We owe the dead soldiers our attention - C. Blatchford, Globe & Mail

[Yrys]

We owe the dead soldiers our attention

I've seen ramp ceremonies at Kandahar Air Field, repatriation ceremonies
at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, stood on an overpass above the Highway
of Heroes as soldiers' bodies were brought to the coroner's office in downtown
Toronto and twice followed at breakneck speed such a cortège along this route.

I've watched one or another end of the long goodbye in person and on television,
and yesterday, for the first time, I watched the ceremony at Trenton on my laptop,
because neither of the country's two major all-news networks (including the CBC,
the alleged national broadcaster) could be bothered to carry the ceremony live.

This, by the by, enrages me.

As it turns out, it takes less than a half-hour to unload the coffins of three young
servants of Canada from the airplane, solemnly march them one by one to waiting
hearses and have them met by various huddles of their weeping and stricken
relatives. It doesn't seem too much to ask of the networks that they air each of
these ceremonies, which possess more inherent dignity and grace than almost
anything else on the small screen. Why do you suppose the vast majority of the
families left behind decide to allow the media on the tarmac at Trenton? It is their
call, always, and when they say yes, it is not so we will ignore the ceremonies,
but rather so we will show them and report on them and perhaps, through this
coverage, that this will encourage others to stop and notice.

It is curious to me that I am compulsively drawn to these things. It's as if I need
to suffer a little - if not physically, as the infantry likes to do, then emotionally -
so as to keep the pain fresh and live.

Yesterday, the returning young men were Privates Justin Jones and John Curwin
and Corporal Thomas Hamilton, all from the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Canadian
Regiment, which is based in CFB Gagetown. They were the 101st, 102nd and
103rd soldiers to die in Afghanistan since Canada first went there in 2002. Their
collective age totalled 73, which is a year older than my father was when he died.

Cpl. Hamilton was called "Hammy," of course; I have a Hammy too, a soldier I
know and love from my time in Afghanistan and who is one of the central figures
in my book about Canadian troops. My Hammy took one look at my increasingly
haggard face not so long ago and said he suspected I felt I owed the troops something,
which was, he said, "of course horseshit." But it isn't, and in fact I feel we all owe
the soldiers, at the very least, our attention.

Cpl. Hamilton was the highest ranking of the soldiers killed on Saturday, so it was
his casket that was off-loaded first, and his family whose members walked to the
first hearse. Their faces disappeared one at a time into the dim of the vehicle, out
of sight from the TV cameras, but I could see someone lifting his little daughter
Annabelle, who is 4, up and into the back of the car.  She wore pink snow pants and
a purple ski jacket. Cpl. Hamilton was due to fly home on Christmas Day for leave,
and according to his ex-wife, Heather Peace, who spoke to the Daily Gleaner in
Fredericton, he was planning to take Annabelle skating for the first time.

Pte. Curwin's casket was next. One of his relatives was on a motorized scooter.
Born and raised in Mount Uniacke, N.S., Pte. Curwin was so proud of his hometown
that he wrote to the local paper and asked if they could help him get a Mount Uniacke
flag. Sure enough, they did, and he proudly posed with it in Kandahar and sent the
pictures back home. He and his wife Laurie, childhood sweethearts, have three young children.

Pte. Jones's casket was the last off the plane. Among his pallbearers was a young
soldier so tall he had to hunch down so as to not throw the others off, and among
his mourners was a Mountie, in bright red dress, and a woman in a wheelchair.

It was at this moment that the cameras moved to the dignitaries, among them
the tiny, and lovely, Governor-General, Michaëlle Jean. Her head was bent low,
but behind her dark sunglasses she must have been crying, because she was
wiping her face with a sodden tissue.

I was at her house, Rideau Hall, just last week, to receive an award my book
won. I'm not sure of the protocol of all this, but I liked her immensely, and was
most struck by her interest in and empathy for our soldiers, this woman who
was born and raised in Haiti, and whose family fled to Canada in 1968.

François (Papa Doc) Duvalier, the first but not the last dictator in his family,
was in charge then, notorious for the paramilitary thugs called the tontons macoutes.

For the Governor-General, as with other Haitians of that era, the uniform must
have meant fear, death and terror. Now she is the commander-in-chief of the Canadian
Forces, in a country where the uniform is worn, in Quebec, by young men and women
who helped put that province back together after the infamous 1998 ice storm, and in
Toronto, by young men and women asked by a hysterical mayor to come and shovel
the snow, and in Manitoba, by young men and women who saved homes in the Red River floods.

