Topic: A soldier's final journey

[1981cb650c]

The hyway overpass beside my work was lined with almost 100 people waiting to pay their respects to Corporal Tyler Crooks. The Port Colborne soldier was killed by a bomb March 20 on his 24th birthday in Afghanistan,

Not knowing what was going on I asked a co-worker who said they were waiting for the funeral for a fallen soldier. I stayed after my shift ended to join the crowds lining the QEW and wait for the police escorted hearse to pass through. He was the second soldier to take this final journey past my work in less than a month. I missed the first time. Once I got home I searched the local newspaper online for more:

Daniel Nolan
The Hamilton Spectator
PORT COLBORNE (Mar 28, 2009)
Corporal Tyler Crooks is coming home today.

The body of the Port Colborne soldier killed last week on a military operation in Afghanistan will leave a Toronto funeral home at 3 p.m. for the estimated 90-minute drive to his Lake Erie hometown.

Thousands are expected to line the route to honour Crooks, who was killed by a bomb March 20 on his 24th birthday. The crowd will include dozens of legion members and firefighters from Hamilton, Grimsby, Smithville, Beamsville, St. Catharines and Welland.

Dozens of yellow ribbons have also been hung by students on trees on Clarence Street and he will be greeted at the Davidson Funeral Chapel on Clarence Street by a colour guard and cadets from the Port Colborne legion.

Former mayor Bob Saracino, now a regional councillor, said the community is in a sombre mood and he expects Crooks' funeral Thursday to be packed.

"People are really emotional," said Saracino, part of the legion tribute. "A young man gave his life for his country. It's so touching."

Crooks and Master Corporal Scott Vernelli, 28, were killed in one of two bombings March 20 that took the lives of four soldiers and an Afghan interpreter and injured eight soldiers. Crooks was a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment.

The hearse will be escorted by the OPP. It will travel down the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway to the QEW. Once in Niagara, the procession will go south on Highway 406 and then on to Highway 140 in Welland. It will leave Highway 140 at Netherby Road and proceed to Highway 58. Once in Port Colborne, it will travel down Highway 58/Westside Road to Killaly Street West. It will turn on to Steele Street and then onto Clarence Street to the funeral chapel at 135 Clarence St.

Visitation will be Tuesday and Wednesday, 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. The funeral will be 1 p.m. Thursday at the First Evangelical Lutheran Church, 688 Elm St.

March 10, 2009
John Burman
The Hamilton Spectator

Hamilton police, paramedics and firefighters and dozens of ordinary citizens paid their respects to Warrant officer Dennis Brown and his family as his escorted hearse passed through  Hamilton at noon today.

Brown’s widow, Mishelle, waved a small Canadian flag from a limousine to the scores of police and public who lined the seven bridges along the QEW in the city. The procession  led by the OPP and and Niagara police, left Toronto at about 11:30 a.m. and made its way along the QEW as it travelled to Brown's home town of St. Catharines.

Scores of truckers pulled their rigs off the QEW on both sides of the highway and stood silent by their cabs as the procession came off the Burlington Skyway and headed for Niagara.

Private citizens and smaller vehicles lined both service roads and people stood on the edges of the access ramps to pay their respects.

The largest concentration of people locally was at Centennial Parkway. A  dozen Hamilton police cruisers stood on the bridge while 12 more parked on the shoulder of the Niagara-bound highway as officers saluted Brown. Several of the police are also reserve soldiers. Members of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Regiment stood at attention with them.

Above, on the bridge,  with a Hamilton fire department pumper truck and crew saluted  with police, paramedics and members of the public.

Canadian flags fluttered from the railings.

The crowd fell silent when the procession rounded the bend beneath the Red Hill Parkway access.  The only sound was the occasional burble of a police radio and the splash of the rain.

“Oh my God, that’s his wife waving from the limousine,” a woman cried breaking the silence.

Jennifer Verduyn, 25, hitched son Daniel, 8 1/2 months higher on her hip and said she and husband Trevor, 25, all of Hamilton, came to honour Brown and her own brother, Private Brian Black, who has been serving as a driver in Afghanistan with the Royal Canadian Regiment since September.

“You worry every time the news comes on,” she said.

