2008, Dec 13, Corporal Thomas James Hamilton, 2RCR, Afghanistan

[Mike Blais]

Corporal Thomas James Hamilton was killed as a result of an improvised explosive device attack on an armoured vehicle during a patrol in the Arghandab District. The incident occurred approximately 14 kilometers west of Kandahar City at about 9:00 a.m., Kandahar time, on 13 December 2008. Tom was from 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment from CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick and served as a member of the Force Protection Company of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team.

Lest we Forget.

[Mike Blais]

Thank you Mary Anne Peace for sharing this with us. 

[Mike Blais]

Thank you Mary Anne Peace for sharing this with us.

[Mike Blais]

Cpl Thomas Hamilton,  Dec. 13, 2008
Father of Annabelle Hamilton



Provided by Mary Anne Peace.

[Mike Blais]

Mom says daughter should get slain soldier's medal

Updated Fri. Aug. 14 2009 6:53 AM ET

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- Annabelle Hamilton is four years old.

Under the best circumstances, when she grows up she will have only grainy memories of her father, Cpl. Thomas Hamilton, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar last December.

That Annabelle doesn't forget her dad -- and why he volunteered to fight in Afghanistan -- is vitally important to her mother, Heather Peace.

That's why Peace is pushing for children to automatically receive the Memorial Crosses awarded to their slain fathers or mothers -- or at least some other honour.

In this case, the tragedy of losing a parent is compounded by the fact the New Brunswick girl is a child of divorce and has been diagnosed with autism.

"Her memories of him aren't going to be very strong (because) she was really three the last time she saw him," Peace said from Fredericton, N.B.

There are personal mementoes of his life around the house, but Hamilton didn't name his daughter as one of three designated Memorial Cross recipients. Instead, the honours went to his parents and the mother of the woman he was dating at the time.

Peace doesn't begrudge any of them receiving the crosses and she said Hamilton was a good father who called from Afghanistan just a week before his death to talk to his daughter on her birthday.

In the months after he was killed, Peace set out to see if there could be some kind of official recognition for their daughter.

"I want her to have one so that she'll have something to remember her father by," said Peace, who wrote the military and Defence Minister Peter MacKay asking for a Memorial Cross.

"I can't change the fact he didn't change his paperwork before he left ... But when it comes right down to it, she doesn't have anything to remember him by and this would be at least one thing that she'll have of him.

"She might not care about medals right now, because she's not in elementary school yet, but as she grows up she will."

The military -- which had only a few years ago revised the criteria for the honour which used to be called the Silver Cross -- turned her down on the basis that Hamilton's paperwork was complete and correct.

"We consider the form, when it is signed by the member, to be like a will," said Maj. Carl Gauthier, director of policy at the honours and awards directorate.

"These are the wishes of the deceased. We are not going to second-guess and try to modify what is there."

There are provisions to allow either the executor of the estate or the defence minister to designate who receives Memorial Crosses, if the forms are missing or not filled out correctly.

In his response, MacKay said he was sorry that the regulations had complicated the family's grief and suggested a replica cross might be purchased from a commercial agent.

Peace, 29, tried to get an official memorial quilt wall hanging or other mementoes, but discovered that much of the military's remembrance system is geared toward the parents and spouses of soldiers -- not their children.

"With families being different (today) -- not as clear cut -- the children end up with nothing," she said.

Ottawa should either change the regulations for the Memorial Cross, she said, or create a separate medal for children of soldiers, sailors and aircrew killed overseas in the service of their country. And it should be awarded automatically.

"A lot of the children are only newborns or babies when they've lost their parents. They'll never have memories of them. At least it's something they could receive in recognition."

Peace said she believes it's important the country officially recognize what these children have given up.

If there is anyone who understands that kind of loss, it's Peace.

Her father, Warrant Officer Michael Michael Peace, was a veteran soldier who spent years away from home on peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia.

He died of brain tumour in 2000.

