# Captain Nichola K.S. Goddard killed in Afghanistan (17 May 2006)



## 17thRecceSgt (17 May 2006)

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/05/17/afghanistan-cda.html

Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan
Last Updated Wed, 17 May 2006 13:55:25 EDT 
CBC News
A female soldier from Canada has been killed while serving in Afghanistan, military officials said Wednesday.

She has not been identified, but was a captain in the Canadian Forces.

Details are scarce, but it is known she died during a major operation south of Kandahar.

It's not clear whether she was killed in combat or in an accident.

This raises Canada's death toll in Afghanistan to 16 soldiers and one diplomat since the mission started in 2002.

Roughly 2,200 Canadian soldiers are serving in the country, mostly around the southern Kandahar region.

MPs will vote Wednesday on whether to extend Canada's deployment in the country until 2009 from its currently scheduled end date of February 2007.


  RIP Ma'am


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## dardt (17 May 2006)

RIP


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## foerestedwarrior (17 May 2006)

My thoughts are with her family and friends....


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## Caleix (17 May 2006)

Your in gods hands now ma'm...R.I.P  

Caleix


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## dapaterson (17 May 2006)

CTV reports:

Female Cdn. Forces soldier dies in Afghanistan 

CTV.ca News Staff

A female captain with the Canadian Forces has been killed serving in Afghanistan, though few details have been released.

"We have been informed that a woman captain has been killed in our ongoing operation in Afghanistan," said CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife on Wednesday.

Details about the soldier's death are sketchy, but military officials are expected to brief reporters in Afghanistan soon. 

There is no word on how how the woman -- whose name has not yet been released -- died. 

Meanwhile, a suicide car bomb exploded near a UN convoy in southern Afghanistan also on Wednesday. The attacker died, but there were no reports of other casualties.

The attack took place in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, as a convoy of vehicles was travelling to a nearby coalition base.

Thor Yali, a police officer at the scene of the attack, told the Associated Press the attack occurred in Kandahar city, a former Taliban stronghold, as the convoy was travelling to a nearby U.S.-led coalition base.

An AP reporter said parts of the attacker's body were visible on the road next to a  newarly destroyed UN four-wheel-drive vehicle.

UN spokesman Adrian Edwards said there were no immediate reports that anyone was hurt. The investigation is ongoing.


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## military granny (17 May 2006)

Thoughts and prayers to the family and friends. RIP Ma'am


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## Highland Laddie (17 May 2006)

Rest in peace, fellow soldier. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family


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## hayterowensound (17 May 2006)

R.I.P


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## Daniel San (17 May 2006)

Requiescat in pacem. A firmer resolve tomorrow. Let not be wasted the lives of those who fight for more than theirs.


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## TMM (17 May 2006)

R.I.P.

I have no doubt the mere sight of a woman with that level of command served as an inspiration to Afghani women and girls.


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## Bobbyoreo (17 May 2006)

RIP


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## Pea (17 May 2006)

Her family and friends are in my thoughts. Rest in peace Ma'am.


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## GAP (17 May 2006)

My condolances


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## Jake (17 May 2006)

R.I.P and thank you for everything you've done for Canada


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## couchcommander (17 May 2006)

My sincerest condolences, and thanks, to her family and friends.


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## 17thRecceSgt (17 May 2006)

http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060503/afghanistan_carbomb_060517

Cdn. Forces soldier killed in Afghanistan 
CTV.ca News Staff

A female captain with the Canadian Forces has been killed serving in Afghanistan, though few details have been released about how she died.

She has been identified as Capt. Nicola Goddard, and she is the seventeenth Canadian soldier, and the first woman, to die in Afghanistan. 

During Wednesday's question period Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed a Canadian soldier had been killed, but said he was not a liberty to discuss the details or release her name until the next of kin has been notified.

Harper did say it was a "combat death." 

"I don't know if it's the first female combat death, it's certainly not a first we ever want to celebrate, but it does underscore the tremendous courage that our young men and women show in our theatre and I believe they have the right at all times to know those of us who send them into combat stand behind them." 

Canada's latest fatality comes as MPs prepare for a debate and vote in the House of Commons Wednesday night, on a Conservative motion to extend Canada's commitment in Afghanistan by two years.

CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer, reporting from Kandahar, said reporters have been given little details about the incident. 

However, she said clashes between insurgents and the Afghan National Army have escalated in recent days in the area just west of Kandahar city. On Wednesday, Canadian troops were called in along with U.S. air support, to provide backup.

"And the latest news, of course, is that the Prime Minister's Office is confirming that one female soldier was killed in this fighting," Mackey Frayer told CTV Newsnet.

Unconfirmed reports indicate Afghan soldiers had killed one suspected insurgent and had captured six more in Wednesday's fighting, Mackey Frayer said. 

The incident occured as troops prepared for a concert at Kandahar airfield that was designed to entertain the troops and boost spirits, Mackey Frayer said.

Canadian singer Michelle Wright was scheduled to perform in the Wednesday and Thursday night concert, along with The Wilkinsons and Julian Austin.

Officials had even relaxed a strict no-alcohol policy at the base to allow beer consumption during the party.

There is no word on whether the festivities will continue in light of the death.

Suicide bomber strikes UN convoy

Meanwhile, a suicide car bomb exploded near a UN convoy in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday. The attacker died, but there were no reports of other casualties.

The bombing took place in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, as a convoy of vehicles was travelling to a nearby coalition base.

Thor Yali, a police officer at the scene of the attack, told the Associated Press the attack occurred in Kandahar city, a former Taliban stronghold, as the convoy was travelling to a nearby U.S.-led coalition base.

An AP reporter said parts of the attacker's body were visible on the road next to a severely damaged UN four-wheel-drive vehicle.

UN spokesman Adrian Edwards said there were no immediate reports that anyone was hurt. The investigation is ongoing.

Edit:  CBC news reports Capt. Goddard is from Shilo, Manitoba.  

My deepest sympathies to the fellow officers and soldiers of Capt. Nicola Goddard's Regimental Family, and to her family, friends and loved ones.  God bless.


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## LIKELY (17 May 2006)

Thoughts and prayers to the family and friends.  R.I.P.


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## facemesser (17 May 2006)

rest in peace our prayers are with you


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## Nfld Sapper (17 May 2006)

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Capt. Nicola Goddard and to all those of Task Force Afghanistan.  

 RIP


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## dapaterson (17 May 2006)

Photo from http://www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca


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## Scoobie Newbie (17 May 2006)

My condolences to the Guns.


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## PiperDown (17 May 2006)

When the details were first coming out... Female, Captain.. I feared for the one female Captain I actually knew over there..
And, now I read my fears have come true.

Rest in Peace Ma'am.


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## Kirkhill (17 May 2006)

God grant her and her family peace.


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## Cloud Cover (17 May 2006)

Piperdown: I am sorry that you lost a comrade that you knew. 

To the family of Capt. Nicola Goddard, our thoughts and prayers are with you.-  RIP.


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## Danjanou (17 May 2006)

Rest in Peace Ma’am

My thoughts and prayers are with her family and my brothers and sisters still serving there and elsewhere in harm's way.


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## ark (17 May 2006)

R.I.P.


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## Hot Lips (17 May 2006)

RIP  

HL


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## muskrat89 (17 May 2006)

Peace and prayers to her friends, family and the Regiment

Thanks for your service to the Guns, Ma'am

UBIQUE


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## RCA (17 May 2006)

1 RCHA lost a good officer today. I also knew Capt Goddard, and this is now number 2 that I've known.

 Sincere condolences to her family. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.


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## AFireinside13 (17 May 2006)

Ma'am   
Thank you.


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## manhole (17 May 2006)

Condolences to her family and friends............Good shooting........stand easy

  Ubique


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## Goober (17 May 2006)

While I didn't know Capt. Goddard, I did meet her once at a 1RCHA officers dinner. I was one of the lowly gunners tasked to wear the monkey suit and salute the officers as they came in, she was the only one to stop and chat for a bit.

Capt. Goddard's family and friends will be in my thoughts and prayers.


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## SHELLDRAKE!! (17 May 2006)

Saint Barbara welcomes another gunner home RIP


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## 043 (17 May 2006)




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## big bad john (17 May 2006)

My thoughts and prayers are for her, her loved ones and her comrades.



http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/05/17/afghanistan-cda.html

Canadian mission loses 1st female soldier
Last Updated Wed, 17 May 2006 15:45:26 EDT 
CBC News
A female soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, making her the first Canadian woman to die in combat since the Second World War.

  
Capt. Nichola Goddard, who was serving with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Afghanistan, died in a military operation against Taliban forces. (Department of National Defence)  


Military officials have identified her as Capt. Nichola Goddard. She had been serving in Afghanistan with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and before that, was stationed with the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery in Shilo, Man.

Goddard died around 6:55 p.m. local time (10:25 a.m. EDT) in a military operation against Taliban forces, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said during question period in the House of Commons.



The military action took place near Kandahar, where the majority of the country's 2,300 soldiers in Afghanistan are serving.

Canadian soldiers had been called in to support Afghan troops fighting in the Panjwai region, about 24 kilometres west of Kandahar.


Goddard's remains are to be put onto a plane and flown home to Canada during a ramp ceremony at the main Kandahar base on Friday.

Word of Goddard's death slowly filtered through the base as soldiers attended a morale-boosting concert featuring a number of Canadian musicians.

This raises Canada's death toll in Afghanistan to 16 soldiers and one diplomat since the mission started in 2002.

MPs will vote Wednesday on whether to extend Canada's deployment in the country until 2009 from its currently scheduled end date of February 2007.

