An Unfortunate Contrast

Last year we lost a local boy, Sgt. Matt Soper. The local radio station encouraged everyone to line the streets for the procession. We had a great turn out with State, county, and city police all leading the procession with a large contingent of Patriot Guard Riders (must have been at least 2 dozen) leading the family and Hearse. The Fire Dept was downtown with two ladder rigs straddling the road with a Garrison Flag hanging over the roadway. All roadways were completely closed to traffic and the procession took 25 minutes to pass. Sgt. Soper got the send off he deserved. U.K. you could take a little lesson from the Canucks in proper etiquette....

Unless you all can correct me...the Canadians are on the front line with us in afghanistan. The europeans from what I hear are not. This should tell you something...anyways god bless all the Canadian troops REALLY serving with us.

The San Diego Union Tribune had an article awhile back (similar to the great series in the Denver Post) about the support for the family after losing a Soldier. They followed the family of one fellow - interestingly a Soldier, although SD is largely a Navy/Marine town - the detail the jumped out at me was that the body was flown here from Dover, at government expense, on a small jet, not scheduled commercial jetliner.

The specific reception for the remains is largely a local matter and seems to vary depending upon the local community.

There have been some problems in the past, but they seem to be working the kinks out of the system by now.

pretty sad-the brits deserve as much respect as the canucks and americans.

Unless you all can correct me...the Canadians are on the front line with us in afghanistan.

Seg,

The Brits are too.....and Diggers....

Seg,
As OT mentioned, the Brits (and the Dutch) are slogging it out alongside us in southern Afghanistan. I have a Brother Rat who returned last year from a tour with 45 Commando, and saw quite a bit of action. Some of his mates were involved in a mission to rescue a fallen comrade that involved a handful of Royal Marines riding on the outside of Apaches to reach the location where they found him.

The Brits should be ashamed of themselves. For more things than just this.

You can find a map showing troop contributions by nation as of April 2008 at ISAF's website.

Generally speaking, while U.S. troops are all over the country, especially in RC East and RC South, most nations have their troops mostly in one geographical area. In the more volatile south, the UK is in Helmand, Canada is in Kandahar, and the Netherlands is in Uruzgan. But I know the Danes, Aussies, Kiwis, Poles, and Romanians are also working in the south, albeit in lesser numbers.

And now the French are sending a battle group to RC East, which frees up U.S. troops to move south and help the Canadians, Dutch, and British.

I live in a small town in the midwest. Saturday I was playing golf. Now we both were playing far later than normal and I had arrive from a different direction than normal.

In any case, 4 holes are across the road and seperate from the others, and across from a church. We drove our carts into the area and I noticed the road into town lined with flags. A bit later the Patriot Riders arrived. When we got to the last green I turned, faced the church (and a Patriot Rider standing guard at the entrance) and rendered proper respects. After the round I stopped and asked the Patriot Rider the particulars.

The hero was killed 15 days before his return from his fourth (4th) tour of duty in the GWOT (also served twice in the area during Desert Storm and the "peace" in between).

The road to the center of our small town was lined with flags and 100's of townfolk with hand held flags. I joined them in saluting a true hero of our country.