An American soldier reported that the flag was “just a way to show our appreciation.”
One of the Canadian soldiers, Master Warrant Officer Joe Pynn, said of the tribute that the Americans and South Africans built for the Canadians serving there:
“It made them feel good about themselves and what they’re here for.”
I’m glad they have something to counter Canadian and American liberal-left media’s war against them.
A rock mural of a Canadian flag takes shape on the side of a hill at Ma’sum Ghar, Afghanistan. At its base sits a memorial to five Canadian soldiers killed in the area by Taliban fighters.
Photograph by : Murray Brewster, Canadian Press
Canadian troops get a salute made of stone
Civilian dog handlers at a Canadian base in Afghanistan got the idea to lay out a giant maple leaf flag with red and white painted boulders on a hillside
Murray Brewster, Canadian Press
Published: Saturday, February 10, 2007
MA’SUM GHAR, Afghanistan—Taking and holding the area around Ma’sum Ghar last fall cost Canadians the lives of five soldiers and that sacrifice is now etched into this dusty, ragged hillside by—of all people—American and South African dog handlers.
A huge red and white rock mural of the Canadian flag has been carefully laid out on slope leading to a hilltop observation post at this bustling forward base. Running along the bottom of the flag are a series of whitewashed boulders, representing the soldiers who died here.
For Van Thames of AM-K9 Protection, erecting the symbol and the memorial was a way to say thank you to Canadians who have kept him and his team safe and comfortable.
Working on the project in his spare time, Thames had no idea how much the gesture would mean to members of Alpha and Charlie Companies of the 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment, who have endured months of bitter, desperate fighting with Taliban militants.
“I had one guy that come up and first of all I thought he was mad with me,” Thames said, his long South Carolina drawl, stretching out every syllable.
“He said, ‘I’m pissed. I’m pissed.’ I said, ‘What’s wrong? What I do wrong?’ He said: ‘I’m mad ‘cause it took an American to think about it and do it instead of one of us doing it.”
It was, Thames chuckled, a backhanded way of saying, “thank you.”
The project was started one day about two weeks ago as Alpha Company headed off for a patrol into the grim winter desert moonscape that is Panjwaii and Zhari districts, west of Kandahar, he said.
Thames and his fellow dog handlers, Hollis Crawford and Rogelio Meza, set out to lay down the outline, collect the rocks and paint them. They were soon joined by their two South African colleagues.
The flag was almost complete, with the two red bars on either side of the maple leaf to be painted, when the patrol arrived back early a few days later.
“It’s left people speechless and without words to describe their appreciation,” said Master Warrant Officer Joe Pynn.
“Being away on a mission, coming back off patrol and seeing that, you have no idea what it meant to the boys when they saw that [while] rolling in the gate.”
Although Canadians are not huge flag-wavers, he said, the site of the red maple leaf on hill that has cost so much sweat and precious blood brought tears to the eyes of some of the bone-tired troops.
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