“We are proud of Brian and he will be very proud that we are here to support the troops and just as importantly support and honour their families too.”

Brown, 38, a reservist with  the Lincoln and Welland Regiment and a member of the Niagara police,  was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan last Tuesday.

The St. Catharines man, Corporal Dany Olivier Fortin and Corporal Kenneth Chad O'Quinn were killed  around sunset when an explosive detonated near their armoured vehicle in the district of Arghandab, near Kandahar city.

The Niagara cruisers escorted  Brown –  a Special Constable with the Niagara police court division –  all the way from the chief coroner’s office in downtown Toronto to the Butler Funeral Home on Duke Street in St. Catharines.

The procession travelled from Toronto at highway speeds but slowed approaching bridges on the QEW west to Oakville and Burlington where Halton police officers and EMS members lined the bridges at Trafalgar Road and Guelph Line in a salute.

Farther down the QEW from Hamilton, crowds continued to line bridges as the procession moved into Niagara and drivers in traffic moving in the opposite direction slowed to look.

Dozens of people and several Grimsby fire trucks sat parked at the Christie Street and Casablanca Boulevard bridges. With lights flashing and a light rain falling, fire crews stood in silence as the speeding motorcade drove under each bridge.

Hamilton Sergeant Terri-Lynn Collings said bridges were being closed as the procession entered Halton. The bridges were to be closed for about 15 to 20 minutes to allow a safe passage onto the bridges for pedestrians wishing to pay their respects to Dennis Brown.

Niagara police  Const. Jacquie Forgeron said the procession was expected to arrive at the Burns Funeral Home in St. Catharines  after 1 p.m.

Brown is to be buried Saturday, but final funeral arrangements for the married father of four children, have not been finalized, she said.

A Canadian Forces transport  bringing home  the body of  Trooper Marc Diab, 22 of Mississauga, was to land at Trenton at 2p.m. He was killed Sunday in a roadside bomb attack that wounded four other Canadian soldiers.

Diab was the 112th Canadian soldier to die as part of the Afghan mission since 2002, and the fourth in less than a week

 

[BobbyR]

Another Mother will cry herself to sleep each night.

[bender01]

May God bless them and they're families. Theres too many words to know what to say!!!!

[gerhed]

These young men aren't able to come home and enjoy their families and hobbies the way we do.
It's the saddest thing.  We owe them.

[tramp]

the ultimate sacrifice
R.I.P.

[Demon67]

I feel badly for all of them and their families, and I wish that there had been a proper debate in Parliament about going to Afghanistan. But its what they get the big bucks for, to fight and die where their government tells them to. I am not sure when that realization hit me but I know it did like all the rest of my buddies, it may have been in boot camp it may have been later during an NBC lecture when we were told the most likely scenario was a Russian Planet Cracker at the US sub base at Anacortes Island and we would get the over splash, radiation wind etc. If the gov had, had a proper debate about this, then it would be easier to understand why the people are dying and less than a feeling that the politicos were and are trying to show they're grown ups to and can play in the global sand box, which is a piss poor reason for any of our military to die or be maimed.
Sorry just the ravings of an old man.
Bill the demon.

[Demon67]

You know the other thing that bothers me about this crap, is that all the NCO's that are beeing wiped, if it keeps up like that the army will be gutted of the most experienced sharp end people and that reflects on the future.
Bill the demon.

[azuredesign]

These young men aren't able to come home and enjoy their families and hobbies the way we do.
It's the saddest thing.  We owe them.

I agree 100%, our close friend's son, who's also a friend, has a wife and son, and has done 2 tours there already, getting ready for a third. I worry every time I think about him.

[silver fox]

RIP
My friend has just been back to the UK for the repatriation of 2 of his workmates
I didn't know them, but they were both in the same Corps as myself, and one was from the same town as me in the UK.
Even though i am still serving, the news of yet another loss is never easy, and my heart always goes to those left behind, be it wife, kids,parents or work mates.
I'm glad so many people turned out to pay their regards, even though they probably didn't know him.
Unlike those who turn out over in the UK wishing hate and death to her Majesty's Forces, and yet are still allowed to live off the state

That's me ranting now, sorry.

As the first line says, RIP and all my thoughts go out to family and friends of Cpl Tyler Crooks.

Regards
SF