Cpl Zachery McCormack KIA Afghanistan Dec 30, 2009 Loyal Edmonton Regiment

Officers at door meant 'worst fears' coming true for one grieving family - News1130

EDMONTON - When Cpl. Zachery McCormack's parents opened the front door, they found themselves face to face with their worst fears: five military officers who had come to their home to tell them in person that their only son was dead.

McCormack, 21, of Sherwood Park, Alta., was one of four Canadian soldiers killed Wednesday along with Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang when the vehicle they were all in was struck by a roadside bomb outside Kandahar city.

McCormack, a member of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, had served in the infantry since 2006. He was at the heart of a large, caring family who thought of him as a "gentle soul" who cared deeply about those he loved.
Along with a statement that described the anguish of how they heard the "devastating news," his family released a photograph of a beaming McCormack, cradling a tiny puppy in his arms, saying it showed the "bright, happy, loving character of our Zachery."

The four soldiers who died "paid the ultimate price to protect not only the freedoms of Canadians, but served to protect the freedoms of those oppressed in Afghanistan," the family wrote.

Their remains, along with those of Lang, 34, who was on assignment in Kandahar as an embedded reporter for Canwest News Service, were on their way Friday back to Canada, where they will be repatriated at an air base in Trenton, Ont., later this week.

Lang's fiance, Michael Louie, issued a statement Friday calling this "the darkest and most painful moment of my life."

He said he has been devastated by the loss of his girlfriend, whom he was scheduled to marry in July.

"Michelle could light up any room she walked into," he said. "Those who had the privilege of knowing her professionally and personally will always remember her warmth, her kindness and the positive impacts that she made wherever she went."

Also Friday, the family of Edmonton-based reservist and junior high school teacher Sgt. George Miok, 28, remembered the humanity of the soldier who once told his family of his overseas military missions, "I'm just off to save the world. Somebody has to."

Miok, also from Sherwood Park, Alta., a bedroom community just east of Edmonton, was a long-time member of a Hungarian folk dance group and an avid athlete who loved soccer, baseball, hockey, football and rugby, his family said in a written statement.

He first joined the military as a reservist in 1998.

In his Grade 12 scrapbook, Miok wrote about the summer he spent in basic training at a military base in Wainwright, Alta. The intense training program, and the friendships he made there, changed his outlook on life.

"The whole experience made me appreciate my life more and made me think about everything I was fortunate for," he wrote.

The combat engineer served in Bosnia in 2002 and did his first tour in Afghanistan in 2006, his family said.

Before he left on that first overseas deployment, Miok tried to explain to his mother, Anna, why he felt compelled to do it.

"Canada has been good to us and I want to pay it back," he told her.
Before his latest deployment, Miok was a little conflicted between his love for the military and his love of teaching, said David Moss, 54, a colleague at St. Cecilia Junior High School. Miok was dating and was also thinking of settling down, Moss said.

But the lure of the military camaraderie and the mission in Afghanistan was strong. "It was very difficult for George to make that decision," he said.

The children flocked to Miok one day before his deployment as he strode down the halls of the school, dressed in his full soldiers' pack and camouflage fatigues. "He had talked to them about the importance of him going and why he was going. Yeah, it was dangerous and yeah, a lot of soldiers had been killed over there. But he stressed that he really needed to do that and it was the right thing to do," Moss said.

Grief counsellors are expected to be in the school Monday and a school memorial service is tentatively scheduled for Thursday.


The reservist split his time between the military and working with a non-profit agency that provides residential support for children and adults with disabilities.

"Kirk worked hard to realize his ultimate goal to deploy and of being able to contribute to hopes of the Afghan people," his family wrote in a statement.

His mother, Christina Smith, said her son's interest in the military grew out of the years he spent in the Sea Cadets program. "I saw him become the man I knew he always was," she wrote.

Nova Scotia Premier, Darrell Dexter, also issued a statement Friday, saying Taylor would be forever remembered as a hero who fought for peace, freedom and democracy.

Pte. Garrett Chidley, 21, born in Cambridge, Ont., but with family living in Surrey, B.C., was also killed in the blast. He was attached to the 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

During Friday's ramp ceremony, Chidley - known to fellow soldiers as "Chiddels" - was someone who "wanted to help make a difference for the people of Afghanistan," said Padre Sandy Scott.

Four other Canadian soldiers and a Canadian civilian official were also injured in the blast.

 

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Cpl. McCormack a ‘mild-mannered good guy’

EDMONTON — The family of Cpl. Zachery McCormack’s said that seeing five uniformed soldiers on their Sherwood Park doorstep Thursday bearing news of McCormack’s death was their worst fear come to life.

McCormack was among four Canadian soldiers and a Canadian journalist killed in Afghanistan Wednesday when the armoured vehicle they were in hit an improvised explosive device four kilometres south of Kandahar city.

“Zach, [as he was] known to his friends and family, was a gentle soul, cared deeply about his family, leaving his mother Armande, father Robin, younger sister Courtney, and younger sister Isabelle and fiancé Nicole missing their one and only Zach,” said a short statement released by the army on behalf of the family.

From Afghanistan, McCormack e-mailed his wrestling coach in Sherwood Park with plans to return to the sport when he got back to Canada.

Glenn Purych said Thursday he never knew what drew McCormack — a scrappy 21-year-old who wrestled “smart” — to the sport as a child, a teenager and an adult.
But Purych is certain pride and loyalty drew McCormack to military reserve duty in high school, then Afghanistan earlier this year for his first overseas deployment.
“He took pride in wrestling at different championship tournaments, like nationals. He had a pride, a pride in his country,” Purych said. “And he liked being a soldier.”


McCormack, an infantryman and member of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment based at the Jefferson Armoury had been with the Canadian Forces since August 2006.
“He made the choice, he enlisted. Being in the reserves, they don’t call you like you have to go,” Purych said. “He made the choice to go.”

McCormack was a member of the Salisbury Wrestling Club throughout junior high and high school, then as an adult.

He graduated from Salisbury Composite High School in Sherwood Park in 2006, and he was engaged to be married to a woman who is also from Sherwood Park.

“He was a good, solid teammate kind of kid,” Purych said. “He was quiet but was very friendly when you would talk to him, and (he) had subtle, good jokes....
“Athletes come smart, and sometimes they come not so smart. He was smart. He approached (wrestling) logically and technically.”

Purych said McCormack, who was an apprentice electrician, was analytical and compassionate.

“He had a calm within himself as an athlete,” he said.

McCormack’s friend and teammate, Jack Bond, said the soldier was a “good guy, mild-mannered.”

“Even as an adult, he wrestled at 50 kilos. He was a small guy,” Bond said, describing McCormack as about five foot three and tough.

“I knew he was always sort of interested in (the military). He did a lot of paintball and stuff like that,” Bond said. “He was a quiet guy. He just kind of went out there and got the job done.”