- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 60
http://www.vicnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=36&cat=43&id=372085&more=
A fallen soldier's honour
By Mitch Wright
Goldstream News Gazette
Feb 09 2005
WEST SHORE * Cpl. Michael Abel was two weeks away from coming home when he died in early May, 1993 in Somalia.
Abel was in northern Somalia on his first overseas mission with the Canadian Airborne Regiment - part of a United Nations task force deployed in December 1992 to secure a safe environment for non-governmental organizations providing relief in the war-ravaged nation.
Then 27, Abel became the only Canadian fatality during the six-month Somalia effort when he was killed by an accidental weapon discharge by another Canadian soldier.
He had been scheduled to come home to Victoria two weeks later, then head to Bosnia in September 1993.
Nearly 12 years after his death, Abel's parents, Diana and David Abel of Sidney, were recently presented with the Dag Hammarskjold Medal - awarded to the mother or next of kin of those killed during peacekeeping operations under the UN's purview.
The Jan. 25 ceremony at the Prince Edward Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion in Langford provided much-needed closure for the Abels.
"This isn't mine, it's Michael's," a tearful Diana Abel said in accepting the medal.
The occasion was especially significant, given that the Abels were originally expected to receive the honour more than two years earlier, in the summer of 2002.
At that time, dozens of other families across Canada were presented with the same medal, named in honour of the second United Nations secretary-general, who was killed in a 1961 plane crash.
The Abels were in fact present at a similar ceremony in Langford in August 2002, along with several other Island families, and were appalled when their son's medal never arrived.
Diana Abel recalls her embarrassment at the being left out of the occasion, adding that "it was a slap in the face to the regiment and to my son."
Local Legion members and Airborne Regiment veterans were equally dismayed.
Katherine Boustead began calling Ottawa immediately, trying to find out what had happened. Initially, she was told that Cpl. Abel's family had already received the medal, a story that later changed to he "wasn't entitled" to the honour, Boustead explained.
Ultimately, Boustead took her appeal all they way to the UN headquarters in New York in an effort to solve what others described as a bureaucratic gaffe in Ottawa.
The mixup was perhaps complicated by the fact that Operation Deliverance was initially planned as a peacekeeping mission, but later became one of enforcement.
Boustead's efforts culminated in last week's ceremony, which included Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca MP Keith Martin; Lieut. Gen. Kent Foster, former commander of the Canadian Army; and Lt.-Col. Colin Magee, Abel's commanding officer in Somalia, who made the trip from Kansas, where he's currently an exchange officer with the U.S. military.
Magee remembers Abel as "an outstanding soldier."
"He was sharp, fit, capable," Magee said. "His loss was sorely felt throughout the regiment."
Although initially classified as a six-month peacekeeping mission, Magee said Operation Deliverance changed to an enforcement role by the time of deployment in December 1992, as rival warlords kept the country, particularly the northern region, in turmoil.
The mission itself was the subject of a commission of inquiry due to the death of a Somali civilian at the hands of Canadian soldiers, through which it was described in the resulting 1997 report as a "debacle" for the Canadian Armed Forces and perhaps the low point for Canada's contemporary military.
The commission, which made 160 recommendations in its report, concluded that the mission was profoundly lacking in leadership - organizational and systemic - which flowed through the ranks and ultimately resulted in the civilian death and attempted coverup.
The stigma attached to those events have come to overshadow many good things that went on during the mission, at least for Diana Abel.
In accepting the Dag Hammarskjold Medal, she suggested Canada's government owes the regiment - it was disbanded in 1995 - an apology for its treatment after Somalia.
"There should be a huge apology to all of you," she said. "We should be proud of our young men and women. They do a tremendous job under tremendous pressure."
While the regiment's role in the multinational task force was ultimately to protect aid workers, Magee said soldiers did a host of different jobs. Along with escorting aid convoys, conducting foot and vehicle patrols, searching for weapons and explosive ordnance, and disarming the rival warlords, soldiers also took it upon themselves to visit villages in the area and provide assistance themselves.
"They'd meet with the village elders and try to get an understanding of their needs, then help to get the things needed to improve the village's situation," Magee explained.
A nine-year veteran of the military when he went to Somalia, having enlisted shortly after graduating from high school in Sidney, Cpl. Abel relished the opportunity to work overseas and make a difference.
Abel's parents, who currently have a nephew serving in Afghanistan, described the paratrooper as a "very accomplished soldier." He'd achieved standing as a Pathfinder, the highest level of training within the regiment, putting him in to scout and secure location for the soldiers to follow. He was also a sharpshooter and at the top of his class throughout his training.
"He enjoyed what he was doing, so he went all out and did the best at whatever he was doing," said David Abel, a retired air force officer.
Although scheduled to go to Bosnia later that year, Cpl. Abel had also applied to receive training to become a medic, his father explained, because that was how he felt he could do the most good.
"He had a good vision of where he was going and who he was," he said.
While the delay in receiving the award was frustrating for the Abels, Diana Abel said they are ready to put it behind them.
