In Memoriam

Unfortunately, those bayonettes I made have been put to use. Here is a picture from the Ottawa Sun.
What can I say that doesn't sound trite.

We were all watching this funeral when we got news that 4 more soldiers had died in the course of their duties.

The tears are there. As is the steely resolve.
"Take up our quarrel with the foe, for if you break faith, we shall not rest...in Flanders fields".
----John McCray

(CP) - Since 2002, one Canadian diplomat and 23 Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. Here is a list of the deaths:

2006

Aug. 3 - Cpl. Christopher Jonathan Reid, 34, of the 1st Batallion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, killed by a roadside bomb. Three other members of the same batallion killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack by Taliban forces west of Kandahar: Sgt. Vaughn Ingram, Cpl. Bryce Jeffrey Keller and Pte. Kevin Dallaire.

July 22 - Cpl. Francisco Gomez, 44, of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, and Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren, 29, of the Black Watch, the Royal Highland Regiment of Canada, based in Montreal, killed when a car packed with explosives rammed their armoured vehicle.

July 9 - Cpl. Anthony Joseph Boneca, 21, a reservist from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay, Ont., killed in a firefight near the village of Pashmol west of Kandahar City.

May 17 - Capt. Nichola Goddard, an artillery officer based in Shila, Man., with 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, killed in a Taliban ambush during a battle in the Panjwai region. She was first Canadian woman to be killed in action while serving in a combat role.

April 22 - Cpl. Matthew Dinning of Richmond Hill, Ont., stationed with 2nd Canadian Mechanized Brigade in Petawawa, Ont.; Bombardier Myles Mansell of Victoria, Lieut. William Turner of Toronto, stationed in Edmonton and Cpl. Randy Payne, born in Lahr, Germany, stationed at CFB Wainright, Alta., all killed when their G-Wagon patrol vehicle was destroyed by a roadside bomb near Gumbad, north of Kandahar.

March 29 - Pte. Robert Costall of Edmonton, a machine-gunner, killed in a firefight with the Taliban insurgents in Sangin district of Helmand province, north of Kandahar.

March 2 - Cpl. Paul Davis of Bridgewater, N.S., and Master Cpl. Timothy Wilson of Grande Prairie, Alta., killed when their armoured vehicle ran off the road in the Kandahar area.

Jan. 15 - Glyn Berry, a British-born Canadian diplomat who had served with the Foreign Affairs Department since 1977, killed in a suicide bombing near Kandahar.

2005

Nov. 24 - Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield, born in Victoria and raised in Eastern Passage, N.S., killed when his armoured rolled over near Kandahar.

2004
Jan. 27 - Cpl. Jamie Brendan Murphy, 26, of Conception Harbour, Nfld., killed in suicide bombing while on patrol near Kabul.

2003

Oct. 2 - Sgt. Robert Alan Short, 42, of Fredericton, and Cpl. Robbie Christopher Beerenfenger, 29, of Ottawa, killed in a roadside bombing southwest of Kabul.

2002

April 18 (April 17 in Canada) - Sgt. Marc D. Leger, 29, of Lancaster, Ont., Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, 24, of Montreal, Pte. Richard Green, 21, of Mill Cove, N.S., and Pte. Nathan Smith, 27, of Tatamagouche, N.S., all killed when when a U.S. F-16 fighter mistakenly bombed the Canadians as they were on a pre-dawn training exercise. Eight other Canadians were wounded in the friendly-fire incident.


"With the Going Down of the Sun,
We Shall Remember Them"