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Topic: Afghanistan - 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment - 2006-2007 (Read 15885 times)
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Buzz Gomes
Veteran 500+ Member
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Posts: 692
Pro Patria
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Rest in peace my friend. My condolences to Capt Snyder's family and friends. Pro Patria.
Buzz
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1964-1968- 2 QOR Calgary, Cyprus
1968-1971- 2 CDO Edmonton
1971-1975- 3 Mech CDO Germany, A Coy Mor
1975-1983- 1 RCR London, Bn Tpt,C Coy, B Coy, Recce
1983-1985- RCR Battle School
1985-1990-1 RCR, B Coy, Dukes, Recce, Cyprus
1990-1992- OMD HQ Ottawa, G3 Trg
1992-1993- LMD HQ London, G3 Trg
1993-2007-4 RCR, RSM
Retired CWO
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Police honour own vets
Barry Gray, the Hamilton Spectator
Solemn ceremony part of campaign to support troops
July 03, 2008
Paul Morse
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jul 3, 2008)
Civic and military leaders paid tribute yesterday to 143 members of Hamilton police who saw military service during the Second World War and in Korea.
In a solemn ceremony outside police headquarters, local politicians, Canadian military personnel and combat veterans commemorated a roll of honour to police members who served in the two wars.
"We had honoured those individuals who had served in the First World War and nothing had been done for those afterward," said police Chief Brian Mullan.
The ceremony, part of a month-long police campaign supporting Canadian troops, honoured Private Mark Graham and Major Raymond Ruckpaul, two Hamilton soldiers who have died while on combat duty in Afghanistan.
"My husband and I ... are very proud of Raymond and his dedication to the military and Canada," said his mother, Joan Ruckpaul.
"God bless our troops who have given their lives for Canada, and our active soldiers who are trying to make this world a better place."
Ruckpaul, 42, was found shot in his barracks in Kabul, Aug. 29, 2007. He had begun his military career with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (RHLI), and was serving as an armoured officer with the Royal Canadian Dragoons. An investigation has determined he died of a self-inflicted wound.
Graham, 33, was killed in a "friendly fire" incident Sept. 4, 2006, when two American A-10 Thunderbolts mistakenly fired on a Canadian platoon in southern Afghanistan.
Graham was a former track star who competed for Canada at the Olympics before joining the Royal Canadian Regiment's First Battalion.
Lieutenant-Colonel Rick Phillips, commanding officer of 23 Hamilton Service Battalion, said some 200 soldiers from southwestern Ontario will be deployed to Afghanistan in the next few months.
While combat soldiers remain focused on their jobs in Afghanistan, "family members are left with what is portrayed on the news and their own fears to keep them company at night," Phillips said.
"These soldiers appreciate the importance of maintaining the rule of law and of protecting the citizens" back home in Canada, he said.
The commemoration comes on the heels of a recent change at city hall where, for the first time, city employees who are reservists will be allowed to be called up by the military to serve in an emergency or a war.
Hamilton police have long allowed officers to serve. Two have been deployed to Bosnia and one to Guatemala on United Nations missions to train local police forces.
Seven Hamilton police members serve with local reserve units:
* Captain Tim Fletcher, 31 Canadian Brigade Group. He is a civilian forensics specialist.
* Master Warrant Officer Norm Wills, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He's a special constable.
* Sergeant Scott Balinson, Argylls. He's head of the police Emergency Response Unit and Explosives Disposal Unit.
* Sergeant Michael Spencer. He's a detective in forensic services.
* Sergeant Sean Woodward of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. He's a constable.
* Warrant Officer Fabrizio Guiliani and Corporal Azim Butt of 705 Communication Squadron. Both are constables.
Four other police officers hold ranks in the sea and air cadets.
pmorse@thespec.com
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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Really nice to see them honoring those heroes. And God Bless them all, and God Bless all who serve so selflessly....and THANK YOU ALL .. ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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Posts: 3672
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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In the end, will the price we pay in Afghanistan be worth it?
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
July 11, 2008 at 11:50 PM EDT
She made the same trip – the long road home – in the belly of a Hercules and then in an Airbus that now 86 Canadian soldiers, one of them her own dear son, also have made.
Andrew (Boomer) Eykelenboom and his fellow fallen comrades were in coffins when they came back to Canada from Afghanistan. Maureen Eykelenboom was alive, as perhaps she hasn't been since Boomer was killed in a suicide bombing on Aug. 11, 2006, because, at last, she was exquisitely alive to the enormity of her loss and the grief she had kept at bay with the work and travel and sheer distracting busy-ness of Boomer's Legacy, the charity she set up after Boomer's death.