A number of Canadian women serving in the Canadian Army Medical Corps died while serving in the First and Second World Wars, says Veterans Affairs, including:

14 killed when the British hospital ship Llandovery Castle was torpedoed (First World War). 
3 killed in the bombing of a hospital in France (First World War). 
1 Canadian nurse died when a German U-boat sunk the SS Caribou in the Cabot Strait. (Second World War).


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## misfit (17 May 2006)

RIP ma'am.


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## Leo791989 (17 May 2006)

RIP
Salute to you ma'am and Thank You


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## fourninerzero (17 May 2006)

Rest In Peace Ma'am, One more brave soldier to guard the gates of Heaven.


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## IN HOC SIGNO (17 May 2006)

RIP Brave soul. May her sacrifice never be forgotten. Prayers are with family, friends and comrades.


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## Blackhorse7 (17 May 2006)

We are having to put out posts like this too damn often lately.  The realities of the days we live in.....

Rest in Peace....


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## Juvat (17 May 2006)

R.I.P 

Lest we forget


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## Waycool101 (17 May 2006)

My condolences to Capt. Goddard's family and friends.


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## Kunu (17 May 2006)

RIP


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## on guard for thee (17 May 2006)

As a former member of the Officer Corps with 1 RCHA, I counted Nichola as one of my friends. She was a hardworking and sincere individual, and a credit to the Unit and Cap Badge.

R.I.P., Nic


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## COBRA-6 (17 May 2006)

RIP


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## c2loader (17 May 2006)

On behalf of my family, I would like to say thank you for Capt. Goddard's sacrifices and my sincere sympathies to her family and Regimental Family. 
To Capt. Goddard, Mission Complete. RIP.


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## scoutfinch (17 May 2006)

My sincerest condolences to the family, friends and comrades in arms of Capt. Goddard.  

Rest in Peace, Ma'am.


_We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. _


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## captjtq (17 May 2006)

Nichola was a classmate of mine. Though I hadn't seen her since graduation, what strikes me now is I never remember seeing her without a smile on her face.

She will be missed by everyone who knew her. RIP  

Jay


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## ArmyRick (17 May 2006)

RIP Captain Goddard, You  have given everything possible to Canada "UBIQUE"


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## Gouki (17 May 2006)

In my 4 years at Shilo I never once met her; which is not important because she was a fellow member of the CF and that's what really matters in the end. 

Rest in peace, and my condolences to her husband. Sad day for Shilo.


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## youravatar (17 May 2006)

God speed ma'am.


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## 3rd Horseman (17 May 2006)

Another sad day, God speed, Heart felt condolances to her friends and family.

Stand Easy...End of Mission. RIP


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## tomahawk6 (17 May 2006)

My sympathies on the loss of Capt. Nichola Goddard. 

Fare-thee-weel, thou first and fairest! 
Fare-thee-weel, thou best and dearest! 
Thine be ilka. joy and treasure. 
Peace, Enjoyment, Love and Pleasure! 
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever! 
Ae farewell, alas, for ever! 
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee. 
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.


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## Franko (17 May 2006)

RIP

Thoughts and prayers to her family.

Regards


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## elminister (17 May 2006)

My 

thoughts, good wishes and prayers to her family. May their hearts be at ease.

RIP mama.


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## Sask HCAO (17 May 2006)

Rest in peace Ma'am. Your sacrifice will never be forgotten.


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## Guardian (17 May 2006)

Nic was a friend and classmate of mine, and a fellow gunner.

I had nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for her, and so did those she served with. She was as professional as they come. She loved Canada, the Army, and the guns. It was my privilege to have counted her as a friend. 

I know she died doing what she loved. We are all poorer for this loss. May she rest in peace.

God bless, Nic.


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## geo (17 May 2006)

At the going down of the sun,
and in the morn, we will remember them!

CHIMO!


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## Gunner (17 May 2006)

End of mission, stand easy.  

Ubique


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## Mortar guy (17 May 2006)

_Dulce at decorum est pro patria mori_

My condolences to her family, friends and regiment.

MG


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## Ashes (17 May 2006)

My Condolances, R.I.P


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## 1feral1 (17 May 2006)

Truly sorry to hear of this sad news.

Wes


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## mudgunner49 (18 May 2006)

Rest in Peace, Captain Goddard...

Prayers out to the family.


End of Mission,

blake


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## Randy (18 May 2006)

I had the pleasure of knowing and serving with Nichola for the last two years in 1 RCHA.   She was a professional and conscientious officer who always put the welfare of her soldiers before her own needs.  She always wore a smile and knew when to work hard and when to play hard.

Nic, End of Mission, Stand-Easy. 

G92


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## FormerHorseGuard (18 May 2006)

sorry to hear about this one.  It sounds like she was a fine officer. I hope her friends, family and her troops remember the fun times and the good times more then the bad times. 
She was a soldier first.


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## a_majoor (18 May 2006)

For Captain Goddard and all our lost friends:

No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea, 
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, 
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee. 

-- John Donne

We were all diminished today.


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## BernDawg (18 May 2006)




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## CommonSenseNCO (18 May 2006)

I am very sad to see that Capt Goddard was lost in Afghanistan. She was one of the most professional, level headed and full of common sense officers It was ever my pleasure to work with. I too rarely saw her without a smile and word for the troops. The 2IC said she was marked for advancement and I  can attest that this was not at all undeserved.
There were reports on CBC that 18 Taliban were killed in the exchange. While this is some comfort, not 118 would be worth 1 Capt Goddard.


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## paracowboy (18 May 2006)

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal 
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres, 
There is music in the midst of desolation 
And a glory that shines upon our tears. 

They went with songs to the battle, they were young, 
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. 
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted; 
They fell with their faces to the foe. 

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old: 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. 
At the going down of the sun and in the morning 
We will remember them.


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## Rice0031 (18 May 2006)

My condolances.
R.I.P


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## TangoTwoBravo (18 May 2006)

I recently met Nicola during operations.  I was a stranger to the group, but she greeted me warmly and her good humour was evident.  She watched over us during some tight times.

My sincerest condolences to her family and loved ones.  You are in my prayers.

Iain


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## camochick (18 May 2006)

RIP. My thoughts and prayers go out the family and friends of this brave woman.


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## KingLibra (18 May 2006)

R.I.P.


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## AmmoTech90 (18 May 2006)

RIP


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## wookie11 (18 May 2006)

Rest in Peace Capt. Goddard


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## calno (18 May 2006)

I personally know her sister, today she was called out of one of my classes, you think nothing of it until you hear the name on the radio and then it really hits home. It's strange coincidence that she and I were talking about the very subject just a few days ago. Definitely makes you think.

RIP Capt. Goddard


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## HollywoodHitman (18 May 2006)

Another familiar, smiling face is gone. 

Rest in Peace.

My condolences to the Capt's family and the Guns.


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## pbi (18 May 2006)

At our family table last night, we said a small prayer for Capt Goddard and for all our soldiers there. We all know what can happen to us from the day we sign up, but that doesn't make it any easier.


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## NL_engineer (18 May 2006)

RIP   Capt.


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## LIKELY (18 May 2006)

Uncle Lew said it best.

"The greatest respect I can pay to the young female captain who died today is to treat it just like the death of any soldier-  with great respect and certainly not differently."

RIP


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## muffin (18 May 2006)

Nichola Goddard was a familiar name around here at work when she was a 2Lt studing with us. 

Our thoughts and Prayers are with her friends, and family.

RIP Ma'am. 

muffin


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## Cdn Blackshirt (18 May 2006)

My deepest condolences to her family, friends and brothers in arms.

RIP.


Matthew.


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## ladybugmabj (18 May 2006)

My sincere sympathies go to Capt. Goddard's family, husband and CF family!  How ironic her death came on the very same day that our Canadian Gov't voted on extending the mission..one which most of you fully agree should continue (do you not agree). It saddened me last night to watch CTV news and see the leadoff story was the vote to extend, and then other, to me, secondary stories. As a military wife, I feel that every death and everything that you brave men and women do, should be front and centre for all of Canada to see. It's going to come down to what Mrs. Isfield had to endure when her son was killed in the former Yugoslavia, an after thought, 8 stories in. 

Nic, rest in peace. 

To the rest of the forces currently deployed and training to go over (my husband included), God bless you all and thank you!


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## missing1 (18 May 2006)

I offer our condolances to the Goddard Families for their loss. We know what they are going through as I lost my son there 27 days ago.  
Let us all remember Capt Nichola Goddard, proud soldier who died for her country and let us hope that her country will remember that soldier.
Your Company of Angels await your inspection Ma'am.


Dave Payne


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## gaspasser (18 May 2006)

Rest in Peace Ma'am, for you have done your Duty to your Country, Your God and Your Fellow Soldiers. The Guns, Thanks God the Guns.   Ubique!


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## Chags (18 May 2006)

R.I.P. Nichola.  

Keep smiling, and keep an eye out for the rest of us!   

Mike


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## CdnArtyWife (18 May 2006)

The guns have lost a good one!

My deepest condolences to her family.


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## karl28 (18 May 2006)

RIP Capt


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## CdnArtyWife (18 May 2006)

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1147902616179&call_pageid=1140433364397&col=1140433364286

She was proud to lead 'her guys'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the middle of the night, lurching across the Afghan desert, it was her voice on the radio that served as an audible beacon, so calming, assured and assuring. 

Mellifluous, almost like the intimate tones of a midnight DJ, except that Capt. Nichola Goddard was relaying streams of data about what was happening out there, in the dark An unidentified car approaching from the left, somebody crossing a wadi by foot to the right, Apache helicopters circling overhead. 

