Cpl. nathan cirillo military funeral procession
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NATHAN CIRILLO, PATRICE VINCENT AND THE LONG LINE
I thought long and hard about whether to write anything at all about the recent murders of two of Canada’s proud soldiers by unstable humans who embraced religion and extremism as the final act of fragile and failure-filled lives. Is it my place to comment, to respond, to add yet another voice to the many that have spoken over the past week? I strongly believe that the digital pages of Vintage News are not a forum to rant, to admonish, to express emerging feelings or to open discourse on anything but the layered and nuanced world of aviation—its personalities, its machines, its culture and above all, its stories of innovation, courage and achievement.
In the past week however, we have seen an astonishing outpouring of emotions (anger, sorrow, pride) from all parts of Canada and from our friends in America and around the world. Before my eyes, I witnessed the re-emergence of words and concepts you don’t hear much anymore, but which we, at Vintage Wings, believe to be the very core of our messag
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Newsmaker: Cpl. Nathan Cirillo
Published Dec 19, 2014 • Last updated Dec 19, 2014 • 1 minute read
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He was the all-Canadian victim of the year’s most notorious murder.
Cpl. Nathan Cirillo was standing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the barrel of an unloaded C7 assault rifle in his gloved right hand, when a gunman approached him from behind and shot him twice in the back during the bustle of an October morning in downtown Ottawa.
Cirillo, 24, died in full dress uniform: in the kilt, sporran, tunic and spats of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada.
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Corporal Nathan Cirillo: a soul to remember
Today was an ordinary morning with the kids needing their breakfast and the dog needing his exercise and a thousand other details that make up any day, but, even so far from home, these days aren’t quite the same, not for some of us, not since Canadian Corporal Nathan Cirillo took his last breath in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside Canada’s Parliament.
His murder is the sort of event that has also taken the breath of enough Canadians, at least those who care about the values that have made Canada what it is, a place of more freedom and hope than most of the world can imagine.
Our breath taken, even as the ink is barely dry on the story of Officer Patrice Vincent, the soldier run over and killed by an extremist in Quebec barely days prior.
Still, there is much that has been managed to be spoken, and eloquently, and written, and pondered, and here on this side of the ocean some of us have been following it all, this outpouring of grief and strength from Canada, so much that I finally brought it up to our children
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