A memorial to Canadian soldiers who died in Afghanistan has found a permanent home in Trenton, Ont.
The Camp Mirage cairn made a rare journy home from the United Arab Emirates where it stood at a Canadian training facility in 2005.
“The monument served as a place where personnel from Camp Mirage could gather to honour, remember and grieve our fallen,” said Defence Minister Peter Mackay. “There is no doubt that Trenton has an intimate connection to our military. The monument is now fittingly displayed at the National Air Force Museum of Canada where it will be for us, and for future generations, to remember the sacrifices of some of the bravest Canadians.”
Mackay unveiled the memorial exhibit at CFB Trenton, located about two hours east of Toronto, on Wednesday. The base has been the site of most of the repatriation ceremonies for those soldiers commemorated in the memorial.
The homecoming of this “historically significant” artifact is not only important for the soldiers, but the Canadians for whom they served, according to the official historian for the war in Afghanistan.
“Putting up a monument in remembrance to the sacrifices of this particular conflict are not just for we the living, but for our descendents,” said Sean Maloney, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and the official historian. “Our descendents need to understand part of the society that they are part of participated in these things for good reasons.”
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A large, black granite pyramid chock full of memorial plaques is the centerpiece of the trio of structures that make up the monument. Two large stone walls flank either side of the pyramid and continue the collection of brass plaques – one for each of the Canadian soldiers who died in Afghanistan.
A scene of an angel holding a soldier cast in metal anchors one wall. The other wall is blank; a stark reminder that the losses may continue into the training mission.
“This Cairn was placed here in memory of Canadians who have given their lives in support of this mission,” says an inscription on another stone in front of the memorial. “The Cairn belongs to all Canadians and visitors who wish to pay their respects.”
The indoor monument is set amongst a small lawn – reminiscent of the rare grass that grew around it in the desert.
“Normally, cairns and monuments made by soldiers on the battlefield commemorating their fallen have stayed in place,” said Major Michael Boire, adding that the repatriation will bring the war home for soldiers and Canadians.
Boire said the repatriation of memorials mirrors the return of the bodies of fallen soldiers, a practice that only started after the Korean War.
“Before that it was government policy to bury the boys in the field where they fell,” he said. “Canadians insist the boys come home now.”
Canadians have also erected an inuksuk in Kandahar Airfield, which is dedicated to the memory of all coalition soldiers killed while fighting in Afghanistan. It was built in July 2002 by members of the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.
Another memorial at the airfield features an aboriginal totem and a flag of the Joint Task Force Afghanistan logo and is dedicated to the Canadians killed in Afghanistan.
Maloney says the monument, along with the two others in Afghanistan, should be consolidated into a singular memorial or else Afghanistan may be doomed to fall out of the national memory.
“None of us were alive, but we know about (World War One) in part because of the local reminders we have around,” he said. “Those sacrifices are remembered, but if you look at the Boer War, who remembers the Boer War in Canada?”
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