She wasn't the only commander contributing to radio chatter as this long military column zigged and zagged over hostile terrain - penetrating deep into Taliban territory - but her voice was the most distinctive, the most soothing, to troops huddled in their Bisons and LAVs, including those in vehicles that had gone astray and had to be lassoed back. 

It was late March. Charlie Company had been on their way to Forward Operating Base Robinson - the cavalry coming to the rescue - in support of defenders at the isolated and beleaguered outpost that had already withstood fierce attack from Taliban fighters. 

Arriving at the FOB after a wretched 23-hour hump, soldiers spilled out of their vehicles to crash on the hard ground, almost instantly asleep under a molten sun. But not Goddard. She still had things to do. 

Maj. Bill Fletcher, the officer in command of Charlie Company, smiled affectionately when he spoke of Goddard, how the captain had so professionally supplied a verbal escort for this mission "There's nobody better at her job. I wouldn't go anywhere without her." 

She was there with him yesterday too, of course, during a ferocious battle in the volatile Panjwai District, commanding her own crew and calling in co-ordinates from artillery regiments - the big guns - further behind the front combat line; from the American bombers, too, that were summoned for air support. 

And she was killed there, in a firefight, Canada's first female combat casualty since World War II, the 16th soldier to die since Canadian troops were deployed to Afghanistan in 2002, the second to fall during a battle. 

It was unclear, last night, precisely how Goddard had died, whether she'd been mounted or dismounted, inside a LAV III or perhaps standing up in a gun turret, whether felled by small-arms fire or a rocket-propelled grenade - Canadian troops were taking both in the battle that had raged all day, was still going strong at midnight. 

Military officials at Kandahar Airfield, who weren't even certain whether Goddard's body had been returned to base, knew only that she had died at the scene. 

"I don't know if we've been able to bring Capt. Goddard's remains out of the battle area," Task Force Orion spokesperson Capt. Mark Peebles told the Toronto Star last night, in an interview from Kandahar . 

"But as much as I'm sure this has affected everybody out there, they've still got bigger things on their minds right now, unfortunately. The operation is still ongoing." 

It was a multi-company engagement, involving more than 200 Canadian troops, jointly conducted with the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police; a "clearance operation" to root out Taliban militants in a small town - they've been there before - north of the Arghandab River, about 28 kilometres west of Kandahar city. 

When last in the area, at strength, more than a month ago, it was Bravo Company that was rushed in to back up national forces, but their assistance had been sought only after the Afghans found themselves in serious trouble. 

Half a dozen Afghan troops were killed then, including two top commanders and an investigation was later opened into whether they'd been slain by "friendly fire," possibly from U.S. bombers. 

This time, the operation was conducted in tandem. Yet there's no explanation for how or why Goddard became the only casualty, no other Canadian injuries reported, although there appear to have been significant Taliban losses. 

Five Taliban fighters, sources told the Star, were also taken prisoner. 

Canadian troops did fire their big guns. "This was a significant threat that did not go unopposed," said Peebles. "We were involved in firefights." 

Nichola Kathleen Sarah Goddard - "Nic" - was a sharp, expert artillery captain with the 1st Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery out of Shilo, Man. 

More specifically, a forward operations officer, which means she was invariably in the thick of things - poised and precise under pressure - and the only female to hold that senior artillery status with Canadian forces in Afghanistan. 

A combat soldier - and there aren't many women serving in such infantry, artillery or armour capacity, much less as captains. Women make up 10 per cent, about 230, of the 2,300-strong force in Afghanistan. 

She did hard soldiering with the men, slept as they slept in the open desert, and led them into missions, most often with her own LAV crew of four to six troops. 

From a March email she sent to her sister Kate - who serves with the Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps - recounting the answer she'd recently given to an embedded CTV reporter when asked what she feared most "I said that it is that I will make a poor decision that will hurt someone unnecessarily. That is my biggest fear and something that I think every leader struggles with all of the time. All I can do is try my best and hope that I will do the best possible thing for my guys." 

My guys. 

Worried, too, that maybe the cameras had caught her swearing - she had a salty edge - while giving orders to her men, and apologizing in advance about that to her dad. 

Born in 1980, daughter of a university professor, eldest of three sisters, a marathon runner, married just last Christmas to Jay, who was earlier discharged from the military because of a rugby injury. 

That was a subject of immense amusement to Afghans she met during shuras, when troops go out to meet village elders, listen to their concerns, show their faces, take off their helmets. 

"I had to climb down from my precarious perch on the side of a mountain to drink chai," she tells Kate in a lengthy email dispatch. "I am not sure how serious the discussion was before I got there, but once I arrived it quickly centred on my marriage status. 

"The big shock was not that I was in the army, but that I was married and in the army. 

"The fact that my husband was not also a soldier was even more disturbing (don't worry, Jay, I said that if you were strong enough to handle me, you didn't need to be a soldier too). The remainder of the discussion revolved around my inexplicable lack of children. The elder offered to go inside and get me some milk and bread as diet was probably the issue. He was 67 and had two wives and several children under the age of 10. I said that my husband would definitely say that one wife was enough. 

"He thought that was hysterical, and I was a hit." 

Oh, how she was enjoying her deployment to Afghanistan, despite the risks. How rightfully proud she was of meeting the challenges. 

After returning from 15 days dismounted in the rugged mountains north of Kandahar, she described the rigorous assignment "It was an incredibly challenging and rewarding experience. I feel like a poster child for why people should join the army - it was an amazing 15 days." 

And, further "I think that my proudest moment over the last 15 days was after a 10 km march with a 2,000-foot altitude gain. I was carrying approximately 100 lbs. of kit. It was a lot. It was the most physically challenging thing that I have ever done - and I've done some crazy stuff." 

She'd explained to the fascinated Afghans what she believed truly in her heart, about the equality of men and women, an equality she was living. 

And she was equally fascinated when her interpreter delivered, on her behalf, a rousing little speech on that subject. "It was perhaps the greatest statement of equality that I have ever heard - and it was given by a Pakistan-raised Afghan male in the middle of an Afghan village that is only accessible by a 5 km walk up a mountain. It just goes to show that anything is possible and that stereotypes are often completely wrong." 

What a loss, what a grievous loss - to the military, to the country, to the mission in Afghanistan, to "her guys," and most especially to her family. 

As that family was receiving the dreadful news yesterday, MPs in Ottawa were preparing to debate a Conservative motion that Canada extend its commitment to Afghanistan for two years beyond what had been a February 2007 exit date. 

How could Capt. Goddard have known, have ever imagined, that her name would be uttered during this debate in Parliament? 

What a pity, though, that her voice, her lovely and wise voice, couldn't be heard inside that vaunted chamber as well. 

"I am in such good company in uniform. It truly is an honour to be wearing a uniform overseas." 

Yes, Goddard admired Afghanistan, walked tall inside her uniform on the many occasions she went "beyond the wire"; was immensely curious about the country, soaked it up into her marrow, saw beyond the scraggliness and turbulence; couldn't wait, she said, until summer when everything would be in bloom. 

But summer, too, is when home beckoned. 

"I have an end-date. I know that I'll be home sometime in August." 

Sadly, so sadly, Capt. Goddard will come home sooner than that


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## big bad john (18 May 2006)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com//servlet/story/LAC.20060518.BLATCHFORD18/TPStory//?pageRequested=all

Voice of pride and respect falls silent

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD 

E-mail Christie Blatchford | Read Bio | Latest Columns 
Less than two months ago, in a long and articulate letter to her baby sister Kate, studying in France, posted on her blog, Captain Nichola Goddard described herself.

"I feel like a poster child for why people should join the military," she wrote.

Killed in action yesterday, Capt. Goddard -- a FOO, or Forward Observation Officer, with the 1st Canadian Royal Horse Artillery, a job widely considered one of the best in any army and one of the most dangerous -- is the first Canadian female combat soldier to die while engaged in battle.

It is a special cruelty that there are those who will cite her death as reason why people should not join the military, or why the Canadian military should not be in Afghanistan, or anywhere else.

On March 25, Capt. Goddard had just returned from 15 days in the mountains north of Kandahar on Operation Sola Kowel, which in Pashto means "Peacemaker." She was bursting with pride (in herself a little, and for good reason, but chiefly in the Canadian Forces and Canada's mission in Afghanistan), humour, wit, insight and intelligence.

"I am always astonished at the way that the military acts as a great equalizer," she wrote. "It doesn't matter where you are from, or how much money you had growing up or the size of your family. It doesn't even matter what country you're from or your level of education. Once you're out with other soldiers, doing your thing, we are all the same."

She was speaking in particular reference to the Afghan National Army, with whose soldiers Canadians always work, and the brave interpreters employed by the Canadians, and her admiration for them.

They had watched in awe as Capt. Goddard completed a 10-kilometre march up a mountain, carrying 45 kilogramsof kit on her back, and she had watched as they ran past her up those same rocky inclines.

Later, at a shura, one of the meetings with village elders Canadians hold regularly, the men in the town were staring at Capt. Goddard. The interpreter approached her and said, she wrote, "Please excuse their staring. They are just very surprised that you are a woman working with all of these men. I have told them that you climbed over the mountain with us with your heavy bag and that you had no problems. They think that you must be very strong.

"I explained to them that you are just like the men, and that you can do everything that they can do the same as them."

"It was," Capt. Goddard wrote, "perhaps the greatest statement of equality that I have ever heard, and it was given by a Pakistani-raised, Afghan male in the middle of an Afghan village that is only accessible by a five-kilometre walk up a mountain.

"It just goes to show that anything is possible and that stereotypes are often completely wrong."

She was so full of fun and warmth.