"Why the holdup? We don't know," she said. "We'll probably never know, and at this point, I don't really want to
A fallen soldier's honour
By Mitch Wright
Goldstream News Gazette
Feb 09 2005
WEST SHORE * Cpl. Michael Abel was two weeks away from coming home when he died in early May, 1993 in Somalia.
Abel was in northern Somalia on his first overseas mission with the Canadian Airborne Regiment - part of a United Nations task force deployed in December 1992 to secure a safe environment for non-governmental organizations providing relief in the war-ravaged nation.
Then 27, Abel became the only Canadian fatality during the six-month Somalia effort when he was killed by an accidental weapon discharge by another Canadian soldier.
He had been scheduled to come home to Victoria two weeks later, then head to Bosnia in September 1993.
Nearly 12 years after his death, Abel's parents, Diana and David Abel of Sidney, were recently presented with the Dag Hammarskjold Medal - awarded to the mother or next of kin of those killed during peacekeeping operations under the UN's purview.
The Jan. 25 ceremony at the Prince Edward Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion in Langford provided much-needed closure for the Abels.
"This isn't mine, it's Michael's," a tearful Diana Abel said in accepting the medal.
The occasion was especially significant, given that the Abels were originally expected to receive the honour more than two years earlier, in the summer of 2002.
At that time, dozens of other families across Canada were presented with the same medal, named in honour of the second United Nations secretary-general, who was killed in a 1961 plane crash.
The Abels were in fact present at a similar ceremony in Langford in August 2002, along with several other Island families, and were appalled when their son's medal never arrived.
Diana Abel recalls her embarrassment at the being left out of the occasion, adding that "it was a slap in the face to the regiment and to my son."
Local Legion members and Airborne Regiment veterans were equally dismayed.
Katherine Boustead began calling Ottawa immediately, trying to find out what had happened. Initially, she was told that Cpl. Abel's family had already received the medal, a story that later changed to he "wasn't entitled" to the honour, Boustead explained.
Ultimately, Boustead took her appeal all they way to the UN headquarters in New York in an effort to solve what others described as a bureaucratic gaffe in Ottawa.
The mixup was perhaps complicated by the fact that Operation Deliverance was initially planned as a peacekeeping mission, but later became one of enforcement.
Boustead's efforts culminated in last week's ceremony, which included Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca MP Keith Martin; Lieut. Gen. Kent Foster, former commander of the Canadian Army; and Lt.-Col. Colin Magee, Abel's commanding officer in Somalia, who made the trip from Kansas, where he's currently an exchange officer with the U.S. military.
Magee remembers Abel as "an outstanding soldier."
"He was sharp, fit, capable," Magee said. "His loss was sorely felt throughout the regiment."
Although initially classified as a six-month peacekeeping mission, Magee said Operation Deliverance changed to an enforcement role by the time of deployment in December 1992, as rival warlords kept the country, particularly the northern region, in turmoil.
The mission itself was the subject of a commission of inquiry due to the death of a Somali civilian at the hands of Canadian soldiers, through which it was described in the resulting 1997 report as a "debacle" for the Canadian Armed Forces and perhaps the low point for Canada's contemporary military.
The commission, which made 160 recommendations in its report, concluded that the mission was profoundly lacking in leadership - organizational and systemic - which flowed through the ranks and ultimately resulted in the civilian death and attempted coverup.
The stigma attached to those events have come to overshadow many good things that went on during the mission, at least for Diana Abel.
In accepting the Dag Hammarskjold Medal, she suggested Canada's government owes the regiment - it was disbanded in 1995 - an apology for its treatment after Somalia.
"There should be a huge apology to all of you," she said. "We should be proud of our young men and women. They do a tremendous job under tremendous pressure."
While the regiment's role in the multinational task force was ultimately to protect aid workers, Magee said soldiers did a host of different jobs. Along with escorting aid convoys, conducting foot and vehicle patrols, searching for weapons and explosive ordnance, and disarming the rival warlords, soldiers also took it upon themselves to visit villages in the area and provide assistance themselves.
"They'd meet with the village elders and try to get an understanding of their needs, then help to get the things needed to improve the village's situation," Magee explained.
A nine-year veteran of the military when he went to Somalia, having enlisted shortly after graduating from high school in Sidney, Cpl. Abel relished the opportunity to work overseas and make a difference.
Abel's parents, who currently have a nephew serving in Afghanistan, described the paratrooper as a "very accomplished soldier." He'd achieved standing as a Pathfinder, the highest level of training within the regiment, putting him in to scout and secure location for the soldiers to follow. He was also a sharpshooter and at the top of his class throughout his training.
"He enjoyed what he was doing, so he went all out and did the best at whatever he was doing," said David Abel, a retired air force officer.
Although scheduled to go to Bosnia later that year, Cpl. Abel had also applied to receive training to become a medic, his father explained, because that was how he felt he could do the most good.
"He had a good vision of where he was going and who he was," he said.
While the delay in receiving the award was frustrating for the Abels, Diana Abel said they are ready to put it behind them.
"Why the holdup? We don't know," she said. "We'll probably never know, and at this point, I don't really want to
