Honouring Canada’s Afghan War heroes: Gen. Rick Hillier celebrates new military honours review board

Queen Elizabeth approved the ‘Canadianized’ version of the Victoria Cross in 1993. However, the Canadian medal has never been awarded.

None of the over 40,000 Canadians deployed during the 12-year Afghanistan mission have been awarded the Victoria Cross and that has not sat well with many veterans, when set against the context of eight service members throughout the Commonwealth having received Victoria Cross medals for their service in Afghanistan. Four have been awarded by Australia, three by the U.K., and one by New Zealand.

On Friday, Sherry Romanado, parliamentary secretary to the minister of national defence, announced the review board would be created: “Honouring bravery and sacrifice and service to Canada is among our government’s most solemn responsibilities,” she said.

The review board’s make-up will be decided by the federal government, but it will need to have credibility with Canadian veterans as well as the public, says Hillier, who is also former chief of defence staff. “We clearly want to have some veterans’ voices on the review board. It will be necessary to have an understanding of military operations and the military experience.”

According to the federal government, the Victoria Cross is only “awarded for the most conspicuous bravery, a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty, in the presence of the enemy.” The most recent Canadian recipient was Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray. He was awarded the original Victoria Cross posthumously for combat action that occurred in August 1945.

As one of the principal advocates for the Independent Military Honours Review Board, Hillier talked of the extensive lobby effort undertaken by the Valour in the Presence of the Enemy, a Canadian nonprofit “meant to present the incredible real-life stories of Canadian Soldiers” such as Larochelle.

Larochelle provided covering fire for his company’s position while severely injured and receiving sustained enemy fire in an exposed position.

Larochelle “volunteered to go into an old, partly rubbled tower, as his platoon was providing security to the efforts to build a a hard surface highway, to allow the Afghans to get their crops crops to market. We were helping them get their life back in the winter,” said Hillier.

“He got into the tower by himself. His platoon would have normally put two people up there, but they were short-handed and had to have somebody up there. There was a request for volunteers. He just stuck his hand up. A few minutes later, the platoon was struck by a major Taliban attack.

“They just opened fire with a machine gun, fired a bunch of rounds. A rocket-propelled grenade came in through one of the openings in that tower and detonated inside. It smashed Jess back against the hard-baked in the sun mud wall of the tower.

“When he came to, he said it was like Star Wars, lights flashing and things going on around him. But he got himself back into the fight, carrying on for about another hour or so. He was down to his last 100 rounds and saved them for a last-ditch fight. And he started picking up and firing M72 rockets. He did that round after round after round. And he was so active that he was taking up literally one Taliban fighter at a time who were moving towards him. He did this while under constant fire.”