Sask. army veteran among prospects for Canada's highest military medal
CBC
A Saskatchewan veteran is being considered as a possible recipient of the highest honour in the Canadian Armed Forces.
The Canadian version of the Victoria Cross was first created in 1993, to honour veterans in the same way the original Victoria Cross did during the two world wars.
Since then, every country in the Commonwealth, except Canada, has awarded the decoration for exceptional valour in an armed conflict.
Now, 25 of Canada’s most highly-decorated veterans are being considered as potential recipients of the award.
Lumsden-Morse MLA Blaine McLeod, who serves as the provincial military liaison, said the legislature carried a unanimous motion on Dec. 4 supporting the efforts of a committee pressing for a review of the files of people who have been nominated by peers and superior officers.
One of them is William MacDonald of Regina, who retired as a master warrant officer in 2015.
Born in North Bay, Ont. in 1973, MacDonald moved to Regina with his family before he was a year old and joined the Royal Regina Rifles while still in high school. He stayed with the regiment until 1994, graduating from Sheldon Williams Collegiate.
“My mom was a single parent and didn't have a lot of money, and she was kind of harassing me to get a job,” MacDonald recalled in an interview with CBC Saskatchewan.
“I didn't know anything about [the military], like nothing. And I thought, well, it sounds pretty cool. You get to be outside and shoot guns and they give you money for it. So why the hell not, right?”
From the reserves, MacDonald transferred to the regular army's Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI).
He served with the regiment for more than 20 years, deploying multiple times and receiving the Star of Military Valour, which is the second-highest decoration in the Canadian system of honours, for his service in Afghanistan.
On Sept. 3, 2006, he found himself in the midst of what would be later called the Battle of Panjwaii, attached to a platoon at the last minute as a part of Operation Medusa, one of the deadliest operations in recent Canadian military history.
Prior to engagement, a soldier driving an armoured vehicle was killed by a roadside bomb, leaving MacDonald’s platoon to complete the assault on foot.
“What essentially happened was there were 14 Canadians," he recalled. "I was one of them and we did a dismounted assault on an enemy stronghold, not really expecting the volume of enemy fighters that we ran into, and it turned out there were between 200 and 250 of them.”
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A Saskatchewan veteran is being considered as a possible recipient of the highest honour in the Canadian Armed Forces.
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