The Way home – Legion Magazine

What began as a grassroots tribute to Canada’s fallen from Afghanistan 20 years in the past developed into Highways of Heroes throughout the nation

Within the three nice wars of the twentieth century, Canadian troopers had been buried within the international locations the place they died. Since 1970, Canadian navy personnel who died overseas have been introduced house for burial—principally unnoticed by most of the people.

However the warfare in Afghanistan produced a gentle stream of caskets that didn’t go unheeded or unheralded.  

The 158 Canadian Armed Forces members who died in Afghanistan had been flown to eight Wing, Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario the place a ramp ceremony was carried out. Then they had been transported some 170 kilometres west on Freeway 401 to the morgue in Toronto. 

The repatriation ceremony for the primary 4 troopers—Sergeant Marc Léger, Corporal Ainsworth Dyer and privates Richard Inexperienced and Nathan Smith—all killed on April 17, 2002—was broadcast stay from the bottom and, like a flash, phrase of the funeral procession unfold. 

Veterans, navy personnel, firefighters and police, and their households dwelling close to Freeway 401 headed for overpasses close to their communities to pay respect to the troopers and their households. 

Pete Fisher, a journalist in Cobourg, Ont., heard concerning the motorcade from his father, a retired firefighter. Fisher alerted the native emergency providers dispatcher and headed for the freeway together with his digital camera to doc the impromptu show of assist and patriotism.  

“It’s a sense laborious to explain,” mentioned Fisher. “Individuals needed to indicate their assist [and] let the households of the fallen know they weren’t alone.”

That message was clear to Don and Laurie Greenslade of Saint John, N.B., as they travelled the route in 2007, escorting the physique of their son, Personal David Robert Greenslade, Royal Canadian Regiment, who was amongst six Canadian troopers killed Easter Sunday that 12 months in Afghanistan. 

“It was overwhelming,” mentioned Don. “Seeing the indicators, and the individuals, the flags, the assist…it’s laborious to clarify the sensation.

“My son won’t ever be forgotten.”

Because the warfare dragged on and extra motorcades wended their manner down the freeway, nice numbers of individuals flocked to overpasses to take part in what grew to become an unofficial ceremony. They had been usually wearing pink and carried Canadian flags or flags of the troopers’ house provinces.

Individuals had “the will or must really feel a way of belonging to the nationwide group in a time of nationwide disaster,” wrote Tracey Raney in, “Patriotisms of the Individuals: Understanding the “Freeway of Heroes” as a Canadian Nationwide Landmark,” a chapter in Landscapes and Landmarks of Canada: Actual, Imagined, (Re)Considered.

The ceremonies gave Canadians a approach to specific patriotism in a manner that transcended their variations, she wrote. One participant even waved the Quebec flag, telling Raney, “since you simply don’t see them round right here…I’m attempting to indicate the households that all of us care.” 

“The freeway bridges grew to become areas upon which Canadians might collectively grieve the warfare losses of the ‘Canadian’ nationwide household in a manner not seen earlier than in Canadian historical past,” wrote Raney, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan College. 

In 2007, journalist Joe Warmington coined the phrase “Freeway of Heroes” and that summer season naval reservist James (Jay) Forbes gathered greater than 65,000 signatures on a petition in a profitable marketing campaign to have Ontario formally rename the 172-kilometres of the 401 between Trenton and Toronto the Freeway of Heroes. 

Ontario’s Freeway of Heroes is barely the primary leg of the journey for navy personnel en path to burials in hometowns throughout the nation. In what Raney dubbed “grassroots patriotism,” steadily all provinces and the Northwest Territories named their very own Freeway of Heroes, although in Alberta it’s generally known as Veterans Memorial Freeway and in Quebec as Autoroute du Memento (Remembrance Freeway). 

These thoroughfares function everlasting memorials to the nation’s troopers, sailors and air crew. However the concept of a nationwide memorial freeway in Canada stretches again greater than a century. 

There was a time in Canada when highways didn’t run…nicely, collectively. 

Civic leaders thought that simply as Confederation had been the driving power behind the development of a railway crossing the continent, so too, might the First World Warfare encourage a nationwide challenge: a memorial freeway uniting the nation.  

In March 1916, the Canadian Municipal Journal floated the thought of a transcontinental artery that “could be a nationwide monument to Canadian religion and virility.” The next 12 months, the journal expanded on the thought: the challenge might present employment for returning troopers and individuals who misplaced their jobs as warfare industries shuttered; it might hyperlink cities and provinces and entice vacationers; and it could enable entry to untapped pure assets.

“Such a freeway could be the very best monument that the individuals of Canada might construct in reminiscence of these splendid sons who’ve given their lives in her trigger on the fields of Flanders. Such a highway could be an actual peace monument,” a reminder to following generations “that Canada had executed her responsibility presently of democracy’s trial.” 

