Captain Nichola K.S. Goddard killed in Afghanistan (17 May 2006)
- Reaction score
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- Points
- 530
My deepest condolences to her family, friends and brothers in arms.
RIP.
Matthew.
RIP.
Matthew.
- Reaction score
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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!
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!
- Reaction score
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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
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
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 210
The guns have lost a good one!
My deepest condolences to her family.
My deepest condolences to her family.
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 210
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
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
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 360
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.
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.
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 110
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
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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- 60
Rest in Peace, Capt.
Michael Dorosh
Army.ca Veteran
- Reaction score
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- Points
- 410
I think the family has behaved with extraordinary grace and class; kudos to them for standing firm behind what their daughter/wife believed in.
- Reaction score
- 51
- Points
- 530
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
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
- Reaction score
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- Points
- 210
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 -
1CMBG -
1RCHA -
Mr. & Mrs. Goddard -
- Reaction score
- 2,527
- Points
- 1,260
Thoughts and prayers to those who mourn, and to those who continue to serve.
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- 410
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
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
- Reaction score
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- Points
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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.
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.
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 360
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.
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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