Gone but not forgotten: Memory of Labrador veteran killed in Afghanistan lives on
CBC
Friends and family remember Chad O'Quinn of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., as being larger than life, someone who enjoyed living on the edge and gave his all to everything he did.
Now the family hopes to remind people of their son and the others who died in service.
The corporal was serving in Afghanistan when he was killed by a roadside bomb on March 3, 2009. Twelve years later, his parents say his memory still lives on.
"He was all up for excitement. He was all up for helping," said Ken O'Quinn, Chad's father.
Chad's team would collect improvised explosive devices — or IEDs — and put them into a hole in the middle of the desert to detonate them, Ken said.
"I think he knew that they were there to find those bombs, get rid of them, save his fellow soldiers from harm plus to the people of Afghanistan as well," Ken said. "I think that was a big, big thing for him, to get over there and do what he could do."
Ken said they would be worried when there was news of soldiers' deaths, but their son didn't seem to be concerned.
Watch: Chad O'Quinn videotaped one IED cluster's detonation. Caution: Strong language used in video.
"I used to get calls from Chad in the middle of the day. He's on his way down the riverbed somewhere looking for insurgents or something and he'd phone me," Ken said. "He said, 'I just wanted to talk' and he didn't sound concerned."
On March 3, 2009. Chad's unit was called out to defuse an IED. On their way back to camp along the same route, the vehicle hit another IED.
The family was in Centreville-Wareham-Trinity on Bonavista Bay that day burying Chad's grandfather. Ken, Chad's mother Rhonda and their younger son Adam were at his burial. Rhonda said she put a picture of Chad in uniform in her father's jacket pocket — not knowing at the time they were already together.
"I was down to my grandparents with my sisters and my family. I remember getting a call and they said, 'You have to go up to the house right away,'" Rhonda said. "I stepped out of the car and I could hear Adam screeching and I knew then, I knew what had happened.
"And it was the worst awful feeling anyone can ever go through to lose a child."
Ken said he and his wife still work and go out with friends, but the fact that their son isn't coming back is still, 11 years later, constantly on their minds.
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