As one of about only 230 women out of the 2,300 Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan, she found that staring was a common occurrence. "I am not sure," she wrote, "how I am going to feel walking through a town without attracting a crowd. It will be quite humbling after all of the attention I am getting here."

Self-deprecating humour was clearly her style. Lisa LaFlamme and a CTV cameraman were embedded with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, with whom Capt. Goddard was attached on Operation Sola Kowel, and Ms. LaFlamme latched onto her right away, Capt. Goddard wrote.

While in theory a big booster of embedded media, she much preferred it when someone else did the talking, but Ms. LaFlamme, who was working on a documentary, was persistent, and she was interviewed several times.

"I am afraid I was a dismal failure on the interviews," Capt. Goddard wrote. "She kept asking if I was scared or apprehensive; I said no. . . . She then asked me what my biggest concern was. I said that it is that I will make a poor decision that will hurt someone unnecessarily.

"That is my biggest fear, and something that I think every leader struggles with all of the time. . . . I don't think that was really moving enough for her, which was kind of ironic, because it is almost all-consuming to me."

Ms. LaFlamme even filmed her once, giving orders. "I tried very hard not to swear, but I don't think I was successful. I'm sorry, Dad. I guess that if it makes it to the documentary, they'll cut out the swearing part or beep it over or something."

Alas, Capt. Goddard concluded, "I'm afraid that my 15 minutes of fame will be more like 15 seconds." The only part, she thought, that might make the cut was the time she called in a "contact" of two men carrying rifles. "It turns out they were two guys with umbrellas," she wrote.

Her regard and affection for Afghans was tangible. She found their little mud towns beautiful, understood how much work it would have taken to build them, and loved the mud walls that turned the simplest hut into a private compound. "It is interesting," she wrote, "the human desire to claim something as their 'own.' In the middle of nowhere, a single house will have a wall around it, claiming that space."

Respect for what in the modern parlance is called the "other" permeated all her sharp observations. "There are gardens everywhere, and they are terraced with an irrigation system that would do any civil engineer proud, . . . all done by hand. Not to mention the planting, weeding and harvesting, which is all done by hand. I can't wait until the summer when everything will be in bloom. I wish that I had my Dad's gift with a camera to capture the colours properly."

When the soldiers met the Koochi, the nomads on the desert, what did she notice but their grace, and the animals who herded the hundreds of goats and sheep. "They had dogs that looked like Great Danes crossed with horses -- beautiful, massive things."

She was graceful herself, eating goat soup at an ANA New Year's celebration "without making a face or anything," fending off the occasional marriage proposal and questions about how her husband Jay was not a soldier ("I said that if you were strong enough to handle me, you didn't need to be a soldier.") or why she, a woman, couldn't even bake a decent flatbread.

All the while, she thought about her grandparents and "what they must have gone through in World War I and II. This is nothing compared to that," she wrote.

"I have an end date. I know that I'll be home in August. I have the ability to come back to a warm tent and call home to hear my Mum's voice. I have the ability to check e-mail and send a message instantly. I am so proud of all the veterans that I know, but especially both of my grandfathers and grandmothers.

"I am in such good company in uniform."

The last thing she wrote in that long letter was that her family and friends pray for Captain Trevor Greene, the soldier who was axed in the head at a shura several weeks before.

On our last outing with the soldiers in Afghanistan last month, before heading home, Globe and Mail photographer Louie Palu and I were embedded with Charlie Company of the PPCLI on a trip to Forward Operating Base Robinson, about 100 klicks north of Kandahar.

It was a trip from hell -- 23 hours in the close confines of Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) and other, less protected vehicles; improvised explosive devices all around; a suicide bomber desperately trying to make his way through the Kandahar city traffic to get to and blow up our convoy; the usual vehicle breakdowns; soldiers occasionally getting lost in the black night and a terrible accident that saw a truck sideswipe the LAV I was in, send the cannon flying, which badly bloodied and injured two young privates.

Capt. Goddard was our FOO. It was her job to co-ordinate the artillery assets in our battle group and call down artillery fire when necessary.

I never met her. I would have remembered that big, space-between-the-front-teeth smile. And let's face it, there are so few female soldiers in Afghanistan, so very few in combat positions. We women tend to notice one another almost as much as the men notice us.

To me, she was The Voice, that warm, completely unflappable, calm voice on the radio that felt like balm to taut nerves and overactive imaginations.

After we finally arrived at the FOB, safe and sound, we asked Major Bill Fletcher, Officer Commanding for Charlie Company, about The Voice. "Oh, that's Capt. Nich," he said. She was fabulous, he said, and he'd prefer never to go anywhere without her.

They are all without her now,

as are we.



http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060518/afghanistan_carbomb_060518

Goddard's parents say she believed in mission 
CTV.ca News Staff

The parents of fallen Canadian soldier Capt. Nichola Goddard said their daughter loved being a solider, and her need to help others earned her the nickname "Care Bear."

"Our daughter, Capt. Nichola Goddard, has been portrayed in the media as a strong leader, an officer who cared for her soldiers, and one who believed in the Canadian mission in Afghanistan," her father, Tim Goddard, told a press conference in Calgary Thursday.

"She was all of those things, but she was also so much more."

Goddard, 26, was killed Wednesday during an intense firefight with Taliban insurgents near Panjwai -- 24 kilometres west of Kandahar city.

Her father said she loved camping and had a great appreciation of the outdoors, likely gained from her time living in northern Saskatchewan and Baffin Island. She also loved animals, and had two dogs and two cats bought from an animal shelter in Manitoba.

But she was best known for her altruism, her father said, adding that "behind her huge smile was an even bigger heart."

"Once, during a ski race, one of the other competitors became hypothermic and collapsed by the side of the trail," he recalled.

"Nichola stopped and helped him down to the finish, losing any chance of winning that race for herself. After that, her friends all called her 'Care Bear.'"

Goddard's mother, Sally, said her daughter grew up around the world, attending seven schools before she graduated from high school.

Earlier Thursday, Goddard's husband said his wife loved being a soldier and thought nothing of being a female officer.

"I don't think she wanted to be perceived as a female doing a job. She felt she was just like one of the other soldiers and wanted to come across that way," Jason Beam told The Canadian Press from his home in Shilo, Man.

Beam and Goddard last spoke the morning before her fatal mission.

Hundreds of Canadian soldiers were supporting Afghan security forces in one of the most violent firefights since the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001.

"She really wanted to go, she definitely wanted to make a difference," said Beam, who met his wife in basic training when the couple were teenagers.

A ramp ceremony for Goddard is set to take place in Afghanistan on Friday morning.

A National Defence spokeswoman said the ceremony will be held in Kandahar at 7 a.m. local time Friday (10:30 p.m. ET Thursday), before Goddard's body begins the long journey home to Canada.

The spokeswoman could not say when Goddard's body is due to arrive back, or whether any part of the process would be open to the media. 

Funeral plans have not been finalized, but the service will be in Calgary, where her parents live.

A public memorial service will also be held at Canadian Forces Base Shilo for her friends and colleagues, said Beam.

The federal government recently closed the actual arrival home of fallen soldiers to the media, arguing that it wanted to allow their families to grieve in private.

Goddard, of Calgary, was married with no children. 

Beam said he and his wife discussed having children in several years and that she doted on their two dogs and two cats.

"When she called back, she was always checking on how they were doing," he said.

Goddard was the 17th Canadian to be killed in Afghanistan since the current mission began in 2002, and Canada's first female combat death since the Second World War.

News of Goddard's fatality came as MPs in the House of Commons began debating a Conservative motion to extend the Canadian mission by two years. 

Late Wednesday, MPs voted by a narrow margin of 149-145 to extend the Canadian military mission to February 2009.

Both the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois voted against the motion.

Moment of silence

On Thursday, MPs observed a moment of silence to honour the fallen soldier.

Goddard was serving with Task Force Afghanistan and was attached to the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (1 PPCLI) Battle Group. 

She was serving as a forward artillery observer -- helping direct fire at enemy positions from near the front lines -- when the LAV III she was riding in was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. 

Despite her risky assignment, she was known as a strong leader who inspired loyalty and courage among the soldiers of her unit.

"She went out of her way to make people feel welcome," her friend, Capt. Harry Crawford, told The Canadian Press.

"She always made sure her soldiers were taken care of. I know a lot of her soldiers and I know that they respected her." 

In a lengthy email posted on her sister's Internet blog, Goddard described how she missed her daily Tim Hortons coffee and the pride she felt at wearing the uniform.

She recounted carrying a 45-kilogram pack uphill on a two-kilometre march, as well as other daily challenges of her role in the Afghan mission. 

"I feel like a poster child for why people should join the military," Goddard wrote. "It was an amazing 15 days." 

Attacks across Afghanistan

Around 100 people were killed Wednesday and Thursday as hundreds of insurgents attacked a southern town and fighting flared across the country.

Afghan officials said 13 policemen and 40 Taliban were killed in hours of fighting that raged after the coalition strike on Mosa Qala town -- 470 km southwest of Kabul -- was launched on Wednesday evening.

In a separate incident, a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy in the generally peaceful western city of Herat, killing himself and an American civilian. 

A U.S. embassy spokesman said he was a State Department contractor training Afghan police.

A suicide bomber also attacked a U.S. military convoy near Ghazni town, 125 km southwest of Kabul, killing himself and a man on a motorcycle, an Afghan army officer said.


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## horsegunner353 (18 May 2006)

Nichola was a very good friend of mine and my wife.  We consider it an honour to have known her.... we're still pretty shaken up.

To those of you who may not have had the opportunity to make her acquaintance, she is quite possibly the nicest person I have ever met.  Her and her husband epitomise the virtue of selfless sacrifice.  She was a scout leader and always took time to help a friend.  She threw my wife and I a farewell BBQ, and when we moved into a PMQ a few doors down, she and her husband gave up a weekend to build us a fence as a house warming gift.

