Open Category > Departed Comrades - Afghanistan
2009, March 20. Cpl Tyler Crooks, 3RCR. Afghanistan
Mike Blais:
Corporal Tyler Crooks was killed on March 20, 2009, when an improvised explosive device detonated near him during a dismounted patrol in Zhari District, west of Kandahar City.
Cpl Tyler Crooks was a member of November Company, 3rd Battalion The Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group. His home unit was the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment based at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa.
Joint Task Force Afghanistan (JTF-Afg) is the Canadian Forces (CF) contribution to the international effort in Afghanistan. Its operations focus on working with Afghan authorities to improve security, governance and economic development in Afghanistan.
JTF-Afg comprises about 2,830 CF members. Most of them serve at Kandahar Airfield or Camp Nathan Smith, the home of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar City. Members of JTF-Afg also work at various military headquarters and support bases in southwest Asia, and with civilian organizations in Afghanistan.
Take Time to Remember.
Mike Blais:
I was out tidying up a couple of weeks ago and forgot to post this picture for Tyler's friends and comrades.
Mike Blais:
Hometown hockey hero
Posted By MARK TAYTI, TRIBUNE STAFF
A hometown hero will be memorialized in a scholarship recognizing hockey excellence.
Port Colborne city council approved a recommendation to create the Cpl. Tyler Crooks Memorial Trophy for player of the year in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League's Golden Horseshoe Conference.
Mayor Vance Badawey said the award is being established through his office to honour the local player who was killed in the Canadian Afghan mission earlier this year. Crooks was an avid hockey player and a former member of Port Colborne's junior B team, when it was known as the Sailors.
Council has approved a onetime expense of $300 to purchase a trophy and has committed $500 annually that will be awarded in the form of a scholarship in the years to come.
The first award memorializing Cpl. Crooks will be presented at the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League's annual banquet next year.
"Player of the Year is the most prestigious honour," Badawey said. "It is only fitting that this trophy be named after Cpl. Crooks."
Badawey said he consulted with the Crooks' family prior to entering discussions with the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Badawey said he wanted to establish the scholarship as "a line item" in the annual budget, so that it would outlive this term of council.
Ward 3 Coun. Bea Kenny choked back tears when speaking to the award.
"It's very befitting of a very admirable young man," Kenny said.
mtayti@wellandtribune.ca
Mike Blais:
Port Colborne pays tribute to Cpl. Crooks, other fallen soldiers
Posted By MAGGIE RIOPELLE/Tribune Staff
PORT COLBORNE — H.H. Knoll Lakeview Park was a sea of solemn faces, poppies and Canadian flags as people gathered to remember fallen soldiers.
This year, the Remembrance Day service was even closer to home, as the community remembered one of their own — Cpl. Tyler Crooks.
The Crooks family, parents Alfred and Karen Crooks, Crooks' fiancee Kelly Maxwell and grandmother Marg Wagner, came to place a wreath at the foot of the city's cenotaph as did comrades from the 3rd Battalion with the Royal Canadian Regiment.
There were firefighters, RCMP officers, Royal Canadian Legion members and veterans, as well as local school children and members of the community that circled around the monument watching the service in silence. They came to pay respect, tribute and honour those veterans with us today and those killed in service to their country.
"This past year, we lost one of our own and today, we share that moment with the Crooks family," said an emotional Mayor Vance Badawey. "We have lost one of our own, one of our family."
The service opened with the singing of O Canada with soldiers saluting. It was followed by prayer with Rev. Father Bill Derousie. Then, Last Post played over speakers and the park fell quiet for two minutes of silence. As a tribute to soldiers, two T-28 Trojan planes flew overhead as the ceremonies continued.
Badawey said Remembrance Day is a moment when people can thank those who fought not only on our behalf but on the behalf of many countries around the world, as Canadian soldiers continue to help other communities rebuild.
"We thank those veterans that fought and we thank their families … the families today that might not have that loved one," he said.
While words cannot truly express the great sorrow in their loss, he said, the people gathered to remember shows a great amount of respect.
"We owe our veterans, Cpl. Crooks, who gave unselfishly their lives," regional Coun. Bob Saracino said. "We talk of heroes. Heroes are those who did not return … they are our heroes."
He asked that the crowd pause and reflect — to see the "blood red" poppies in Flanders Fields. To remember the sacrifices paid.
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"Remember the horrors of wars … let us pray this will not happen again," said Saracino. "Thank you for all you have done."
Welland MP Malcolm Allen noted how important it was that youth participated in the Remembrance Day ceremonies. On Wednesday students from St. John Bosco, McKay, Steel Street, DeWitt Carter and Lakeshore Catholic attended the service, a few event made special wreaths dedicated to Crooks. A wreath on behalf of the Wagner and Kettle families were also dedicated in Crooks' memory.
After the service, Royal Canadian Legion Branch 56 president Brent Borland said every year more people turn out for the Remembrance Day service and this year's is an emotional one because it hits so close to home for so many.
"I was talking to Mayor Vance Badawey and he even said it's the hardest one he has ever had to do. It was the hardest one for myself," he said
Mike Blais:
GOJHL award honours fallen soldier
Posted By JOHN VESSOYAN, SUN MEDIA
Posted 1 day ago
A new award to be given out annually by the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League's Golden Horseshoe Conference will preserve the memory of Cpl. Tyler Crooks.
The first Cpl. Tyler Crooks Memorial Award will be presented to the Golden Horseshoe's player of the year at the conference's awards banquet March 1, 2010 at Club Roma in St. Catharines. The winner of the new award will display excellence in hockey, education and community involvement.
The trophy is different from the most valuable player award which recognizes excellence in hockey alone.
At Monday night's Port Colborne city council meeting, the Cpl. Tyler Crooks Memorial Award was unveiled by Mayor Vance Badawey Golden Horseshoe convener Blake Evenson and conference secretary Richard VanderHaeghe.
The winner will also be the Golden Horseshoe's nominee for the Ontario Hockey Association's junior B player of the year award, going up against the top players in the Western Conference and the Midwest conferences of the junior B league. The recipient will also receive a $500 scholarship donated by the City of Port Colborne.
Crooks, a Port Colborne native and a Canadian soldier, was killed by a roadside bomb while serving Canada in Afghanistan in March. His death shocked his hometown and Port Colborne residents showed support for his family and friends with services at local schools and churches.
Crooks was with November Company, Royal Canadian Regiment based in Petawawa. He was 24 years old.
He attended DeWitt Carter then Lakeshore Catholic High School and was known in the local hockey community because he once played junior B for the old Port Colborne Sailors.
Having such an award was VanderHaeghe's idea. He took his idea to the Golden Horseshoe's meeting of team owners and governors and they unanimously approved it.
"They couldn't say yes fast enough. It's such a special trophy it couldn't be more fitting than to have it named after Cpl. Tyler Crooks," VanderHaeghe said Monday night.
The other major sports-related "Of all the trophies, it's the
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hardest one to win because you have to combine excellence in three categories -- in hockey, while maintaining a high education standard and high involvement in the community."
"The player who wins it. is going to be a very special person."
VanderHaeghe said he asked the Crooks family for their blessing, which they gave.
Leo Lostracco, who represents the conference at the Ontario Hockey Association, said it's important to recognize a player not just for his hockey skills, but also for his love for his community and country.
"It's all the things Tyler stood and died for," Lostracco said.
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