Early morning ramp ceremony for Canadian sergeant killed by IED blast
Posted June 22, 2010 6:54 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – The body of another Canadian soldier is on its way home after a night-time ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield.
Sgt. James MacNeil, of Glace Bay, N.S., was on his fourth and final tour of the battle-racked country when he was killed Monday by an improvised explosive device while on a foot patrol near the village of Nakhonay.
Hundreds of Canadian, U.S., Dutch and British soldiers stood quietly in the early-morning darkness to honour their comrade-in-arms.
“It’ll be a tremendous loss, and I know it’s going to be hard for us to recover from this, but he will always be remembered by those he was closest to as a guy who loved life, loved his friends and loved Laura, his fiancee,” fellow combat engineer Maj. Jim Smith said Wednesday during an early-morning ramp ceremony at the sprawling military base.
In a statement Tuesday, family members said MacNeil was an outgoing and loving young man who died doing something he believed in.
Less than 24 hours before his death, MacNeil and his girlfriend got engaged long-distance and began making plans for a wedding and a new home.
His flag-draped coffin was carried to a waiting military transport aircraft by eight of his companions.
MacNeil is the 148th Canadian Forces member to die as part of the Afghan mission since it began in 2002.
