Open Category > Departed Comrades - Afghanistan

2010, May 18 - Colonel Geoff Parker, The RCR - VBIED in Kabul

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Ron Gross:
May you rest in peace and God bless. My condolences to the family.

Pro Patria Colonel.

Ron

Mike Blais:
Rest in peace, Soldier. 

The Niagara Branch will be traveling to the Highway of heroes or CFB Trenton to form a roadside honour guard. Details to be announced, all welcome. 

Mike Blais:

Oakville-born colonel killed in Kabul bombing

May 18, 2010

Mitch Potter
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Col. Geoff Parker, 42, born and raised in Oakville, Ont., was among at least 18 people killed when a Taliban suicide car bomb targeted a NATO convoy in Kabul, May 18, 2010.
DND HANDOUT

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AFGHANISTAN – Canada suffered its highest-ranking casualty of the war in Afghanistan in Tuesday’s massive morning suicide attack in Kabul, the military has confirmed.

Col. Geoff Parker, 42, born and raised in Oakville, Ont., was among at least 18 people killed, including five U.S. soldiers, when a Taliban suicide car bomb targeted a NATO convoy in Kabul during the morning rush-hour.

Another 47 others were injured, many of them Afghan civilians on a public bus, as the powerful blast erupted on the Darulaman Road, a major thoroughfare. Rescue teams sifted through nearly 20 wrecked vehicles in search of survivors.

The vast majority of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are deployed in Kandahar, but a small contingent is based in Kabul in a variety of capacities supporting the NATO mission.

A biography published by the military in 2007 said that Parker joined the military in 1990 as an infantry officer after graduating from the University of Western Ontario. He was married with two small children, a son and daughter.

“Geoff was well known, highly respected and considered a best friend by countless army officers and soldiers across Canada,” said Col. Simon Hetherington, Deputy Commander of Task Force Kandahar, who knew Parker personally.

“The post he was preparing to fill was important and of such high-profile he was hand-picked from across the army to do so. A rising star, his potential was undeniable.”

Canadian Forces officials are withholding the specifics of Parker’s role in Afghanistan as they await the notification of kin of the five U.S. soldiers with whom he was working. Hetherington would say only that, “Parker was in Kabul to interact with the various international organizations in order to prepare his team for an upcoming deployment.”

The vast majority of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are deployed in Kandahar Province, but a small, high-ranking contingent is based in Kabul, including five Canadian generals, in a variety of capacities supporting the ISAF mission.

Canada’s International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda, speaking to the Toronto Star during her fourth visit to Kandahar Tuesday, expressed condolences for the lives lost in Kabul.

“It’s always unfortunate when these situations happen. It’s a sacrifice the world is willing to make for the people of Afghanistan.”

Oda said the high civilian toll was an added tragedy. “It’s hard to separate, in this situation, military from civilian.”

Parker was the 145th soldier to die since the Canadian mission began in 2002 and the seventh to die this year. He outranked all other Canadian casualties; prior to today the Canadian Forces had not lost a soldier above the rank of Major in Afghanistan.

Hetherington described Parker as a “career infantry officer and a proud member of The Royal Canadian Regiment who excelled in virtually every position he held in the army.

“As a battalion commander, he led from the front and he led with distinction.”

Tuesday’s bombing also marked a grim milestone for U.S. forces, bringing the toll of American dead in Afghanistan beyond 1,000.

Reading from a prepared statement, Hetherington said Parker “could be incredibly funny – he had a truly infectious laugh and smile.

“To some, he was simply known as ‘Parker’ because that’s what his wife called him. We all knew him to be remarkably smart and the consummate professional officer.

“Equally important,” Hetherington continued, “he was always standing ready to be a friend. He knew when to tell you the hard truth you needed to hear and when to led a sympathetic ear.”

Hetherington added that “Although not likely to admit it, Geoff was a very compassionate man. He cared about people. And you saw that. Finally, despite his obvious talent, Geoff was humble and quite often the brunt of his own jokes. His loss will be felt by many.”

