Girl Guides of Canada run in the dark to support women in Afghanistan
Girl guides in Canada ran a race in the dark in March to raise awareness of gender inequality in Afghanistan, where women cannot freely run or walk outside.
Afghanistan
East York vet experienced Cold War in every way
When was 18 and in the Canadian Armed Forces, Ron Raby remembered going sleepless for days while stationed in the town of Soest, West Germany. It was 1953, during the Cold War.
“We had to sleep in tents, in weather below 45 degrees,” Raby said.
Afghanistan vet goes to brink on battlefield and at home
On March 4, 2009, Canadian soldier David Macdonald pulled ahead of his convoy on its way into Kandahar to ensure that a bridge ahead was safe. Fourteen days later he came out of a coma in a German hospital bed.
“I woke up … (and ) they told me about my injuries. I asked them where my platoon was and they said they were still back in Afghanistan,” MacDonald said. “That was far worse than hearing about any injuries I had.”
Legion offers assistance to families, veterans coping with PTSD
Jason Mullis waited patiently for the funeral to end. People paid their respects at a coffin draped with the Canadian flag and with flowers all around the gravesite.
“I knew something was different,” he said, “so I stood there for … hours waiting for everyone to leave.”
That’s when he finally spoke to Denise, the mother of the deceased veteran being buried. Mullis simply wanted to offer his assistance to her. He recognized the difficulties she might have faced as the mother of a former soldier who died by suicide.
Queen’s instructor recalls deployment to Afghanistan
As a civilian in Canada, Hans Christian Breede teaches. As a soldier in Afghanistan, he became a student again. “We were in awe at how (Afghans) live without all the creature comforts we here in Canada are so used to,” he said. In Kingston, Breede works at Queen’s University as an assistant professor of political studies. From September 2008 until the end of March 2009, Major Breede was deployed in Afghanistan serving with the Force Protection Company of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team.
Vet says adrenaline and training get soldiers through
At 5 a.m. each day while on duty, David Garcia woke up to the sound of the alarm, strapped on his gear and readied himself for anything and everything. “You are faced with tough decisions a lot of the time, but you don’t have a lot of time to react,” Garcia said.
Artillery soldier found satisfaction serving overseas
Canadian Forces soldier Matthew Jackson finds simple satisfaction in his work with artillery. “They are very satisfying to fire,” he said. “Although it makes me sound like a child, they are very loud and very fun to fire.”
Canadian Forces sergeant maintains Afghanistan connections
For Sylvia Rooker the war in Afghanistan came down to winning over the women civilians. “I got to know seven women there,” she said. “I would learn to speak their language and they loved that. They were not used to being treated with respect.”
Wounded Canadians to tour famous European battlefields
Canadian veteran Mark Chamberlain is training for a mission this spring. But it won’t put him in harm’s way. “This was a way to get the soldiers together … to talk about something that was common to them,” he said.
Walker generations reflect on service in Canadian Forces
In the summer of 2007, Bill Walker and his two sons stood on a bridge overlooking Highway 401. They were honouring a Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan. As the military convoy passed by, Walker’s eldest son had a proposition for his father.