The Bronze Statue unveiled on the 100th Anniversary of the Naval Service in Victoria epitomises The Invisible Army. This statue is a magnificent work by a Canadian Artist.
Sculptor Nathan Scott prepares the Homecoming, a bronze statue that will be unveiled Tuesday as part of the centennial celebrations for the Canadian navy.;The streets of downtown Victoria will be filled with thousands of sailors on Tuesday as a military parade marks the beginning of the 100th anniversary ce Photograph by: Debra Brash, Times Colonist, Times Colonist
It's one of the most moving moments in military life, one played out by thousands of local residents over the decades.
The Homecoming sculpture that was unveiled Tuesday, the 100th anniversary of the Canadian navy, captures the exhilaration of a navy man safely home from the sea, his young daughter racing toward his embrace on the Victoria wharf.
We wanted to touch an emotional chord -- I think we got it, says Saanichton sculptor Nathan Scott.
It wasn't easy to make bronze take on that much energy. The hardest part for the veteran sculptor, known for his statue of Terry Fox at Mile Zero, was just putting it all together and giving it life.
He began the life-size sculpture last May, and it was a good, hard nine months from start to finish, he says from his studio, where the sculpture was taken from clay to bronze.
The original idea for a statue came from local businessman Cedric Steele, an honorary navy captain, who talked up the concept with military and ex-military people as a project for the navy centenary. People can identify with the little girl running into her father's arms, and the response from the community has been incredible, says retired Rear Admiral Ken Summers, co-chairman of the Homecoming Statue Committee with Steele.
The scene weighs 816 kilograms and is made from about 40 pieces of bronze welded together, including the girl's dog, the sailor's suitcase with a teddy bear and gift for his wife poking out, and a cleat wrapped with a rope.
The scene was Scott's concept.
If it wasn't your father, it could have been your uncle or your son, and now your daughter, Scott said. He understands the exultation after the tour of duty is over, given his own father's 33 years in the Canadian infantry. I didn't meet him on the dock but at the airport, he recalled.
Photographer Rob Destrub volunteered to take several hundred photos of Scott's six-year-old daughter Acacia to depict the happy reunion. Scott modelled the father figure from local navy men but changed the face. The rank and uniform choices were left in the hands of the navy, which chose a non-commissioned petty officer second-class in his going-ashore uniform.
Well done Nathan Scott, the Invisible Army salutes you and Thanks you.
The military comrades of Craig Blake, a petty officer second class with the Canadian Forces, carry his casket during a ramp ceremony Wednesday at Kandahar Airfield. (Tara Brautigam/Canadian Press)
More than 1,500 Canadian and ISAF personnel attended a ramp ceremony early Wednesday to honour a Canadian sailor who was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.
The body of Petty Officer 2nd class Craig Blake is on its way home.
Please say a prayer or spare a thought for Priscilla Blake and her two sons. Who will not have a Homecoming with their father, but a long lonely ride along the highway of Heroes.May the Lord God give them strength.
Nil Sine Labore
Robby
