OTTAWAFor the past year and a half, Capt. Wayne Johnston has been on duty at CFB Trenton to receive the body of every Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan.
And at the end of each repatriation ceremony, Johnston has sent them on their final journey down the Highway of Heroes to the coroner's office in Toronto.
But when he leaves the air force base for his home in Brooklin, Ont., he takes the lengthier back routes, rather than follow the hearse along Highway 401, where Canadians regularly line the bridges to pay respect to the fallen.
I won't drive it. I've got a son who's a soldier. I don't need a dress rehearsal, he told the Star Thursday.
Johnston's official title is the casualty administration officer, the self-described conductor of a military band that handles every minor detail of dead soldiers' final journey from Afghanistan to CFB Trenton, to their funerals in towns and cities across the country.
It is a job with a definite expiry date, he said. Every repatriation takes a little away.
Capt. Wayne Johnston, left, salutes as Sapper Mike McTeague places a poppy on a memorial at the CNE grounds in 2007. Johnston started a fund for McTeague, who was seriously wounded in Afghanistan in 2006, and eventually expanded it into the Wounded Warriors program.
AARON LYNETT/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO
This well seasoned Captain was selected by HRH the Prince of Wales to meet with him and discuss the Repat Duties and his Charity for Wounded Warriors.
The photo is of former Royal Capt Wayne Johnston, a staunch monarchist, his spouse and His Royal Highness at CFB Petawawa. Capt Johnston's audience with Prince Charles was at the request of HRH; who had read of Capt Johnston's achievements and dedication to the dignified repatriation of Canada's fallen soldiers. Capt Johnston's significant contribution as the LFCA Casualty Administration Officer had been covered in 2 extensive articles in the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail which had drawn the interest and appreciation of the Colonel-in-Chief. Capt Johnston served with the unit from 73 - 96 attaining the rank of MWO HRH specifically asked to meet him as I understand it due to x2 articles one in the Tor Star and one in the Globe and Mail that discussed his role as the REPAT officer and the charity he started x3 years ago Wounded Warriors they have raised some $700K in support of programs for the wounded..
http://woundedwarriors.ca/nc/home/ Globe Mail His work begins when a Canadian soldier's life ends Toronto Star - This officer's job is a dignified burial for his comrades
Well done Captain Johnston Canada Thanks you for your dedication and professionalsm as a Soldier and as a Canadian.
Sadly on Saturday another Journalist was killed along with a US Marine and an Afghan Soldier. May their deaths not go unnoticed. Prayers and condolences to the families and friends of each of them.
British reporter, 2 others killed in Afghanistan
Explosion injures 5 others The Associated Press
An explosion in southern Afghanistan killed a British journalist, a U.S. marine and an Afghan soldier, Britain's military said Sunday.
This undated photo released by the Sunday Mirror shows the newspaper's defence correspondent Rupert Hamer, who was killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on Saturday. (Sunday Mirror/Associated Press)
The Sunday Mirror's defence correspondent Rupert Hamer, 39, and photographer Philip Coburn, 43, were accompanying a U.S. marine patrol Saturday when the vehicle they were travelling in was hit by a makeshift bomb in Nawa, the Defence Ministry said.
Coburn and four marines were seriously wounded in the blast, the military said.
The Sunday Mirror said that Hamer and Coburn had flown to the region on New Year's Eve and were embedded with the American military. Their trip was to have lasted for a month, the paper said.
Both were veterans of reporting from conflict zones. It was Hamer's fifth excursion to Afghanistan, while Coburn had previously reported from Afghanistan, Iraq and Rwanda.
Rupert believed that the only place to report a war was from the front line, and as our defence correspondent he wanted to be embedded with the U.S. marines at the start of their vital surge into southern Afghanistan, Sunday Mirror Editor Tina Weaver said in a statement.
Hamer is survived by his wife Helen and three young children, the paper said.
British Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said Hamer and Coburn accompanied him on his most recent trip to Afghanistan and that he was impressed by their hard work and professionalism.
My thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the families, friends and colleagues of both men at this extremely distressing time, Ainsworth said.
Please spare a thought or a Prayer for all our Military Men and women wherever they may be serving.
Nil Sine Labore
Robby
