Battle Scarred
A Canadian soldier goes off to do his duty as his country informs him he must. He faces injury, dismemberment or death in Afghanistan as part of the Canadian Forces established in Kandahar in company with other NATO forces in an attempt to keep the Taliban from resurging in the area. The idea of the mission is to help the country bring itself out of its long misery of a feudal society held hostage by a fundamentalist Islamic group.But this is not just any soldier. He's had previous stints of duty abroad, two missions in Bosnia as well, where the situation of factional, religious and societal-cultural violence was as inimical to one's health and well-being as is the potential for death in Afghanistan. Only three weeks earlier, this same soldier, Master Cpl. Collin Fitzgerald was awarded a Medal of Military Valour for exhibiting extreme courage on a battlefield.
This man, a weapons instructor stationed at Canadifn Forces Base Trenton, was, indeed, among the first recipients of the newly-struck Canadian Medal of Military Valour. He was recognized "for outstanding, selfless and valiant actions" carried out on May 24, 2006 during an ambush "involving intense accurate enemy fire".
According to the military account, Master Cpl. Fitzgerald "repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire by entering and re-entering a burning platoon vehicle and successfully driving it off the roadway, permitting the remaining convoy vehicles trapped in the enemy zone to break free".
Home at last, the soldier had visited a Sports Bar where some of the regulars to whom he was well known, welcomed and congratulated him. A handful of other young men, local hockey players, one of whom had a nasty reputation as a bully, had some words with Master Cpl. Fitzgerald. Young men who think of themselves as local sports heroes evidently do not take kindly to the presence of another local young man who has truly earned his hero's stripes.
As he sat at the bar he was suddenly struck from behind. And lost consciousness as he was beaten repeatedly by these brave home-town sportsmen. His attackers were pulled away from the unconscious man, the leader shouting out "what kind of f--king hero are you now". Their victim had a 10-stitch gash on his head, a foot broken in three places, a broken nose, chipped tooth and a black eye.
The attackers, later arrested, are just good kids practising to be good old boys, local goons whose idea of bravery is attacking a man from behind, four to his one, just to teach him that he needed to be humbled.
Labels: Heroes and Villains
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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