Hers is a remarkable journey, and that she is able to embrace Canadian soldiers,
as she has, is testament to her and soldiers both. To the families of Cpl. Hamilton,
Pte. Curwin and Jones of Baie Verte, Nfld., she said in part, "May they know that they
are not alone to shed tears for these three irreplaceable men. Not only were they
courageous, they were proud to serve their country with all their skills and might to
help the people of Afghanistan, torn by decades of war and profound misery."

It was a nice bit of symmetry; Cpl. Hamilton had also served in Haiti.

 

[PuckChaser]

Such a fantastic article, Christie always seems to strike an emotional cord in the reader with her writing.

 

[pbi]

She is a great writer, and  IMHO has done more to inform the people of Canada about our army and our fight in Afghanistan than some people who get paid by the taxpayer to do it.

At first, I had very mixed opinions about the whole public ramp ceremony, the media attention, the Highway of Heroes, all of that. I guess that I saw it as "too American", and I was worried  that the Canadian people would lose heart and turn against us very quickly. After attending seven ramp ceremonies in Trenton and one in KAF, I've changed my  mind completely.


This process does several good and important things. First of all, it ensures that every single soldier who dies for Canada in that fight is a real person: a name, a face, a story and a family. They aren't just  faceless statistics, brought home in the dark and buried out of the nation's eye and attention. The Canadian people, who traditionally have known so little about their own Army (and often cared even less...) have been brought face to face with us as real human beings. I am sure that in many cases it has shattered stereotypes that too many of our fellow citizens held about us.

Second, it reminds all Canadians that our country is involved in a war. To the limited extent that any Canadian actually thinks much about foreign policy and security issues, it reminds them that the world is a dangerous place, filled with people who are quite happy to use violence indiscriminately to get what they want.  I think that this is part of a whole sea change that has happened in this country, represented by everything from the huge number of books on Canadian military history appearing in stores to the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Beechwood Cemetery to the movie Passchendaele to the regularity with which the PM and  the MND visit troops on operations (and actually wear their helmets the right way round..)

Third, it brings senior leadership (GG, MND, CDS, CLS and other senior officers and Command CWOs) face to face with the grieving families in a very intimate and private setting. What the public and the media never see is what  happens in the private family room in the Trenton AMU, where these VIPs must look mothers and fathers in the eye and own up, personally, to the responsibility of sending their loved one to his death. They  must then stand on the ramp and watch those families struggle with pain and suffering that is so intense that some of them need help just to walk.  I have seen our Governor General, who so many ignorant Canadians seem to enjoy mocking,  hug a grieving soldier and spend private moments with a wife who has lost her husband. This is very different from sitting behind your desk in Ottawa or getting a casualty brief on PowerPoint. I think  that this direct exposure is vitally important: it reminds our leaders of the human cost of political decisions.

Fourth, it shows those families a degree of respect and honour that most of them have never experienced. Without exception, the families that I have seen at Trenton are common, ordinary decent Canadians who probably drink beer, pay taxes and struggle with life just like all the rest of us. They are crushed by their loss, but what always amazes me is the strength and dignity that they somehow manage to show. They are very well taken care of (as they bloody well should be...) but I'm sure it's still very overwhelming for them to be surrounded by that intense, sombre military environment in which they and their dead loved ones are the centre of attention. During that ceremony they realize, if they didn't already know, what "military family" means. I just hope that care and support continues after the funeral. I served through a period in which we certainly did not treat the families of dead soldiers very well, at all: we have had to learn the hard way about that, over at least a decade. But, I do believe that we have learned.

Finally, it gives other ordinary Canadians a chance to pay their respects. The first time I saw the turnout along the Highway of Heroes, it brought tears.  I wondered for a second what country I was in. For old guys like me who joined back in the 70's, when the military was almost completely forgotten (except when we did something bad), and in a time when going into a bar or walking downtown in uniform  in Toronto was an invitation to at least an insulting comment if not a fight, this is a change of astronomical proportions. As the Ontario representative for my Regiment, I've been involved in officially thanking the police, fire and EMS services who faithfully line the route along the Highway of Heroes. The letters of response we have received back from these organizations are filled with words of respect and praise for Canada's soldiers.  Even the designation of "Highway of Heroes" was unthinkable for most of my time in service.

So, I'm a believer. I hope we never have any  more ramps, but I know that's wishful thinking. If we do, at least we know how to do it right.

