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Honouring Canada's Afghan War heroes: Gen. Rick Hillier celebrates new military honours review board
More than three decades after it was created to honour the nation’s military heroes, and years of passionate advocacy by supporters, the Canadian Victoria Cross could soon have its long-awaited first recipient.
The Carney government has announced the establishment of an Independent Military Honours Review Board to review cases of Afghanistan veterans, where new evidence suggests that their bravery meets the criteria for the Canadian Victoria Cross.
“These days in Canada, we have so few precious symbols of our nation to pull us together as Canadians,” said Gen. (ret’d) Rick Hillier, who commanded Canada’s troops in Afghanistan and fought for the review board to be established. In particular, he has advocated the case of Private Jess Larochelle, who fended off an attack from more than 20 Taliban insurgents.
“Can you imagine the power of awarding a Canadian Victoria Cross to a guy like (Pt. Larochelle) on the 1st of July, on Parliament Hill, where the Governor General is doing it live in front of a couple hundred thousand Canadians and maybe millions across the country on TV? I think it would be a wonderful moment for a country.”
Hillier helped lead six years of lobbying that included 66,000 emails, a parliamentary petition, the Senate, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs, unanimous calls from seven provincial legislatures, 109 veterans organizations, generals, admirals, Silver Cross mothers and wounded veterans.
The campaign was also the subject of a National Post initiative, Heroes Among Us, which proposed potential candidates for the Canadian Victoria Cross, including Pt. Larochelle.
Queen Elizabeth approved the ‘Canadianized’ version of the Victoria Cross in 1993. However, the Canadian medal has never been awarded.
None of the over 40,000 Canadians deployed during the 12-year Afghanistan mission have been awarded the Victoria Cross and that has not sat well with many veterans, when set against the context of eight service members throughout the Commonwealth having received Victoria Cross medals for their service in Afghanistan. Four have been awarded by Australia, three by the U.K., and one by New Zealand.
On Friday, Sherry Romanado, parliamentary secretary to the minister of national defence, announced the review board would be created: “Honouring bravery and sacrifice and service to Canada is among our government’s most solemn responsibilities,” she said.
The review board’s make-up will be decided by the federal government, but it will need to have credibility with Canadian veterans as well as the public, says Hillier, who is also former chief of defence staff. “We clearly want to have some veterans’ voices on the review board. It will be necessary to have an understanding of military operations and the military experience.”
According to the federal government, the Victoria Cross is only “awarded for the most conspicuous bravery, a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty, in the presence of the enemy.” The most recent Canadian recipient was Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray. He was awarded the original Victoria Cross posthumously for combat action that occurred in August 1945.
As one of the principal advocates for the Independent Military Honours Review Board, Hillier talked of the extensive lobby effort undertaken by the Valour in the Presence of the Enemy, a Canadian nonprofit “meant to present the incredible real-life stories of Canadian Soldiers” such as Larochelle.
Larochelle provided covering fire for his company’s position while severely injured and receiving sustained enemy fire in an exposed position.
Larochelle “volunteered to go into an old, partly rubbled tower, as his platoon was providing security to the efforts to build a a hard surface highway, to allow the Afghans to get their crops crops to market. We were helping them get their life back in the winter,” said Hillier.
“He got into the tower by himself. His platoon would have normally put two people up there, but they were short-handed and had to have somebody up there. There was a request for volunteers. He just stuck his hand up. A few minutes later, the platoon was struck by a major Taliban attack.
“They just opened fire with a machine gun, fired a bunch of rounds. A rocket-propelled grenade came in through one of the openings in that tower and detonated inside. It smashed Jess back against the hard-baked in the sun mud wall of the tower.
“When he came to, he said it was like Star Wars, lights flashing and things going on around him. But he got himself back into the fight, carrying on for about another hour or so. He was down to his last 100 rounds and saved them for a last-ditch fight. And he started picking up and firing M72 rockets. He did that round after round after round. And he was so active that he was taking up literally one Taliban fighter at a time who were moving towards him. He did this while under constant fire.”
Then the firefight slowed down, says Hillier. Larochelle’s platoon commander went to check that they still had some cover.
“Jess popped up and said, ‘Hey, sure, I’ll provide you some covering fire. Come on in. When his commander said he was going to replace Jess because he wouldn’t be able to send someone else till later in the evening, Jess said, ‘Sir, look, I’ve got it now. You know, don’t impose this on somebody else. I’ve been in the fight. I’ll stay in the fight.’
“The platoon withdrew early the next morning, handing over to another platoon. Jess went back to Kandahar with his platoon. He participated in the ‘ramp ceremony,’ carrying the body of his best friend, Private Blake Williamson, onto the plane for his last trip back home to Canada. It was only after that on the ramp that he went to the medic said, ‘Hey, I’m hurting a little bit.’
“What we discovered was that when that rocket-propelled grenade detonated inside of the tower it knocked him unconscious, broke one of his eardrums, detached the retina in his right eye, broke bones in his neck and in his lower back, and left him with shrapnel cuts over a good portion of his body. So, here was the guy with a broken neck, a broken back, half deaf, half blind, still back in the fight carrying on.”
Larochelle was subsequently awarded the Star of Military Valour, which is Canada’s second-highest award for valour.
“With the rest of detail that has come out since that citation was discussed in early 2007,” says Hillier, “we believe there should be the appropriate recognition, and we believe it’s worth a look to determine if the Victoria Cross is right.” Larochelle suffered from medical complications caused by his battle injuries for many years and died on Aug. 30, 2023, at age 40, near Nipissing, Ont. Hillier says he is among 24 Star of Military Valour recipients from Afghanistan that could be Victoria Cross recipients.
“Now we think, actually, we should do something as a nation, officially review something independently from the military honours and awards commission, which in Canada, moves this through to the Governor General. And that’s where we are now.”
Hillier says that one of the issues involved in bestowing military honours is understanding what can happen on the battlefield. He recalls when he chaired the Canadia Forces honours and awards board and was reviewing citations. Board members would be “a little bit on the fence” about whether a particular citation deserved the Star of Military Valour or Victoria Cross.
“Here’s what I would say looking back. Number one, we were new to war, right? We had not been at war since Korea, and this was all new business to us.
“We were kind of saying, hey, you know, this is really powerful citation, however, what if one comes along, you know, next week? That’s, you know, even greater. What do we do then? And I think we were kind of hedging our bets just a little tiny bit. We wouldn’t have described it that way, but I do believe that is what happened.”
Another factor, points out Hillier, was the detailed “richness” that arise from subsequent battle stories. In Larochelle’s case, he says, “We had a battle group that was in combat, that was at war. And they’re trying to recognize their own individuals. They’re trying to write up the citations. They’re trying to do justice to everybody.” Now, years later, he says, there are several citations that many think “should be changed, or at least looked at.”
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