Afghanistan 2009

Alliston soldier returning from Afghanistan

BY Staff April 30, 2009 17:04

An Alliston man will soon be home from an eight-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Heather Nichol-Hogan is waiting anxiously for her 22-year-old son, James Hogan, to return. He has been serving with the Armed Forces in Afghanistan since September.

"Right now I'm just counting minutes and days. He's my baby, I'm pretty excited to see him coming home," Nichol-Hogan said.

Hogan is expected home within the next few days, but his mother wasn't told exactly when he'd be arriving.

Hogan is part of the Royal Canadian Regiment based in CFB Petawawa, Ont.

He attended Banting Memorial High School.

'Thank you for your service here on Earth'

Mourners pay tribute to major whose death in Afghanistan is being investigated by military
May 02, 2009 04:30 AM

Ian Elliot
THE CANADIAN PRESS

KINGSTON, Ont. – Both of Maj. Michelle Mendes's families – military and civilian – said goodbye to her yesterday.

Eight days after she was found dead in her living quarters at Kandahar Air Field, a death that is still under investigation by the military, Mendes's body was returned to this eastern Ontario city for a funeral service at Sydenham Street United Church.

Mendes, 30, is one of 118 Canadian Forces members to die in Afghanistan.

Hundreds of mourners, many military, packed the church to pay their respects, a number openly weeping as the flag-draped casket was carried into the church by an honour guard from her Ottawa unit, the chief of defence intelligence (CDI) organization.

Her parents, Ron and Dianne Knight, clung to each other as they watched the pallbearers remove the casket from the hearse.

It, along with a small floral wreath with the banner CDI Family and Mendes's Afghanistan service medal, were carried on a cushion into the church.

As per military protocol, the honour guard carrying her casket was from her home unit, each one wearing the North Star insignia that denotes military intelligence, and a comrade from Afghanistan accompanied her body the entire trip still wearing his desert camouflage uniform.

Her sister Melissa, often confused with her lookalike sister when the two were teenage athletes growing up near Cobourg, Ont., delivered a moving eulogy for the young officer to the packed church.

"It breaks my heart that my little girls will never get to know you," she said, her voice breaking with emotion as she remembered the pair growing up on an apple farm near Grafton, Ont.

Her sister remembered how Mendes, known as "Mich" to her friends, thrived in the intellectual and athletic pressure cooker of Royal Military College and how she fell in love there with soccer coach Victor Mendes, whom she married after graduation.

She was immediately accepted by his family and the Portuguese community in Kingston, her sister recalled.

"She was so beautiful, inside and outside," Melissa said. "Maj. Michelle Mendes, we salute you.

"Thank you for your service here on Earth. We will always love you, until we meet you again."

Two of Mendes's classmates from RMC, Rebecca Barton and Amber Comisso, remembered her as an athletic overachiever, noting that she was the first person in the 2001 graduating class to achieve the rank of major, an appointment she earned just months before being posted to Afghanistan.

Mendes served in Afghanistan in 2006, but was repatriated to Canada after she was one of a number of Canadian soldiers injured in a friendly fire attack by an American jet that mistook them for enemy forces.

"We were so proud to have known her," said Barton. "Her beautiful, brilliant smile would light up any room she was in."

Alan Okros, a friend and former military member, said memories of Mendes will be those of someone more than just a first-rate officer.

"She was more than just a soldier," he said in his own eulogy, noting that she was remembered widely for her empathy and friendship as well as a promising military career.

"You served your country with honour," he said.

Her family has not spoken publicly since her death, but released a written statement yesterday thanking the public for their gestures of condolence.

"She was all Canadian – proud, strong and free," her family said.