Cheers


pbi

 

[muskrat89]

Thanks pbi. Your thoughts and observations are as stirring as Ms. Blatchford's, and equally well-presented.

 

[Haggis]

BZ, PBI.  Well said.

When the first four were killed in 2002, I was sitting at home watching the repatriation ceremony on TV.  One of the four, Marc Leger, was a friend of mine.  On the tarmac was all the dignitaries: Chretien, the CDS Gen Heneault, the GG et al.  I watched and answered my familes questions as I was about to embark on a tour in Bosnia.  Then, out of the blue, my wife turned to me and asked "If you come home in a box, will Chretien be standing next to me, too?"

During that Bosnia tour two soliders died.  One in a road accident and one by his own hand.  Concurrently, three were killed "in combat" in Kabul.  The differences in the way the repaitriations were handled was stark. Just do a quick search of the "Combat Camera" site simply to see the differences in the coverage afforded the deceased by our own Public Affairs team.

A soldier who dies on exercise in Canada or by accident while deployed is just as dead as his comrade who died in combat.  All died in the service of Canada. Thier familes grieve the same way.  They should all be treated the same.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Unintentionally, I know, pbi may leave the impression that our Second World War casualties were ignored. That was not the case.

I’m sure there were days when the casualty lists were so long that local daily papers could focus only on local casualties but, in early 1943 for example, the national and local press gave front page coverage, for two or three days in a row, to the loss of a warship with “only” 30-40 dead.

And, in 1943, the media were not averse to ‘ambushing’ grief stricken widows and parents. There were few padres and unit officers to call on the families – most often a telegram was delivered by a ‘telegraph boy’ (but usually mature men were singled out for that task) and too often the reporters and photographers were only a few steps behind because some telegraph office employees ‘sold’ casualty notification names/addresses to the daily papers.

Sudden, violent death is always news and the media will always give it prominence – until something else is more “interesting.”

But I echo Blatchford’s and pbi’s regard for the (appropriate) dignity and solemnity which H.E. Michaëlle Jean and other senior officials and officers bring to these sad events.

 

[Rifleman62]

The article Ms Blatchford wrote was superb. But did you read the comments posted by readers of the piece.? It absolutely sickened me that Canadians would write those comments. To bad there is not a method to educate these citizens. They have false bravery in anonymity to post such drivel.

Greetings pbi.

 

[Haggis]

The article Ms Blatchford wrote was superb. But did you read the comments posted by readers of the piece.? It absolutely sickened me that Canadians would write those comments. To bad there is not a method to educate these citizens. They have false bravery in anonymity to post such drivel.

Unfortunately (or thankfully?) I cannot see the comments page.

 

[GDawg]

My resolution for 2008 was to not post on the Globe and Mail article threads. The one time I did post was to say that Christie Blatchford was the only redeeming feature of the G&M, another fine article! Her "comrades" should ask her how to write a news article without needlessly infusing it with political bias.

 

[pbi]

Hi Rifleman!!! Good to hear from you again. How is "Life After...?"

On the subject of mindless "rantposts" by ill-informed or just plain mouth-breathing people, I feel the same way. It's so bad that I'm finding myself not even bothering to respond to these idiots, where once I would have weighed in automatically.  Yes: everyone has the right to express themselves, but shouldn't there be a responsibility to think first before touching the keyboard? When I read some of these rabid, hate-filled spewings of nonsense, usually created out of the latest Internet myth, never based on much useful fact, and nearly always peddling stereotypes of the military, the US, etc. it makes me wonder how representative these trolls are of the total population. On the other hand, I really have to ask the question: how good a job has actually been done to educate the average Canadian about the situation in Afghanistan and our mission there?


Cheers

pbi

 

[George Wallace]

On the subject of mindless "rantposts" by ill-informed or just plain mouth-breathing people, I feel the same way. It's so bad that I'm finding myself not even bothering to respond to these idiots, where once I would have weighed in automatically.

 

pbi

Perhaps you have the most appropriate response to so many of those ill-informed posts with your own words:

Yes: everyone has the right to express themselves, but shouldn't there be a responsibility to think first before touching the keyboard? When I read some of these rabid, hate-filled spewings of nonsense, usually created out of the latest Internet myth, never based on much useful fact, and nearly always peddling stereotypes of the military, the US, etc. it makes me wonder how representative these trolls are of the total population.

Your following question is quite a legitimate one, but it lays the blame solely on the CF and Government, not on the mindlessness of those who are too lazy to do their own research, but rely on a very small minority of "Trolls" to spew propaganda supporting their own agendas.