The powerful blast occurred on a major Kabul thoroughfare that runs by the ruins of a one-time royal palace and government ministries. It wrecked nearly 20 vehicles, including five SUVs in the NATO convoy, and scattered debris and body parts across the wide boulevard. The body of woman in a burqa was smashed against the window of the bus.

The attack — the deadliest for NATO troops in the capital since September — comes despite a ramped up effort by Afghan authorities to intercept would-be attackers and better secure a capital city that saw a spate of brazen attacks this winter.

In the last such attack in February, suicide bombers stormed two small downtown hotels and killed 16 people.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in a phone call from an undisclosed location that the bomber was a man from Kabul and his car was packed with 1,650 pounds (750 kilograms) of explosives. The target of the attack was the foreign convoy, he said.

U.S. troops and Afghan police held a security cordon around wrecked vehicles at the blast site in the west of the city. Emergency workers zipped the dead into body bags and lifted the injured into ambulances.

“I saw one person laying on the ground with no head,” said Mirza Mohammad, who was on his way to work when the blast happened up the road.

Police officer Wahidullah, who goes by one name, said he saw the body of woman in a burqa smashed up against the window of the bus.

“Everywhere was dead bodies,” Wahidullah said. At least 12 Afghan civilians died and 47 were wounded — most of them in the bus, the Interior Ministry said.

It was the deadliest attack for NATO in the capital since a September suicide bombing that killed six Italian soldiers. The attack comes as NATO readies a major offensive in the southern province of Kandahar, a major Taliban stronghold.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen condemned the attack and said it would not deter NATO’s efforts in Afghanistan.

“NATO remains committed to its mission to protect the Afghan people and to strengthen Afghanistan’s ability to resist terrorism,” Rasmussen said in Brussels.

President Hamid Karzai also condemned the attack.

“There were casualties among the NATO forces as well as among civilians — women, children and schoolchildren,” Karzai told a news conference.

NATO said that five of its vehicles were damaged as well as more than a dozen civilian vehicles. There were no obvious military vehicles among the wreckage, but NATO troops often travel in unmarked SUVs in the capital.

The Feb. 26 attack against two residential hotels in the capital killed six Indians, along with 10 Afghans. Afghan authorities blamed the attack on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the same Pakistan-based Islamist militia that India blames for the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks that killed 166 people.

Mike Blais:
Bio - Career soldier was engineer, father

Jill Mahoney

Globe and Mail Update Published on Tuesday, May. 18, 2010 1:34PM EDT Last updated on Tuesday, May. 18, 2010 1:48PM EDT

Colonel Geoff Parker, 42, was a career soldier who joined the military while he was in university and climbed the ranks over 21 years.

He enlisted in 1989 through the Regular Officer Training Program while studying engineering at the University of Western Ontario. After graduating in 1990, he completed infantry officer training, according to a Department of National Defence biography.

The following year, Colonel Parker was posted to the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment in London, Ont. He moved with the battalion to Petawawa, Ont., in 1992, serving as a commander of several rifle platoons.

In 1995, he was posted to Belleville, Ont., in support of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment as part of 3rd Battalion, returning to Petawawa the next year. While with the battalion, he served as company second-in-command and completed the Canadian Land Forces command and staff courses, according to his military bio.

Colonel Parker was promoted to major in 2000 and spent the next two years as the officer in command of B Company of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment.

In 2003, he was posted to Toronto to attend the Canadian Forces College. He then returned to Petawawa and served with the 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group. He became a lieutenant-colonel in 2006.

He was posted to Gagetown, N.B. in 2007. According to the biography, which was written in 2007, Colonel Parker was married to M.J. Parker; they had two children, Charlie and Alexandria.

At the time of his death in Afghanistan on Tuesday, Colonel Parker was working at Land Force Central Area Headquarters. He was in Kabul as part of a NATO team preparing for their upcoming mission, DND said in a statement.

HPeace:
My family met Col. Geoff Parker when we lost Cpl. Thomas Hamilton to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2008 when he was with 2RCR. He went above and beyond helping us and was one of the most genuinely compassionate people that we met at that time. I always said we would never forget him and we won't. I hope his family receive the same treatment and finds the same comfort that he gave our family. May you Rest In Peace Col. Parker

Pro Patria.

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