Every time I have seen her or talked to her in the past year, as she moved across the country pitching fundraising projects, giving speeches, working with other bereaved parents of soldiers or raising money, Mrs. Eykelenboom has been resolutely composed, seeming if not quite cheerful, always sanguine, that wonderful word that my Oxford dictionary describes as having a temperament that is a “courageous, hopeful, amorous disposition.”
But for once, in the back of that plane, picturing the lanky drink of water who was her young son on his last flight in another Herc, she couldn't suck it up or push back the tide of emotions.
In the summary of her visit to Kandahar Air Field earlier this month that with typical efficiency this small determined woman has already put together for the Canadian Forces, Mrs. Eykelenboom wrote, “I will never forget being in the back between the cargo, giving myself that permission to sob, alone at first,” until some of those travelling with her heard the sounds of her sobs over the roar of the engines and came back to comfort her.
Her assisting officer, Lieutenant (N) Dave Didsbury, a social worker, “told me I was really good in my head, but I hadn't dealt with Andrew's death in my heart … my first instinct was to deny, for my heart truly has been broken. But I couldn't deny him then, because I knew he was right. I totally recognize now how much I have hidden by keeping busy with the Legacy fund or with Boomer Caps [the little caps knitted by Canadian moms for Afghan babies and youngsters], just how much I sealed that door on my heart and would not go in.”
She had a legitimate reason beyond the impetus of most next-of-kin visits, as these things are called, for going to Kandahar.
Boomer's Legacy gives every cent of its donated money to the Assistance to Afghanistan Trust Fund, which in turn puts cash quickly and with a minimum of red tape into the hands of Canadian soldiers – mostly those who work most closely with Afghans out of the Provincial Reconstruction Office in Kandahar City – who see a need.
Four projects are now under way that meet the intent of Boomer's Legacy, “to directly support the people of Afghanistan affected by poverty and war with emphasis on programs and services for women and children.” Boomer was a medic, and was terribly affected by the kids he met on his tour.
Two children, a little boy with a major facial disfigurement and a 12-year-old girl with a congenital heart defect, have been successfully treated in Pakistan; a newborn whose mother died in childbirth has received surgery correcting a condition that had required a colostomy bag, and a little girl with cerebral palsy now has a wheelchair modified for her needs.
Mrs. Eykelenboom was there to present a cheque for $80,000, bringing to $128,000 the amount that the Boomer fund has given thus far to the Assistance to Afghanistan fund, and she did this on Canada Day.
In her four-day trip, she also spent a lot of time talking to soldiers, some of whom had served with Boomer in 2006 and were on their second tour. They noticed significant positive changes since they had first been in Kandahar, and their natural optimism and knowledge that they are making a difference buoyed Mrs. Eykelenboom.
There was, as she says, no political rhetoric, no agenda, with the troops. “They spoke from their hearts,” she says, “and you can say, yes, it is good; yes, they're making a difference.
“We want to know that the price that is being paid is in the end going to be worth it. As a mother I can hardly even say that. Is losing my son worth it? In the bigger picture of history, if we can make a difference, then maybe yeah.”
She met Niaz Hussaini, the young Afghan interpreter whose life Boomer is credited with saving. Mr. Hussaini, who lost both legs in a rocket-propelled grenade attack and is now walking on artificial legs with the help of a cane, remembers that day well, and told her how the young medic gave him the feeling that he had no choice but to survive. “He's lovely,” Mrs. Eykelenboom says. “I didn't want him to go. I just wanted to absorb being in his presence. Knowing he's alive just makes it okay.”
The highs were high, the lows lower than she could have imagined. “Would I go back again?” she asks. “You betcha. As awful as that place is, as hard as it is, as hot as it is, I'd be back in a flash. But not as a tourist, only if I could help. I understand totally why they go back for a second rotation, or more.”
Sometimes, she'd look at the young soldiers, think, “He looks like Andrew, but that's not his smile … I was wanting Andrew to come walking around a corner. I know that's not real, but I still want it.”
For more information, go to www.boomerslegacy.ca.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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Posts: 2480
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God bless and keep you Mrs Eyekelenboom, may you now have some solace and comfort in the knowledge of what all your son gave, not just his life, but more importantly , and i think it was for him, all the good he did before he gave the ultimate..as a believer i just know , your son is at the right hand of God, still doing his work, and happy to see you carrying on and also doing so much for the folks he gave his life for...thank you for all you are, have done and do..may God be with you always...ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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