‘We’re never going to forget.’ Silver Cross father remembers son killed in Afghanistan

HALIFAX – “I’ll never forget his smile when we said goodbye to each other. I don’t know who broke that stare first, me or him. I think I turned my head away and got into my cab and put my head in my hands and I cried.”

“That’s how I say goodbye to Paul.”

The emotional words of Memorial Cross recipient Jim Davis were read at Halifax’s Grand Parade on Wednesday morning during this year’s Remembrance Day ceremony.

Davis said those goodbyes to his son, Cpl. Paul James Davis, in January 2006 before he boarded a plane to Afghanistan.

Six weeks later on March 2, Cpl. Davis was killed in an armoured vehicle roll-over outside Kandahar. The Bridgewater, N.S. native was 28-years-old.

“Not only am I here to honour my boy’s memory but I’m here to represent all the families of the fallen soldiers from all the great wars,” Jim Davis told Global News after the ceremony.

“I’m at a loss of words to describe it. It’s overwhelming.”

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Hundreds of people, young and old, packed into Grand Parade for the ceremony which paid tribute to veterans of conflicts past and missions more recent in memory.

This was the first Remembrance Day ceremony since the Halifax cenotaph was updated to include the Afghan mission.

For Warrant Officer Shon Burwell, who served two missions in Afghanistan, the tribute is meaningful.

“With the Canadian soldier, every day is Remembrance Day. There is usually not a day that goes by that you don’t think about brothers you lost overseas,” he said.

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“It’s very common for us to walk down the street and get thanked for what we do. It’s kind of nice that we can give back this day and be proud and put our uniforms on and thank the Canadian public for their support.”

Davis echoes that sentiment and hopes that show of support continues with this latest generation of veterans.

“There was a time I was worried that when our veterans get so old that once they’re all gone we would not remember. But you just look at the crowd today,” he said with a smile as a growing number of people gathered behind him to leave their poppies on the cenotaph.

“They’re never going to forget, we’re never going to forget and that’s wonderful.”