[ranrad]

I sure have to agree with her..i think the children need something to say to them this was my Dad, or Mom, this is what they did..this is my connection..and maybe, seeing as how the Medals and awards are right now beung checked out for needed changes, this is one of them.. and maybe a medal , especially for the children of a soldier are awarded something to remember them by..they , too, have scrificed greatly..they lost their dad or mom ..ranrad

[Chris Carter]

I really dislike it when the official response to a something relatively simple to decide upon is marred by the quick and easy explanation of "its our policy" and waving around some piece of paper like it's it been cast in stone. There is a huge difference between following a policy which by the way; is a guideline to considerations on how possibly things should or could be done and doing what is right. I think truly no one would be offended in any way in awarding Cpl. Hamillton's daughter a Memorial Cross as something to remember her father by. The fear; again more policy waving; of following the "wishes of the deceased," and using that as an excuse is really thin. A will absolutely can have very definitive instructions that must be followed of course; but it should also not be waved like a flag either as a sign of defeat to using some common sense and maybe making a decision outside the box on the principle of; "if it feels right to do; then do it."

Writing a letter telling the surviving parent of a child more policy stuff and that maybe they can get a copy from a commercial agent. Was McKay not even thinking that at the end of the day; his letter and policy waving has to somehow be explained to a 4 year old child; who has lost her father in an operation effectively while on his watch?

You know the time, money and effort to dig up the policies; write letters essentially copying and pasting said policies and then the whole explaining it to the media as well and trying to spin the "policy" mantra again; you probably could have sent original; endorsed, paid for by the government of Canada; Memorial Crosses to every child of a soldier who lost their lives since Canada has been in Afghanistan.

Sad, very sad indeed; at many levels.

[Mike Blais]

Memory etched in stone

Yarmouth school honours Canadians who lost lives in Afghan conflict

By BRIAN MEDEL Yarmouth Bureau
Sat. Jun 5 - 5:35 AM


   

YARMOUTH — Edward and Sylvia Hamilton traveled from Hilden to Yarmouth, where they saw for the first time Friday the name of their son, Cpl. Thomas Hamilton, etched on a black granite wall.

Thomas Hamilton died in Afghanistan while on active duty with the Canadian Forces.

He and all other fallen Cana­dians from that conflict have their names engraved on a spe­cial wall of honour erected by Yarmouth County students near Maple Grove Education Centre.

Loved ones took long looks at the names, touched them and photographed them.

“It’s unreal, the job that these young people are doing," said Edward Hamilton.

“It’s so uplifting. There’s no words that really can describe what they’re doing."

The Afghanistan memorial was unveiled in May 2009, after students from the junior high school’s Memorial Club, along with those from a club branch in Yarmouth’s senior high school, raised money to have it installed, said club founder and Maple Grove teacher Joe Bishara.

Through letter-writing cam­paigns and personal appeals, students’ fundraising goals were met almost immediately.

The memorial consists of six slabs of black granite, each 76 centimetres wide.

The tallest two centre slabs are 152 centimetres high. All are 7.5 centimetres thick, said Bish­ara.

The Afghanistan memorial cost about $3,000 per panel, including engraving.

Names will have to be added periodically, and that’s unfortu­nate, he said.

The club will present silver crosses to the fathers of five fallen Nova Scotia servicemen today at a 1 p.m. ceremony at the Yarmouth Mariners Centre.

Friday afternoon, an outdoor service was held at the memo­rial.

Education is highly valued in Afghanistan, Brig.-Gen. Anthony Stack told the students of the Memorial Club.

Afghans know that education is their only way to a better society, said the commander of the army’s Land Force Atlantic Area.

“I’ve seen . . . the incremen­tal, day-by-day improvements that the country of Afghanistan has derived because of the sacri­fice and effort of fine Canadian men and women overseas," said Stack.

“If you were . . . to make a commitment to make a differ­ence to one person in need, then you’d be honouring the memory of these gentlemen who gave so much, gave their lives in the pursuit of freedom and better­ment for the lives of people far away."

Bishara said the Memorial Club has also sent about 175 large care packages to wounded servicemen and women.

“If you know of any wounded soldiers, sailors or airmen, for heaven’s sake, let us know. We are ready to send them a pack­age of love. There’s quite a bun­dle of wonderful things for them," he told the audience.

(bmedel@herald.ca)