You never know what you have until it's gone.  She is a hero in every sense of the word, even before she deployed.  She is a model soldier and a model officer that EVERY Canadian should work to emulate.

Nic, 

End of mission, good shooting.... we love you and miss you.

D, C and FMcC


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## dutchknight (19 May 2006)

Rest in Peace, Capt.


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## Michael Dorosh (19 May 2006)

I think the family has behaved with extraordinary grace and class; kudos to them for standing firm behind what their daughter/wife believed in.


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## Nagual (19 May 2006)

R.I.P.


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## armyvern (19 May 2006)

Ma'am,

Today I cried again for you, for your family. It was an honour to have met you, however briefly, during your training. Today as I saw your picture in our paper and on the television, I saw once again that wide smile, attitude and bright future that I recall about you. I can only hope that I too am able to serve as honourably and nobely as yourself.

I hope that one day, from your blood spilt upon the Afghan soil, spring forth a seedling of a bright fruit-bearing tree. May it provide the basis of a tree deeply rooted in peace and stability. May it's branchs grow thicker and stronger with democracy and freedom. May it bear the fruit of a bright future for the Afghan people; No longer afraid to live their lives fully and justly as you have done. No longer afraid to send their daughters to school, to let their children laugh. May the sun shine bright upon it, much as your smile will continue to shine upon us, bringing us strength and providing hope to the Afghan people. May it bring comfort to your family.

You are an inspiration. I will remember you.

Veronica


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## reccecrewman (19 May 2006)

Your sacrifice was not in vain ma'am, your comrades will carry on with you in their hearts. You paid the ultimate price to help bring security to a land that has not known security for decades. May all Canadians pause to reflect and give thanks to our brave men and women who have laid down their lives in Afghanistan. May you find peace and solace wherever you are now ma'am.  

1CMBG -  
1RCHA -  
Mr. & Mrs. Goddard -


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## The Bread Guy (19 May 2006)

Thoughts and prayers to those who mourn, and to those who continue to serve.


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## 1feral1 (19 May 2006)

Even here tonight on the Network 10 news in Brisbane she made the headlines as the first Canadian woman who lost her life in the war in Afghanistan. Her picture was shown, the same on that is posted on this thread. 

Being just 26, she signed on after I left the CF. I never knew her, but by reading these posts here, she has left some big shoes to fill.

Regards,

Wes


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## big bad john (19 May 2006)

http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060519/afghanistan_carbomb_060519

Remains of slain soldier to arrive home Saturday 
CTV.ca News Staff

The casket of slain soldier Capt. Nichola Goddard began the long journey home from Kandahar Friday, after eight pallbearers carried her remains aboard a waiting Hercules transport aircraft.

Goddard's coffin, draped in the Canadian flag, first passed long lines of soldiers from countries around the world, including Afghanistan's own national army.

"Go forth upon your journey, Nichola, go forth from this world," a chaplain said in prayer.

The casket is expected to arrive at CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario on Saturday, before being flown back to Goddard's family in Calgary, Alta. 

The pallbearers, all from the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery where Goddard served, will stay with her body for the duration of the journey.

Goddard, 26, was killed Wednesday during an intense firefight with Taliban insurgents near Panjwai -- 24 kilometres west of Kandahar city.

She was serving as a forward artillery observer -- helping direct fire at enemy positions from near the front lines -- when the LAV III she was riding in was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade.

CTV's Middle East bureau chief Janis Mackey Frayer said there is no official report yet, but it's been suggested "she was standing in the hatch of that vehicle. She apparently ducked her head, but was hit with the shrapnel from the impact of the grenade on the vehicle's turret."

Goddard's fellow soldiers in Afghanistan remembered her Thursday as a strong leader who inspired in them loyalty and courage.

They honoured her in a tribute, which began with a lone fiddler playing Amazing Grace.

Her contribution to the mission in Afghanistan was noted during a musical revue put on by some of Canada's top performers, including country singer-songwriter Michelle Wright.

A 'strong leader'

Goddard's parents said their daughter loved being a soldier, and her need to help others earned her the nickname "Care Bear."

"Our daughter, Capt. Nichola Goddard, has been portrayed in the media as a strong leader, an officer who cared for her soldiers, and one who believed in the Canadian mission in Afghanistan," her father, Tim Goddard, told a press conference in Calgary Thursday.

"She was all of those things, but she was also so much more."

Her father said she loved camping and had a great appreciation of the outdoors, likely gained from her time living in northern Saskatchewan and Baffin Island. She also loved animals, and had two dogs and two cats bought from an animal shelter in Manitoba.

But she was best known for her altruism, her father said, adding that "behind her huge smile was an even bigger heart."

"Once, during a ski race, one of the other competitors became hypothermic and collapsed by the side of the trail," he recalled.

"Nichola stopped and helped him down to the finish, losing any chance of winning that race for herself. After that, her friends all called her 'Care Bear.'"

Goddard's mother, Sally, said her daughter grew up around the world, attending seven schools before she graduated from high school.

Goddard's husband, Jason Beam, said his wife loved being a soldier and thought nothing of being a female officer.

"She loved her job, loved what she was doing over there. She was very enthusiastic about getting over to Afghanistan and being on this mission," Beam said in an interview with CTV Winnipeg's Kelly Dehn. 

"She couldn't really tell me what was going on because of operational security, but I know the time she spent back at the main Kandahar air base there, it was always a pretty frustrating time for her just sitting around waiting to get out again. 

"She always wanted to actually get out and do her job."

Beam, who met his wife in basic training when they were teenagers, last spoke to Goddard the morning before her fatal mission.

In a lengthy email posted on her sister's Internet blog, Goddard described how she missed her daily Tim Hortons coffee and the pride she felt at wearing the uniform.

She recounted carrying a 45-kilogram pack uphill on a two-kilometre march, as well as other daily challenges of her role in the Afghan mission. 

"I feel like a poster child for why people should join the military," Goddard wrote. "It was an amazing 15 days." 

Goddard was the 17th Canadian to be killed in Afghanistan since the current mission began in 2002, and Canada's first female combat death since the Second World War.

Moment of silence

On Thursday, MPs observed a moment of silence to honour the fallen soldier.

News of her death came as MPs in the House of Commons began debating a Conservative motion to extend the Canadian mission by two years. 

Late Wednesday, MPs voted by a narrow margin of 149-145 to extend the Canadian military mission to February 2009.

Both the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois voted against the motion.

The federal government recently closed the actual arrival home of fallen soldiers to the media, arguing that it wanted to allow their families to grieve in private.

Attacks across Afghanistan

Meanwhile, Afghanistan saw one of its bloodiest days since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban.

Around 100 people were killed Wednesday and Thursday as hundreds of insurgents attacked a southern town and fighting flared across the country.

Afghan officials said 13 policemen and 40 Taliban were killed in hours of fighting that raged after the coalition strike on Mosa Qala town -- 470 km southwest of Kabul -- was launched on Wednesday evening.

In a separate incident, a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy in the generally peaceful western city of Herat, killing himself and an American civilian. 

A U.S. embassy spokesman said he was a State Department contractor training Afghan police.

A suicide bomber also attacked a U.S. military convoy near Ghazni town, 125 km southwest of Kabul, killing himself and a man on a motorcycle, an Afghan army officer said.


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## big bad john (19 May 2006)

http://sympatico.msn.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/05/19/goddard-ramp.html

Thousands of comrades send Goddard home
Last Updated Fri, 19 May 2006 08:27:47 EDT 
CBC News
Thousands of troops from several countries lined the tarmac at Kandahar airbase on Friday to say goodbye to Capt. Nichola Goddard, Canada's latest casualty in Afghanistan.

  
Members of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery carry the coffin of Capt. Nichola Goddard on board a C-130 Hercules at Kandahar. The plane is expected to arrive in Trenton, Ont., on Saturday. (Bob Weber/Canadian Press)  

FROM MAY 18, 2006: Slain soldier was eager to go to Afghanistan, says family

Goddard, the first female combat soldier Canada has lost in battle, was killed Wednesday battling Taliban insurgents west of Kandahar.

On Friday soldiers from eight countries attended as her flag-draped casket was carried by eight members of her unit, the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. The casket went underneath an arch formed by two M777 howitzers and between the ranks of camouflage-clad soldiers then up the loading ramp of a C130 Hercules for the flight home to Canada.


FROM MAY 17, 2006: Canadian woman 16th soldier killed in Afghanistan

The plane is expected to arrive in Trenton, Ont., on Saturday.

At the Kandahar base, prayers were said, and Brig.-Gen. David Fraser followed the casket into the airplane to say a brief private farewell.


FROM MAY 18, 2006: Violence surges across Afghanistan

Soldiers at the ceremony included those from Canada, the United States, Britain, Romania, France, the Netherlands, Estonia and Afghanistan.

Goddard was serving as a forward artillery observer when Canadian troops were called to support Afghan forces as they battled Taliban fighters about 24 kilometres west of Kandahar.

She was killed when the LAV III light armoured vehicle she was in was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

  
Capt. Nichola Goddard was the first Canadian female combat soldier to die in battle. (DND)  
The Canadians formed a ring around the area where the Afghan forces were battling the Taliban.

Canadian military officials said 18 Taliban militants were killed and 26 captured during the operation. Three Afghan National Army soldiers were wounded.

Goddard was the 16th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002. One Canadian diplomat has also been killed.

The Calgary native lived in Shilo, Man., with her husband, Jason Beam.

