Today, on Canada's Highway of Heroes (photos)
Nov 21, 2015 3:21:19 GMT
peajays, roundtwo, and 5 more like this
Post by tallgirl on Nov 21, 2015 3:21:19 GMT
Today, my kids and I went out to Canada's Highway of Heroes to pay tribute to Canada's latest fallen soldier. John Robert Gallagher was a retired Canadian serviceman who, after retiring from our military, voluntarily joined a Kurdish paramilitary unit to fight against ISIS. A few weeks ago, he was killed in action.
Regardless of the fact that he was not an active Canadian serviceman at the time of his death, he was still paid the final respect due to our military. When a fallen soldier is repatriated to our country, their body is greeted by citizens on the overpasses and along the roadsides of the route their processional takes. John Robert Gallagher was from my community and so his processional took him within a 20 minute drive of my house. I took my kids out to the highway this afternoon to pay our respects.
When we first arrived, about an hour before the motorcade came through, people had already begun to gather on the overpass.
We took up a position alongside them. It was a cold but luckily clear and sunny day.
Police were out controlling traffic and ultimately shutting down the road to enable citizens to line the overpass and to allow the motorcade to come through.
Here is the motorcade exiting at our overpass en route to the fallen soldier's hometown. There were a few lead vehicles, followed by the hearse. What came next was most surprising and touching of all. There were hundreds of vehicles in the processional following the hearse that were full of Kurdish nationals, vehicles plastered with photos of John Robert and the Kurdish flag. They all had the windows rolled down and were leaning out those windows flashing the peace sign and honking their horns incessantly. They were so thankful that he had taken up the fight against their enemy and that we had turned out to pay him our respects. It was incredibly touching and eye opening. My kids had a PA day today, which is why I was off work, and I feel like they just received a priceless first-hand lesson in humility, geography, politics, you name it. My son has been following the Paris attacks news story in class and this was a great way to supplement that.
After the processional passed, heading back to our vehicles. It was a long walk. The turnout was wonderful.
Thanks for looking.
Regardless of the fact that he was not an active Canadian serviceman at the time of his death, he was still paid the final respect due to our military. When a fallen soldier is repatriated to our country, their body is greeted by citizens on the overpasses and along the roadsides of the route their processional takes. John Robert Gallagher was from my community and so his processional took him within a 20 minute drive of my house. I took my kids out to the highway this afternoon to pay our respects.
When we first arrived, about an hour before the motorcade came through, people had already begun to gather on the overpass.
We took up a position alongside them. It was a cold but luckily clear and sunny day.
Police were out controlling traffic and ultimately shutting down the road to enable citizens to line the overpass and to allow the motorcade to come through.
Here is the motorcade exiting at our overpass en route to the fallen soldier's hometown. There were a few lead vehicles, followed by the hearse. What came next was most surprising and touching of all. There were hundreds of vehicles in the processional following the hearse that were full of Kurdish nationals, vehicles plastered with photos of John Robert and the Kurdish flag. They all had the windows rolled down and were leaning out those windows flashing the peace sign and honking their horns incessantly. They were so thankful that he had taken up the fight against their enemy and that we had turned out to pay him our respects. It was incredibly touching and eye opening. My kids had a PA day today, which is why I was off work, and I feel like they just received a priceless first-hand lesson in humility, geography, politics, you name it. My son has been following the Paris attacks news story in class and this was a great way to supplement that.
After the processional passed, heading back to our vehicles. It was a long walk. The turnout was wonderful.
Thanks for looking.