In 1918, the journal exhorted Canadians to consider postwar reconstruction. The “3,500 miles [5,600 kilometres of highway] to hyperlink up the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans would price in spherical figures $75,000,000.” (The equal of greater than $125 billion in the present day.) “An enormous sum, however none too giant for such a objective.”

However a rustic in mourning, vowing the sacrifice would by no means be forgotten, and with no gravesites to go to, favoured everlasting memorials carved from stone or wrought of steel, incised with names of the lifeless and, usually, the battles through which they fought. In communities throughout the nation monuments giant and small had been commissioned by extraordinary people, church buildings and native organizations, colleges and companies.

Canada and the Dominion of Newfoundland erected bigger memorials in Europe on the grounds the place their troopers fought, died and had been buried. The Canadian Nationwide Vimy Memorial was devoted in France in July 1936 and the Nationwide Warfare Memorial was unveiled in Ottawa in 1939. 

Some communities took a extra pragmatic strategy, founding memorial universities, excessive colleges and hospitals, gardens and roads. However there was no nationwide com-
memorative freeway. Development on the Trans-Canada Freeway began after the Second World Warfare and was largely accomplished within the Nineteen Sixties. It was not named a memorial,
however it’s a image of nationwide unity. 

“Individuals needed to present their assist [and] let the households of the fallen know they weren’t alone.”

Though the unique Freeway of Heroes is in Ontario, many Canadians contemplate it a nationwide memorial—the physique of each serviceman and servicewoman travels it on the preliminary a part of the journey to his or her hometown. 

In November 2011, Grasp Corporal Byron Greff, who had served with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Mild Infantry, travelled the Freeway of Heroes, the 158th—and final—Canadian soldier repatriated from Canada’s warfare in Afghanistan. 

However the Trenton to Toronto stretch of the freeway continues as a practical memorial, and folks proceed to crowd the overpasses as funeral processions go by, doing so even through the pandemic. 

In 2020, one Ontario veteran drove greater than two hours to spend 15 seconds in silent reverence for the passing funeral procession of a CAF member killed in a helicopter crash off the coast of Greece. 

“I’m right here in respect of the lifeless troopers,” mentioned veteran Maggie Van Tassell in an interview with Fisher. “There may be household and mates again in Nova Scotia and throughout Canada that may’t be right here. So it’s a must to be right here for them.”

Ontarians proceed to be there for the freeway, too, cleansing and beautifying it. 

The Freeway of Heroes presents Canadians a bodily area to collectively specific their ʻCanadianness,’ remarked Raney. “The general public’s response to Canadian navy warfare deaths in Afghanistan was deeply related to a way of nationwide pleasure, identification, and belonging to the Canadian nation.”

Ontario’s Undertake-a-Freeway program was established to encourage native teams to assemble to wash up the shoulders of provincial roads. In 2016, Kerri Tadeu, Corporal Nick Kerr and retired Grasp Corporal Collin Fitzgerald adopted 1.2 kilometres on the Freeway of Heroes in honour of Tadeu’s buddy Main Michelle Knight-Mendes who died in Afghanistan in 2009. In 2017, they spent 21 days cleansing the part. 

“We then had the thought to undertake the whole 172 kilometres of the Freeway of Heroes,” Tadeu mentioned in an interview with Fisher. Since 2017, twice annual cleanups have been organized alongside the route. 

Over the past 5 years, the volunteer pool has grown to incorporate neighborhood and youth teams, Royal Canadian Legion branches, police, hearth and emergency personnel, in addition to veterans and serving members of the navy. Collectively they’ve collected 1000’s of baggage of rubbish.

Though the main target is cleansing up the area, it additionally offers veterans a chance to attach in widespread objective, which contributes to their psychological well being mentioned Tadeu, a psychiatric nurse.  

“I really feel humbled that one of many unnamed bushes planted as a part of the challenge might be for me,” mentioned one Afghanistan veteran.

1000’s of volunteers, together with members of the CAF and Legion branches, have additionally helped plant bushes alongside the Freeway of Heroes over the last seven years, mentioned Mark Cullen, chair of the Freeway of Heroes Tree Marketing campaign. 

In 2014, as Canada’s Afghanistan mission was winding down, it was urged at a gathering Cullen chaired that bushes ought to type a dwelling tribute alongside the memorial freeway. It took a 12 months to lift cash to begin shopping for bushes and arrange volunteers to plant them. Donations finally topped greater than $10 million, and future contributions will assist their preservation.  

The tree challenge grew from an preliminary marketing campaign to plant 117,000 bushes alongside the freeway right-of-way to commemorate each life misplaced throughout service within the CAF since Confederation. It has since expanded to planting almost two million extra bushes—one for each Canadian who has ever served.

A ceremony for planting the final of the bushes is deliberate previous to Remembrance Day 2022. (Up-to-the-minute details about public occasions may be discovered on the web site www.hohtribute.ca.)

