One of the last surviving sailors dispatched to the beaches of D-Day in World War II is continuing his support for the Royal Canadian Legion’s poppy campaign.

Rod Deon, who turned 100-years-old this year, handed out poppies as he does every year to support the campaign.

Deon was born in Nova Scotia and joined the Canadian Navy as a young man, serving throughout the Second World War. He came to St. John’s in 1944, joining a convoy of five or six destroyers. He says as they made their way to England under fire, they never lost a ship.

He was also stationed in the English Channel prior to D-Day, keeping German U-boats out of the Channel. He remembers chasing U-boats the day before the Normandy landings. He says at times, it was tougher in the days leading up to D-Day.

He says they had trouble chasing them that night in the pitch dark, as 300 vessels were crossing then Channel in preparation for D-Day. Deon says they had to do what they could to stay alive in the fog without any light.

It isn’t only his own service Deon honours with the poppy, as he remembers his father, who served in WWI.

His father, who was also in France, had to sleep in a tent through the rain, wet, cold and disease. Deon says that sacrifice caught up with his father later in life, who lost a leg and a lung because of the First World War.