once conceived as a kind of annual reunion has grown into a monthly reunion of brothers in arms. Veteran Contact Wieringen/Hollands Kroon is celebrating its 3rd lustrum today. The monthly veterans café, known as café Arlette, is a permanent beacon for the former soldiers of the region every last Friday of the month.
Dick Doornik, now 75 years old, is the only one left from the founders of the veteran contact that once started in the then municipality of Wieringen. “We started together with WW2 and Indian veteran Pier Kuipers and New Guinea veteran Jan Hensing,” says Doornik. “We wanted to organize a Wieringer Veterans Day. We then found out that 81 veterans lived at Wieringen. On May 5, 2007, the time had come.”
But the need for contact turned out to be greater. One special day in the year was not enough. And so it was soon expanded. After the merger into the municipality of Hollands Kroon, veterans from the other former municipalities also attended the meeting days. “We started in café de Harmonie on Kerkplein. Then we moved to Kasteleen,” explains Doornik.
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Mission
Tournai himself is a Sinai veteran. After the six-day war between Israel and Egypt, an international peacekeeping force was established. “It did not fall under the UN, because the Russians stopped it then,” says Tournai, who had a fairly quiet time with it in 1986. “We were there for peacekeeping. I was the chief of the liaison service from the navy, we took care of all communication lines for the Dutch, but also for the Americans in our area.”
His mission then went smoothly, but unfortunately other veterans have different experiences on their missions to New Guinea, Cambodia or Afghanistan. “Everyone can tell us about their experiences. One has experienced more with the other. But you have all been in the military. We understand each other. ‘Brothers in Arms’, we say,” explains Doornik.
commemorations
The veterans are also involved in commemorations in the area. On May 4 they form the guard of honor at the Zandburen cemetery near Hippolytushoef. And they are always present with a delegation, together with veterans from the Schagen region, at the unveiling of memorial poles for crashed planes during the Second World War in Hollands Kroon. This afternoon, the veterans will celebrate their 15th anniversary in private.