Her funeral will take place in Calgary, at the same church where she was married less than four years ago.

A public memorial is planned at her base at CFB Shilo, in Manitoba.


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## JasonH (19 May 2006)

> Grenade attack killed soldier
> 
> GEOFFREY YORK
> 
> ...



RIP  :'(


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## wildman0101 (19 May 2006)

rest in peace mam  
 stand down   
                                                  scoty


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## Kev T (19 May 2006)

Thank you ma'am for all that you have done for Canada and Afghanistan. We will never forget your sacrifice. We will also never forget all our other troops serving overseas. God bless you all.


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## mechanic_chick (19 May 2006)

RIP Ma'am.  

I send my deepest sympathies to her family who loved her greatly , her husband , her friends , and to the guns.

I know its a tough time here in Shilo right now.. I never had the pleasure of meeting her , saw her around numerous times at the Canex ( as well as the other soldiers fallen from CFB Shilo ) , she seemed to really love her job and do well at it. I hope some day I can have something close to Nichola's passion for the military.


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## CSA (20 May 2006)

R.I.P.


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## redleafjumper (20 May 2006)

My condolences to Nichola's family and friends.  The loss of someone as special as her always makes one wonder what she might have gone on to do, given more time.

R.I.P.


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## The Bread Guy (20 May 2006)

Shared in accordance with the "fair dealing" provisions, Section 29, of the Copyright Act - http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/info/act-e.html#rid-33409

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/National/2006/05/20/1589581-sun.html

Funeral Open to All Canadians
Pablo Fernandez, Calgary Sun, 20 Ma6 06

"With their daughter on her way home for the last time, the family of Capt. Nichola Goddard yesterday started the heart-wrenching process of planning her funeral.

Because the loss of their daughter is not theirs alone, Nichola's parents, Tim and Sally Goddard, said the Calgary ceremony will be open to the public and media.

_*Services for Nichola are set to be held at St. Barnabas Anglican Church, located at 1407 7 Ave. N.W., at 11 a.m. on May 26. *_"

"There have been so many people involved in Nichola's life and we have been so overwhelmed by the messages of support and sympathy we have received from across Canada and, indeed, the world," they said.

"It seems that not only we, her family, but all Canadians, the nation she died for, need to bring some closure to this awful story."

Nichola, 26, was killed Wednesday in a firefight 24 km west of Kandahar, where she was serving with NATO forces and conducting anti-Taliban operations.

Originally from Calgary but stationed at Canadian Forces Base Shilo, Man., Nichola was a forward observation officer with the 1st regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, guiding Howitzer shells and air cover in support of ground operations by Afghan security forces.

She was the first Canadian woman combat soldier to be killed in action.

The flag-draped casket carrying Nichola's body was put in a military transport plane at the Kandahar airfield yesterday in an emotional ramp ceremony attended by hundreds of Canadian and allied troops."


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## Randy (21 May 2006)

CTV televised the Ramp Ceremony in Trenton last night (approx 2345 hrs EST) from a camera outside the gate.

I wish I could have been standing on the tarmac ......   I am grateful the media showed the ceremony live.  

A Memorial Service will be held in CFB Shilo on Wednesday, 31 May 06 at 1300 hrs (local).  It will be held in the 1 RCHA Gun Park.

Randy


http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060503/goddard_repatriation_060520/20060521?hub=TopStories

Fallen soldier's remains arrive in Canada
Updated Sun. May. 21 2006 3:06 AM ET

CTV.ca News

The remains of Capt. Nichola Goddard have been repatriated to Canadian soil from Afghanistan.

The ceremony was originally set to take place at 4 p.m. EDT at CFB Trenton, but had been delayed until 11:45 p.m. due to a fuel leakage problem with the aircraft.

As with other dead soldiers who returned from Afghanistan, pallbearers removed her flag-draped coffin after it was brought out from inside the military aircraft at the airfield in eastern Ontario. A quarter-guard of soldiers presented arms as Goddard was carried by the pallbearers to a waiting hearse. A priest led the way.

CTV's news cameras showed Goddard's family members walk over to the hearse, carrying flowers in their hands. When they returned from the hearse,  the flowers were gone.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada's top soldier, were in attendance.

A bagpiper could be heard playing.

Goddard, 26, was killed Wednesday when she was struck by a rocket propelled grenade during an intense gun battle with suspected Taliban insurgents about 24 kilometres west of Kandahar city. 

She is Canada's first female combat soldier to be killed in battle.

As in the repatriation ceremony for fallen soldiers Bombardier Myles Mansell, Lieut. William Turner, Cpl. Matt Dinning and Cpl. Randy Payne, media will be banned from the base .

During those ceremonies, CTV's remote TV truck used a camera on top of its mast to capture images of the event from outside the fence at CFB Trenton. This was done during Goddard's return too.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's controversial decision to ban reporters from the ceremonies is similar to one made by U.S. President George Bush, when the death toll in Iraq began to mount.

Critics have accused the government of trying to hide the human cost of the commitment to Afghanistan.

Goddard's parents said their daughter's funeral, to be held Friday in Calgary, would be open to the public.

"There have been so many people involved in Nichola's life and we have been so overwhelmed by the messages of support and sympathy we have received from across Canada and, indeed, the world," they said Friday. 

"It seems that not only we, her family, but all Canadians, the nation she died for, need to bring some closure to this awful story."

Along with her husband Jason Beam (they were married in December) and her parents Jim and Sally Goddard, Nichola also leaves behind two sisters.

The funeral will take place in the same church were Nichola and Jason were married.

RMC remembers

For cadets at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., Saturday was a day of mixed emotions.

While it was graduation day for the class of 2006, their jubilation at having made it was tempered by the reality that one of their predecessors was returning from Afghanistan the same day in a coffin.

The college's celebrations were interrupted by a moment of silence for Goddard, the artillery captain who had graduated four years earlier.

"Nichola was here when I was a first year, so for me, it hit a little harder," said Lieut. John Hagemeyer, one of Saturday's grads.

Both Hagemeyer and his girlfriend Dawn Dussault, an undergraduate, know their turn in Afghanistan will come, especially now that the mission has been extended by two years.

"I know I will be going over there, and it will be extremely difficult and demanding for myself," Dussault said.

But Dussault, Hagemeyer and others interviewed by CTV said they were prepared to follow in the footsteps of officers like Goddard.

Many instructors and top officers had recollections of her, including Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada's chief of defence staff.

"I had the opportunity to meet her myself, and this effervescent young lady, this bubbly young lady, was an incredible Canadian," he told reporters.

Of her family, he said: "Their hearts will be bursting with grief, but they'll also be bursting with pride."

With a report from CTV's Rosemary Thompson


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## Green Lid (21 May 2006)

RIP  Capt Goddard


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## BernieSonSoonIn (23 May 2006)

On behalf of The Wikdahl; ne: Wickdahl Family of Canada. 
Our sincerest condolences go out to the Goddard Family and Friends, Comrades & Colleagues.
      Lest We Not Forget, Amen! RIP   Nicola!


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## Cloud Cover (23 May 2006)

Reproduced under the fair dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060503/afghanistan_goddard_060523/20060523?hub=Canada

Goddard to be buried at Nat'l Memorial Cemetery
Updated Tue. May. 23 2006 9:26 PM ET

Canadian Press

CALGARY -- Capt. Nichola Goddard, Canada's first female combat soldier to be killed in battle, will be buried at the National Memorial Cemetery in Ottawa, an honour which will draw attention to the little-known site. 

The cemetery, within sight of the Parliament buildings, was established in 2001 at the urging of Gen. Romeo Dallaire, now a senator, who believed that Canada needed something equivalent to the American military burial grounds at Arlington, Va.

To date few soldiers killed in combat have been buried there, military historian Jack Granatstein said Tuesday.

"I think this is where people who are killed in action, killed overseas, should be buried,'' said Granatstein, former director of the Canadian War Museum.

Goddard, 26, died May 17 near Kandahar in a Taliban ambush. She was the 16th Canadian soldier to be killed in Afghanistan. All the others have been buried in their hometowns.

Her funeral will be held Friday at St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Calgary, where she married Jason Beam in 2002.

A spokesman for the Goddard family said the decision to bury her in Ottawa was made because of its central location, not because of her role in history. The Goddards lived in many corners of the globe and have friends and relatives scattered across Canada.

"Capt. Goddard felt very proud of her calling, she was very proud of her job and the people she worked with serving her country on operations,'' said Capt. Malcolm Day. "They also felt it would make a nice central location where all her colleagues, friends and acquaintances could visit the gravesite in the future.'' 

Details of Goddard's interment have not been worked out, but it is expected to take place in early June.

Any Canadian soldier who is killed in the line of duty or who has been honourably discharged may be buried at the National Memorial Cemetery. 

Many Canadians are not aware of the site, but that could change as people seek out Goddard's grave, said veterans spokesman Cliff Chadderton. 

Although Goddard did not want attention drawn to her gender, Canada is one of the few countries to allow women to fight in battle and that will draw attention to her tombstone. 

"There will be more attention paid to this grave than others buried there,'' said Chadderton, chairman of the National Council of Veterans Associations, which represents 52 veterans groups. 

"It will give (the cemetery) a standing it has never had before, and thank God for that,'' Chadderton said from Ottawa. "If we're going to have a military cemetery, let's have one. Let's not hide behind the bushes. If the circumstances are right, let's have a guard of honour, maybe even a permanent guard of honour.''

While there are cemeteries in Europe for Canadians killed in the First and Second World Wars, that has done little to foster awareness of this country's military contributions.

"Because we buried people where they fell, they're a long ways away and the assumption is somehow on the part of present-day Canadians that we've never fought a war,'' said Granatstein.