“I really feel humbled that one of many unnamed bushes planted as a part of the challenge might be for me,” mentioned Afghanistan veteran Kerr in a 2019 interview.

“I consider the eight mates I misplaced on the battlefield each time I volunteer,” mentioned Kerr, who helped plant bushes for 3 years. “Each time I put a tree within the floor, I believe, ‘That one is for you, buddy.’”

The concept to plant bushes alongside a memorial highway additionally dates again a century. 

Calgary is one in all many communities that devoted a commemorative highway after the First World Warfare (see sidebar “Service roads,” proper). The town renamed a stretch of avenue working alongside the north financial institution of the Bow River as Memorial Drive. Starting in Might 1922, the primary of three,278 bushes, principally poplars, was planted, honouring every of the native warfare lifeless. 

It was meant as a dwelling memorial and solace for households who didn’t have a grave to go to. Steel discs bearing donors’ names had been initially hooked up to stands by the bushes. Over time the roadway has expanded, necessitating the elimination of some bushes. The extensive swath of wooden shrank in locations to a slim ribbon of bushes alongside the financial institution of the Bow. 

Now that the poplars planted a century in the past are reaching the tip of their lives, a metropolis revitalization of the world has cloned the unique bushes to offer replacements, a rededication to remembrance.

A brand new technology of Calgarians has been launched to commemoration by the revitalized area, which incorporates the Calgary Troopers Memorial, the general public area in Poppy Plaza and, after all, a whole lot of preserved and replanted memorial bushes.  

Canada’s community of Highways of Heroes continues to offer solace to households who misplaced family members in service to their nation. 

“Day by day we drive down the B.C. Freeway of Heroes I blow a kiss to commemorate my Father and Father-in-law, each WWII Veterans, my Son the Afghanistan Warfare Vet & all of the boys & ladies who’ve died for our nation & who’re nonetheless defending our nation,” the mother or father of 1 veteran posted on the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure webpage dedicated to its memorial freeway. 

Stated Fisher succinctly of such paved tributes: “If it provides simply .01 per cent of solace to a grieving household, the hassle is price it.” 

 

Service Roads

Throughout the nation, communities small and enormous have memorialized their native servicemen and servicewomen by naming streets of their
honour. Right here’s a nationwide collection of such tributes.
Has your hometown executed so, too? Share your
street-name story with Legion Journal on Twitter
(@Legion_Magazine) utilizing the hashtag #serviceroads.

 

British Columbia

In Richmond, 61 streets have been named in commemoration of native troopers who died in navy service.

Alberta

Sergeant Shane Stachnik Drive in Waskatenau, inhabitants about 250, commemorates the fight engineer killed in Afghanistan in 2006.

Saskatchewan

Fulton Drive in Regina commemorates Royal Canadian Air Drive pilot Captain Gary Fulton, who died Might 31, 1976, after a duck was sucked into the engine of his Tutor jet. Fulton guided his aircraft away from a residential space to crash land in a park.

Manitoba

In 1925, Winnipeg renamed Pine Avenue to Valour Highway to commemorate First World Warfare Victoria Cross recipients Leo Clarke, Frederick Corridor and Robert Shankland, all former residents of the road.

Ontario

In Newmarket, Veterans Approach intersects with Ernest Cousins Circle, named for an infantryman who died within the First World Warfare. It’s one in all a dozen native streets named in honour of residents who served and died within the navy.

Quebec

In 2021, Quebec Metropolis renamed a 3.4-kilometre section of highway close to 2nd Canadian Division Assist Base Valcartier to Route Léo-Main, after the one Canadian to earn Distinguished Conduct Medals in two totally different wars (Second World and Korea).

New Brunswick

Bravo Touchdown in Saint John commemorates an area soldier and 5 comrades killed in Afghanistan in 2007. Six maple bushes planted alongside the road honour the boys: corporals Aaron E. Williams and Brent Poland, Sergeant Donald Lucas, Grasp Corporal Christopher Paul Stannix and privates Kevin Kennedy and native David Greenslade.

Nova Scotia

Montague Avenue in Lunenburg commemorates Lieutenant-Colonel Montagu Wilmot, commander of the Fort Cumberland garrison through the Seven Years’ Warfare. 

Prince Edward Island

Some consider Plug Avenue in Malpeque was named by Corporal George Ellwin Champion to commemorate islanders who fought and died within the Nice Warfare. The identify reportedly originates from Ploegsteert in Belgium, close to Ypres. 

Newfoundland

Pynn Place in St. John’s commemorates Henry Pynn who fought within the Irish Revolt in 1798 and the Napoleonic Wars. In 1815, he grew to become the primary native-born Newfoundlander to be knighted.

Northwest Territories

A part of Distributor Avenue in Inuvik was renamed Veteran’s Approach in 2007 in honour of Canadians who’ve served. 

Yukon

The territory’s portion of the Alaska Freeway was formally devoted to all veterans in 2012.