‘True heroes’ mourned
Hundreds attend emotional service
at CFB Petawawa
Sep. 9, 2006. 01:00 AM
STEVE RENNIE
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
PETAWAWA, Ont.—A small military community on the upper Ottawa River said farewell yesterday to five of its own, killed earlier this week in Afghanistan.
Warrant Officers Richard Nolan and Frank Mellish, Sgt. Shane Stachnik, Pte. William Cushley and Pte. Mark Graham died “fighting the good fight, because some things are worth fighting and dying for,” said Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, the military’s chief of land staff.
“They fought because they’re Canadian soldiers and that’s what we do when we see injustice, poverty and oppression,” he said.
The memorial service at CFB Petawawa for the soldiers was an emotional hour-and-a-half event punctuated by fleeting levity and ample sniffling.
“Soldiers of the Royal Canadian Regiment know this act well,” Padre Christopher Ryan, chaplain of the 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, solemnly declared at the ceremony’s onset.
Nolan, Mellish, Stachnik and Cushley were killed Sunday night during a fierce battle with insurgents near Kandahar.
Graham, a 33-year-old former Olympian, was killed a day later when two American A-10 Thunderbolts accidentally strafed Canadian troops.
Meanwhile, eight Canadian soldiers wounded in the same A-10 attack were treated this week at a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
All five of the fallen Canadian soldiers were based at CFB Petawawa, about 120 kilometres northwest of Ottawa. CFB Petawawa supplies 1,300 troops currently in Afghanistan and has lost nine soldiers since 2002, said base spokesman Capt. Scott Spurr.
About 1,700 people gathered inside a humid drill hall at the north end of the base to pay their final respects to the five dead troops. Soldiers clad in forest green dress uniforms occupied much of the rear of the hall, while the soldiers’ loved ones sat near the front.
Five framed photographs of the soldiers stood before a simple wooden cross and three flags — the Canadian flag, and two military flags. Two projector screens flashed slide shows of the five soldiers before the ceremony began.
Col. Dennis Thompson, the brigade group’s commander, call the soldiers “true Canadian heroes” who knew the risks of serving in Afghanistan.
“No words can capture the depth of emotion that we feel,” he said. “Make no mistake, we’re hurting.”
Master Cpl. Jamie Smith dabbed at his tearing eyes with a white handkerchief as he spoke of his friend Nolan. Smith said he angrily wondered, “Who are the bastards who did this to my friend?” when he first learned of Nolan’s death.
Sgt. Mike McNeil recited a poem called “A Soldier” that began: “I was that which others did not want to be. I went where others feared to go, and did what others failed to do.” He said it was a favourite of his cousin, Mellish, whom he called a “real hero.”
Emotion rendered Errol Cushley’s voice barely audible when he gave a short eulogy for his son. “He is now a part of the Royal Canadian Regiment forever,” he said.
Pte. Adam White recalled a time when Graham eased his nerves by reciting a Bible passage, Joshua 1:9, which White later had tattooed on his arm; “Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed,” it reads.
Lt.-Col. Alan Mulawyshyn, the commanding officer of Stachnik’s 2 Combat Engineer Regiment, said the soldier was a “classic example of quiet and calm” who could be described by one word: dedicated.
“Engineers have a saying: first in, last out,” Mulawyshyn said. “Unfortunately, this time, he will not be last out.”