"The fact that graves are scattered all across Canada means that there is no central place that people go to pay homage to people who died defending the country. I think a national military cemetery will, over time, begin to do that.''

Goddard's body arrived at CFB Trenton in Ontario late Saturday night, where it was met by her family, as well as a full honour guard and a repatriation ceremony.


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## Tilstonguy (24 May 2006)

R.I.P Ma'am


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## Randy (24 May 2006)

A scholarship has been established and the goal is to raise $20,000 so that $1,000 can be awarded annually.

If friends so desire, memorial tributes may be made directly to:

The Captain Nichola K.S. Goddard Memorial Scholarship Fund
c/o The Faculty of Education
University of Calgary
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, AB  T2N 1N4


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## boots (26 May 2006)

I wish I had had the chance to meet you. Goodbye Captain Goddard. May you rest in peace. Thank you for a job well done


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## big bad john (26 May 2006)

http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=44734418-4734-47d5-bfe0-07f5e5ae620e

Hundreds turn out to honour war hero
  
Sean Myers 
Calgary Herald 


Friday, May 26, 2006


In a closed casket made of maple and draped in a Canadian flag, the broken body of fallen soldier Nichola Goddard was hidden from view, but not from the hearts and minds of mourners who attended a prayer service Thursday.

Hundreds of friends and family, as well as people who never knew Capt. Goddard, visited the McInnis & Holloway Crowfoot Chapel for the informal service.

Some said they came because they had daughters of their own, others had family in the military and a few had suffered their own terrible losses and wanted to share the experience with Goddard's loved ones.

"I have a 26-year-old daughter myself and I buried an infant child," said Bryn Shilliday, who didn't know the Goddards before entering the chapel.

"I know a little bit about the loss they're feeling," said a teary-eyed Shilliday, a 50-year-old land surveyor.

Don Zabel, 78, a Korean War veteran, felt compelled to pay his respects.

Goddard is the first female Canadian to be killed in combat which has brought added attention to the death, but a soldier is a soldier, said Zabel.

"She did a dangerous job," he said.

"I served in a tank and let me tell you when that artillery is coming in over your head you're mighty glad someone is back there putting it in the right place.

"Today I'm free to do what I want to do, but that comes at a high price and there will be more of these before this is over."

Goddard was a forward observation officer with the A Battery, 1 Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, based in Shilo, Man.

She was killed on May 17 when Taliban insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at her light-armoured vehicle, 24 kilometres east of Kandahar.

Two young women, who didn't want to give their names, were among many who flew in from Shilo for the service and today's funeral to be held at St. Barnabas Church at 10:30 a.m.

"Our husbands served with her, mine is over there right now," said the first woman.

"Mine is going to replace her," said the second woman, holding onto her composure.

"It's pretty emotional right now."

Avatar Singh and Mohinder Singh of the Dashmesh Cultural Centre attended to show the support of Calgary's Sikh community.

"As fellow Canadians, we came to show support for the good job she was doing," said Mohinder Singh.

The flag outside the chapel flew at half-mast and inside, Goddard's parents, Tim and Sally, her two sisters and her husband Jason Beam formed a receiving line.

"There's a lot of young soldiers in there," said Arthur Kent, a Calgary-based war correspondent who has done extensive reporting from Afghanistan and Iraq.

"These guys are having a hard time holding it together in there and Nichola's parents and the husband are just the picture of courage. Her little sisters are doing the best they can.

"I think Calgary weeps with them."

smyers@theherald.canwest.com


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## big bad john (26 May 2006)

Family, friends remember 'Care Bear of the heart'
Last Updated Fri, 26 May 2006 14:33:01 EDT 
CBC News
Canada is divided into those who knew Capt. Nichola Goddard and those who wish they had known the slain Canadian soldier, her father said Friday during a moving tribute to his daughter.

  
Jason Beam, the husband of Capt. Nichola Goddard, wearing the Memorial Cross, follows the coffin of his wife into the church for her funeral service in Calgary. (Jeff McIntosh/CP)  


Tim Goddard delivered his emotional eulogy to friends, family and soldiers gathered at St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Calgary.

Nichola Goddard, 26, was serving as a forward artillery observer in Kandahar when she was killed on May 17 in a firefight with Taliban insurgents.



Her father said his daughter lived life through the motto of the Royal Military College: "Truth, Duty, Valour."

"She was a ball of energy, packing everything in," he said. "She was a Care Bear of the heart."



In a speech that drew laughter from people inside the church, her husband Jason Beam recalled their first conversation. "She introduced herself as Goddard and I said, 'I'm Beam.'

"I never thought that two-second conversation would develop into the fabulous relationship we had," he said.

"I'm going to miss your smile, your laugh and your company. But mostly I'm going to miss having my best friend to share life with."

Goddard's commanding officer in the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, the unit she served with in Shilo, Man., before her deployment to Afghanistan, described her as an outstanding soldier with "tireless passion."

"Nic, end of mission. Stand easy," said Maj. L.M. McGarry.

Father criticizes privacy policy

Tim Goddard took aim at Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to ban the media from covering the arrivals of military coffins to Canada.

Harper says the decision was made to protect the privacy of families in mourning.

  
Members of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery carry the coffin of Capt. Nichola Goddard into the church for her funeral service in Calgary on Friday. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)  
"I find it troubling the privacy decision means keeping the press outside the wire where the bad guys are," said Tim Goddard. "I would like to think Nic died to protect our freedoms, not restrict them."

The family requested the funeral be public and set up speakers outside the Calgary church for people to listen to the ceremony.

Her father also announced a memorial scholarship at the University of Calgary for students from Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan or First Nations, Inuit or Métis peoples.

Goddard was born in Papua New Guinea, raised in First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities and died in Afghanistan, her father said.

The University will match the family's donations, he said.

Goddard died after Canadian soldiers had been called in to support Afghan troops fighting insurgents in the Panjwai region, about 24 kilometres west of Kandahar. She was riding in a light armoured vehicle that was hit by rocket-propelled grenades.

Her final resting place will be the National Memorial Cemetery in Ottawa, where she is likely to be interred early next month.


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## 17thRecceSgt (27 May 2006)

As I sit here and listen to her husbands word at the funeral on CPAC, and the words of her father, I am truly sad that I never had the opportunity to meet this great Canadian, this great Officer, and a dedicated soldier.

I know that I, as well as Hot Lips, will endeavor to serve this great country as honourably as she did.



Stand Easy Ma'am...Stand...easy.


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## big bad john (29 May 2006)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com//servlet/story/LAC.20060527.BLATCHFORD27/TPStory/National/columnists

Daughter of Canada swaddled in the flag for her last journey

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD 

E-mail Christie Blatchford | Read Bio | Latest Columns 
CALGARY -- Captain Nichola Goddard was always a child of the great outdoors, and in so many of the pictures that were part of the video tribute played at her funeral yesterday, she was shown by shining lakes, in vast fields of snow, dwarfed under one slice of big northern sky or another and necessarily often squinting into the sun or wearing dark glasses.

Until she was killed in action last week -- on her 105th day in Afghanistan as a FOO, or Forward Observation Officer, with the 1st Regiment of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery -- it was only her intimates who knew that the young woman herself was as luminous as all that.

But as one of Capt. Goddard's friends recently told her father Tim, "Canada has now been divided into two groups of people -- those who knew you, and those who wish they had. There could be no better epitaph."

Dr. Goddard, an associate dean in the faculty of education at the University of Calgary, made the remark in a tender eulogy to the first born of his and Sally Goddard's three daughters before an overflow crowd of about 800 at St. Barnabas Anglican Church here.

Just three Christmases ago, Capt. Goddard walked down the same worn red-and-cream tile aisle of the pretty church for her marriage to Jason (Jay) Beam, her sweet-faced young husband.

They met, a composed but tremulous Mr. Beam remembered in his tribute, eight years ago in their first week of basic training at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu near Montreal.

Part of the ritual had the recruits learning how to assemble the bits of their army kit; for instance, they would be sent running down the long halls to retrieve their boots and then be shown how to lace them, and it was in the course of these mad dashes that Capt. Goddard introduced herself.

"Goddard," she said.

"I'm Beam," he replied, never dreaming that in those few words they were launching "the fabulous relationship we had."

Indeed, had it been left to Mr. Beam, obtuse in the way of young men to the clues that a woman was interested in him, there might have been no relationship.

When the rookies finally got a weekend off, and he was unlucky enough to have pulled duty on the base, everyone but Capt. Goddard went off to the mall. She stayed behind; hmmm, he thought. She dropped several other unsubtle clues, "none of which I picked up on."

Finally, Capt. Goddard, with trademark forthrightness, sat Mr. Beam down and "brought up the idea of us dating."

As Dr. Goddard put it, "Dear Jay . . . she knew right away he was the one. Jay was her choice . . . And in Jason she saw the poised, thoughtful, supportive and articulate young man the whole world has seen these last few terrible days. She loved you so much Jay."

When Mr. Beam finished his eulogy, he put two fingers to his lips and then placed the kiss on Capt. Goddard's casket; when her father finished speaking, he put a hand on the same spot; when the acting commanding officer of 1RCHA, Major Liam McGarry, finished his, he said, "Nic, end of mission. Stand easy."

When she died instantly in an ambush near Kandahar, she was but 15 days into her 27th year on the planet, a good many corners of which she had explored either as a child with her itinerant family or as an officer.

If, as with many of her fellow soldiers, Capt. Goddard was as steadfast and settled as someone twice her age on the big life questions -- sure of herself in family, marriage, church, duty and her own beliefs -- she remained playful, spontaneous and remarkably open to the people and experiences that Afghanistan offered her.

