After a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan in support of the USA's war on terrorism, Canada's soldiers returned home. Their homecoming was tinged with both joy and grief. The families of those who returned safely to Canadian soil expressed the joy while the families whose loved ones were returned in coffins felt the grief.
In a departure from normal procedure, the bodies of the four Canadian soldiers were returned to Canada for burial. Their caskets, draped in the Canadian flag, were carried solemnly from the aircraft that bore them home. Normally, the bodies of Canadians who fall while engaged in the serious and dirty business of war, are laid to rest in established cemeteries in the countries in which they died or in a gravesite in a nearby country or committed to the ocean's deep; rarely are Canadian sailors, soldiers or airmen returned to Canada as were the four 3PPCLI soldiers.
Unlike the United States where every effort is made to return the bodies of servicemen killed in action overseas from the battle ground to the USA, Canada more closely follows the British system and the dead are interned where they fell. Some argue that by so doing, the dead are 'finishing the fight' and are not 'surrendering.' Others claim that the return to Canada of the dead Canadians shows a respect for their actions and signals a victory. In today's parlance, closure is a commodity much sought and the latter system certainly adds closure; moreover, it allows the dead serviceman's family an opportunity to pay their last respects in a time-honoured Canadian tradition, at a memorial service.
During the Korean War, 516 Canadians died defending the Charter of the United Nations. Of that number, 378 soldiers lie in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Pusan, South Korea. An additional 24 Canadians are buried in the Yokohama British Commonwealth War Cemetery in Japan. Included in that number are three Canadians from HMCS Iroquois killed when the ship took a direct hit from a Communist shore battery. Five sailors were lost overboard [one each from HMCS Nootka, Cayuga and Athabaskan] and two died when the Canadian Pacific Air flight from Vancouver to Tokyo went down on July 21st, 1951. Sixteen Canadians are commemorated on the Commonwealth Memorial to those who fell in the Korean War and who have no known grave. Ninety-three Canadians who died as a result of the Korean War are buried in Canada.
The outpouring of grief by Canadians over the loss of four members of the Third Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry [3PPCLI] while on a live-ammunition exercise in Afghanistan was commendable and showed a side of Canada that is not often seen by either the military or the civilian population. Sadly, that outpouring of support may fade and once again, Canadians will take their military for granted, if they think at all of the sailors, soldiers and airmen who serve Canada admirably.
The four Canadians who died in Afghanistan died in the defence of freedom; hopefully Canadians will not soon forget the sacrifice made by the soldiers in their battle of greater good over lesser evil.
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
Advertising Information 
