Cenotaph unveiled at Field of Crosses site in northwest Calgary

A new permanent cenotaph was dedicated on Saturday at the site where Calgary's Field of Crosses is planted each November.

• Remembrance Day goes smartphone-friendly in Calgary

The project was spearheaded by the Field of Crosses Memorial Project and theMcCannFamily Foundation.

Every year since 2009, thousands of white crosses have been planted on thegreenspaceon the north side of Memorial Drive at the Centre Street Bridge in honour of southern Alberta'sfallen soldiers.

The display pays tribute to men and women killed in the two world wars as well as the Boer War, the Korean War, the conflict in Afghanistan,and peacekeeping missions in Vietnam, the Middle East and Cyprus.

The new cenotaph is way of permanently dedicating the space to the annual Field of Crosses project, said Jim Welsh, president of the Ypres unit of the Canadian Army Veterans Motorcycle Unit.

He said the aim isn't to glorify war but to honour those who sacrificed their lives to win peace.

"Anybody who served gave up their right to choose and basically signed a blank cheque to the people of Canada up to and including the value of their life," he said.

The white crosses go up on Nov. 1 and are taken down the day after Remembrance Day.

At sunrise each morning there is a flag-raising ceremony with a bugler and a piper.