She wrote lengthy, near-poetic letters home, to her family, of course, and friends, and to the St. Barnabas congregation, who had them compiled in a book yesterday inside the front doors.

"The longer that we are in theatre and the more that we interact with the Afghan people, the more I feel that we are really serving a purpose here," she wrote on March 4. "I think these people, through the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police, are trying to achieve something that we in Canada have long since taken for granted . . . They lay down their lives daily to try to seize something that is so idealistic it is almost impossible to define. . ."

That something was what Capt. Goddard called "the awesome power of a democratic government," and while she agreed that "it is easy to poke holes in that statement, and say that the system is corrupt or that violence and poverty make people easy targets for our own agendas . . . we have to start somewhere."

She was a thinking soldier. When, for instance, shortly after her unit arrived at Kandahar Air Field, there was talk of moving the few women to a separate tent. Capt. Goddard disagreed, thought they'd "taken a benign situation and created a fantasy," and wrote to her CO, Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Hope.

He replied, with an explanation (the segregation was meant mostly to accommodate female members of the press) and a compromise -- the women would stay in the same tent, but in an area sectioned off by a tarp. Capt. Goddard was happy with that: "Girls generally smell better than guys" anyway.

In this family of storytellers, it was plain that father and daughter had heated discussions. Just last Christmas, he said, they discussed the role of the military in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfur. Capt. Goddard subscribed to the view that military force is required to permit the reconstruction of civil society; Dr. Goddard argued that education is the key to development for the poor and oppressed.

"Quick as a flash," he said, "she punctured my professorial balloon. 'You can't do that when the bad guys run things, Dad,' she said, 'they just shoot you. You have to have peace and good government in order for the rest to happen. I do what I do so you can do what you do.'

"As always," Dr. Goddard said with his enormous smile, so like his girl's, "she was right. But through her death in combat, killed by people who were apparently hiding in or near a school, perhaps we can bring these two elements together."

In Capt. Goddard's name, the family has established an endowed scholarship at the University of Calgary open to applicants from three groups -- citizens of Papua New Guinea, where Capt. Goddard came into the world as a scrawny, less-than-four-pound baby; Indian, Inuit or Métis peoples of Canada, in whose company she spent her formative years, and citizens of Afghanistan, the place of her death.

Among the last words the gentle, intellectual Dr. Goddard offered were for his child's Canadian and Afghan comrades overseas, "who responded to her death with great vigour and imposed an almost biblical wrath on those who were responsible for it. We thank you for that."

Then he quoted, rather fiercely, the words on the cap badge of the Artillery beret: Quo fas et gloria ducunt, Latin for "Whither right and glory lead."

Capt. Goddard left that church as she entered it, her casket all wrapped up tight in the Canadian flag, swaddled as only a daughter of Canada should be.


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## big bad john (2 Jun 2006)

The article below mentions that Capt. Goddard's graveside service will be on the 7th of June.  Does anyone know if it is open to the public?


http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/03/17/pf-1492973.html

Last respects for fallen soldier

By SCOTT EDMONDS


CFB SHILO, Man. (CP) - On a warm spring day, in a cavernous military building, on a quiet little Canadian Forces base far from the world's hotspots, comrades of Capt. Nichola Goddard gathered Wednesday to say goodbye. 

Goddard, 26, who always seems to be smiling in her photographs, was killed May 17 in Afghanistan by enemy shrapnel, making her the first Canadian first female combat soldier to die in battle. 

This was the second of three memorial services planned for the officer. The first, a family memorial in Calgary, was held last Friday. The last, a graveside ceremony at a military cemetery in Ottawa, is scheduled for June 7. 

At Shilo, the men and women she served with got their chance to remember Nick, as they called her, her smile, her warmth and her kindness. There were about 600 in the room, more than half wearing the green, camouflage uniforms of her regiment. Dignitaries included Lt.-Gov. John Harvard and Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant. 

Maj. Liam McGarry, acting commanding officer of the First Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, and Capt. Andrew Charchuk, a fellow officer and friend, delivered soldiers' eulogies in the room decorated with the tools of their trade - pieces of artillery and an armoured vehicle. 

"It is up to the regiment now to ensure her sacrifice will never be forgotten," said McGarry, standing at podium obscured by a portrait of the young captain, bracketed by two small silver cannons. 

"Our sadness is only tempered by our pride in Captain Goddard -our pride in the soldier and leader that she was, and in the memories she leaves behind. Nick, end of mission, stand easy." 

Charchuk, who had to pause briefly to get his voice under control, remembered her as a friend who always went out of her way to look after others. 

"Nick died too young, but I can take solace in knowing that she died doing what she wanted to do," he said. 

She had only been promoted from lieutenant to captain in April 2005, and immediately embarked on training to become a forward observation officer, the position she was in when she was killed. She was the 16th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan. 

Goddard's family, including her husband Jason Beam, also a former officer, was present for the memorial. But they took no part and declined to give interviews. 

Her father Tim Goddard used the Calgary memorial service to criticize the federal government's decision not to let journalists cover the return of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Since then, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the policy will change and, if families have no objections, such events may be covered. 

There has also been a tussle in the House of Commons over whether what Canada is involved in Afghanistan is a war. The government says it is not. 

That news must have missed Armed Forces Padre Dwayne Boss. 

"Perhaps for some, her death overseas in this war we are fighting, has created many questions . . . about our involvement in Afghanistan. Was her death worth the risk? Would I substitute myself for her?" 

But he provided the answers to those questions, from a soldier's point of view. 

"We have to believe that there is a sense of purpose for us being there, or else we might as well take off our uniforms and go home."


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## big bad john (5 Jun 2006)

After checking with the Director Casualty Support Administration at The National Military Cemetery I have found that Capt. Goddard family has no objections to those who wish to pay their respects at the gravesite.  7 June.


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## jonsey (7 Jun 2006)

It's also being televised (it's on right now, CBC Newsworld).


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## ModlrMike (3 Feb 2012)

New Calgary school named after fallen soldier Nichola Goddard

By Katie Schneider ,Calgary Sun

Capt. Nichola Goddard’s name will live on in the walls of a new Calgary school, one of four opening this year.

The Calgary Board of Education approved the names of four new schools, expected to open in September, including one with the moniker Captain Nichola Goddard School, chosen in honour of the Calgary soldier killed in Afghanistan in 2006.

More at link.


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## Scott (3 Feb 2012)

Scott likes this.


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## ballz (3 Feb 2012)

Excellent news


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## krustyrl (3 Feb 2012)

Good news to hear, hopefully each and every new student will ask themselves.."who was Nichola Goddard.?" and they will be made aware of how it came about.


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## Fatalize (3 Feb 2012)

Her memory will definitely live on for a long time, this will bring a lot more awareness compared to a trg point out in the shilo ranges.


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## tree hugger (3 Feb 2012)

Scott said:
			
		

> Scott likes this.



tree hugger likes this.

Great news!


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## OldSolduer (3 Feb 2012)

I like it too. Good job on Calgary    - too bad Winnipeg won't take a lesson from them.


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## mariomike (3 Feb 2012)

There is a school in Winnipeg named after a fallen airman:
http://www.wsd1.org/andrewmynarski/index.htm,org


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## OldSolduer (3 Feb 2012)

mariomike said:
			
		

> There is a school in Winnipeg named after a fallen airman:
> http://www.wsd1.org/andrewmynarski/index.htm,org



Yes a WWII era airman who won the VC posthumously. Today's Winnipeg is very different. Its all about $$.


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## PJGary (3 Feb 2012)

Great to hear!   BZ to my home town.


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## cupper (3 Feb 2012)

A fitting tribute.


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## medicineman (3 Feb 2012)

Most excellent.   .

MM


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## BurnDoctor (4 Feb 2012)

burn doctor likes this, and hopes for a robust CF presence at the opening ceremony.  If anyone hears details thereof, please post. I'd like to attend.


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## jollyjacktar (4 Feb 2012)

May this choice of namesake inspire it's future generations that pass through it's doors to be as strong of character and worthy of respect as Nichola Goddard was.   :yellow:


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## Tow Tripod (4 Feb 2012)

Well done to the City of Calgary!


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## Oldgateboatdriver (4 Feb 2012)

BZ to the Calgary School Board.


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## q_1966 (8 Feb 2012)

Oldgateboatdriver said:
			
		

> BZ to the Calgary School Board.



I agree


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## Edward Campbell (18 May 2014)

_CBC News_ reports that a new, Hero class, Canadaian Goast Guard Ship, the  'Captain Goddard, MSM' has entered the water for the first time in Halifax.






A Hero class vessel, a sister ship of the _Captain Goddard, MSM_


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## Bruce Monkhouse (15 Oct 2014)

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/10/15/mom_of_nichola_goddard_first_woman_killed_in_afghanistan_combat_proud_vessel_named_for_daughter.html
Sally Goddard of Charlottetown attended a Halifax ceremony Wednesday marking the official acceptance of the Captain Goddard into the coast guard.

By:  The Canadian Press,  Published on Wed Oct 15 2014 
HALIFAX—The mother of the first Canadian woman to be killed in Afghanistan in a combat role says she feels her daughter would be proud to have a coast guard vessel named after her.
She says her daughter would have seen it as an honour for all of the Canadian Forces personnel who were killed during the conflict.
The artillery officer was killed in a Taliban ambush during a battle in the Panjwaii district on May 17, 2006.

The vessel was launched on May 17 this year, eight years after Nichola Goddard’s death and on the birthday of her father.
Sally Goddard says it’s moving for her to imagine the ship going about its duties patrolling the coasts, carrying out the goal of serving and protecting Canadians that her daughter believed in.


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