C3 multi-sport club year-end banquet tonight. The spellbinding keynote speaker was Captain William Fielding, the first Canadian pilot since World War II to be shot down in combat.
He's on the left.
It happened last year in Afghanistan. After landing the badly damaged, flaming Chinook helicopter as softly as possible in a field while still being shot at, he and the co-pilot were the last of the 20 people onboard to exit (because that's what captains do). Every moment they waited, he thought the burning aircraft might explode.
Once they were outside in the flat open country, the enemy could see them better and shoot at them more accurately. Next came lots of running, ducking behind mud walls, diving into ditches and firing by both sides. They all made it to safety about 20 minutes later after they encountered armoured Canadian vehicles coming to their aid, but he is not permitted to tell the full story of what happened in between.
After his tour of duty was over, docs at home discovered serious problems that the military docs had missed including broken vertebrae, a tumour along his spine that grew from scar tissue, a torn ACL and brain trauma, not to mention post-traumatic stress disorder. For awhile, he lost vision and hearing on one side but it came back, and now he can fly again. So he's able to work but his life will never be the same. He has strong reactions in certain situations, e.g. when he smells smoke or hears loud noises. He used to love to run but he can't now because of his back.
It was a noisy, boisterous crowd with many calls for silence throughout the evening as awards were presented and speeches given. But while this guy spoke, you could hear a pin drop. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking about how easy my life is in comparison. And thinking how silly it seems to label a tough uphill run - or almost anything I do - as a "mental challenge" when this guy can't even hear a kid screaming in the grocery store without jumping out of his skin.
Fascinating and disturbing. It left me with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and sympathy for the people who serve our country.
Here's the
full story if anyone is interested in more details.