Freddie P's Blog

August 23, 2007 @ 11:32

I had a great day yesterday. I took part in a golf tournament called "Soldier On" with proceeds going to injured Canadian soldiers who want to get on with their lives.

Money will be used for all kinds of things with an eye towards prosthetics for athletics.

"Soldier On" would like to see injured Canadian soldiers provided with the necessary to equipment to train for the Paralympics and close to 200 people gathered at CFB Trenton, or 8 Wing yesterday to help make sure that happens.

I was designated as a "celebrity" which is amusing because the group that I was assigned to had no idea who I was.

But that was OK because by the end of the day, it became abundantly clear who the celebrities are in this situation.

It's the great Canadians who commit to serving our country on so many levels. Like Will, and Brad and Marc and Chips, the four young men I golfed with yesterday.

They aren't soldiers per say, but they still serve the Canadian Armed Forces in a very important and stressful way. They are designated as Supply Technicians and their particular job is parachute riggers.

They spend eight hours a day, five days a week packing and checking parachutes for our soldiers. It takes three years of training, and obviously carries a responsibility that few of us would want.

A grueling schedule that involves ninety minutes of physical training every morning before they even start their jobs. And just to make sure that these fellas stay on top of their responsibilities, every so often they have to jump out of planes wearing the parachutes they have packed.

Sometimes from as high as 12,500 feet, which is almost to the point where you need oxygen.

I felt proud to be around these guys yesterday. Not only for what they do, but also for what they represent - the unity that can and should be Canada. They are four men from different parts of the country who became great friends and colleagues.

Chips and Marc are French Canadians - Chips from New Brunswick and Marc from Quebec. Brad is from Newfoundland and Will is from Ontario.

All four of them plan to make lifetime careers out of the military and they're unbelievably committed to what they do.

Given the pressures of their job, they also enjoy their time off and yesterday they all took a vacation day so they could pay 125 dollars each towards the cause.

And they had fun.