On the other hand, I really have to ask the question: how good a job has actually been done to educate the average Canadian about the situation in Afghanistan and our mission there?

 

[pbi]

George Wallace: you're right to say that a big part of the problem is the sheer intellectual laziness and lack of inquisitiveness of too many Canadians. People who think that being well informed means listening to the 45 second news break on their daytime radio music show seem to make up a large percentage of those who post. But, over the past few years, in various places in Canada, I've become convinced that a much more aggressive and forthright information program was needed, early on, to educate our people. Sadly, if such a program were started up now it would immediately be dismissed as "war propaganda". If, for example, we want Canadians to wear seatbelts, or stop smoking, or whatever, we don't rely on the hope that they might go to some govt website and educate themselves. We put on a full court press of posters, TV ads, billboards, media sessions, etc. Maybe I'm being unrealistic here but I very strongly believe  that the education of  the Canadian people has just not happened. For example, how many Canadians know about the work that the folks from DFAIT, RCMP, CIDA and CSC are doing in Kandahar? How many know that Elissa Golberg, the Representative of Canada in Kandahar (RoCK) leads our effort co-equally with Gen Thompson (they both sign major op orders and civ folks take part in the planning process...) Have you ever heard her speak? No-all Canadians see is uniforms, because that's all they're shown.

Cheers

pbi

 

[Gunner98]

I think the information campaign is affected by several issues:

1.  We do not publish our non-fatal battle casualty numbers because that would expose too much intelligence that the bad guys could exploit
2.  We don't publish much of the good things we do because it might expose those doing it to more attention from the bad guys
3.  We publish a lot about our fallen soldiers and their families which brings forth an imbalance between support, pity and criticism
4.  We document the ceremonies where deserved meritorious medal winners are honoured

I think we owe more than our dead soldiers our attention.  I think Canadians need people to truly stand behind our troops and deployed civilians - those fighting, injured, treating, administrating and resupplying.  IMHO transparency of the mission would have larger benefits than any perceived threats. 

Those injured soldiers that speak out, draw attention or go on to have their stories captured and promoted by print media and book writers are in the minority.  Meanwhile our military health care system is criticized for its inability to adapt to the current situation based on the auditor general's audit team reports. 

When the CF was busy doing peace-keeping missions there seemed to be a bigger emphasis on the good works of those wearing blue-helmets and berets.  Somewhere along the way our military-related headlines now focus on the suffering of Afghan civilians and detainees or the marketing of only our brave, meritorious or fallen soldiers.  The work of the majority of the troops and civilians has become not worthy of media coverage.  Is this a matter of operational security, safety, pride, newsworthiness or transparency, or is it a matter of what sells advertising, newspapers and books.  If it isn't fatal, guilt-worthy or medal-worthy it just isn't interesting.

Is it a matter of what the main stream media is being allowed to publish as the unabridged truth or what the non-serving population is wanting to hear?

IMHO, I think the average Canadian is and would continue to be interested in the broader picture.

 

[NL_engineer]

2.  We don't publish much of the good things we do because it might expose those doing it to more attention from the bad guys

Even when the media is told, it doesn't make the news.  Good news just doesn't sell, and even if it makes the news it usually is near the end (paper or TV/Radio).

 

[Haggis]

How many know that Elissa Golberg, the Representative of Canada in Kandahar (RoCK) leads our effort co-equally with Gen Thompson (they both sign major op orders and civ folks take part in the planning process...) Have you ever heard her speak? No-all Canadians see is uniforms, because that's all they're shown.

Which makes it easier to pin blame on "the military" when (if?) the mission ultimately "fails" and we are pulled out by the Iggy/Jack/Duceppe coalition.

 

[pbi]

IMHO, I think the average Canadian is and would continue to be interested in the broader picture.

I think they would, too. In those situations (usually at speaking engagements rather than in the mass media) where a soldier or a Govt rep with theatre experience explains the full scope of what we're doing, the audience is pleasantly surprised and often realizes how little it knew about what we are doing there. I've experienced this as a speaker myself. I don't blame the media: if you look closely and broadly enough, you will see that in fact there have been many good stories in both print and electronic media. My impression is that the reporters and writers who actually do deal with our forces or our Govt people in Kandahar are positively impressed. I still think that a much greater effort needs to be made to educate Canadians, by all means available. But I don't know how to do that without it being dismissed as a "massive war propaganda campaign by the Tories".

Cheers

pbi