Members of 2 Platoon, Bravo Company, 1 RCR, prepare to storm a compound during Operation Medusa near Kandahar on Sept. 4, 2006. [MCpl Yves Gemus/DND]

Wartime recognition: A long-awaited bill to affirm the service of modern veterans passes the Senate

STORY BY RICHARD FOOT​​​​​​​

Ask Mark Gasparotto whether he is a “war veteran,” or someone who carried out “special duty service,” and he will answer the question with a grim accounting of the costs of his time in Afghanistan.

A retired colonel, Gasparotto led 23 Field Squadron, a combat engineer unit of the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group, during some of the toughest fighting in Kandahar province in 2006.

Of the 135 troops under his command, one member, Sergeant Shane Stachnik, was killed in action (one of 19 members of 1 RCR Battle Group killed by the enemy in Afghanistan). Seven other soldiers with 23 Field Squadron were severely wounded and repatriated to Canada. Dozens of others returned home after the mission with post-traumatic stress, two of whom have since died by suicide.

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Visitors explore Nova Scotia’s Shearwater Aviation Museum. [Tourism Nova Scotia]

An armchair tour of Shearwater Aviation Museum

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“Specializing in naval air history is our claim to fame,” affirmed Christine Hines, manager of the Shearwater Aviation Museum. Situated within the military base of 12 Wing Shearwater across the Bedford Basin from Halifax, the facility is, according to its caretaker of 24 years, “kind of niche.”

It’s in that uniqueness, however, that the museum thrives, a site to celebrate and commemorate a long-underrepresented facet of national identity and heritage.

“Our mandate,” said Hines, “is Shearwater’s history, which is all naval in nature, no matter what element of service operated here—whether it’s the United States Navy, the Royal Canadian Air Force or the Royal Canadian Navy.”

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