Topic: Major Michelle Mendes found dead in KAF - 23 Apr 09

[ENGINEERS WIFE]

The DVP is closed for construction, but I just talked to Toronto Metro Police and they will be making an exception for Maj Mendes procession and it will be travelling the same route as always.

And I find it interesting that this newpaper has said: "Source: Written by Department of National Defence, Highway of Heroes " when in fact it is from the Facebook group Highway of Heroes and I wrote it. 

[C.G.R]

Rest In Peace

[leroi]

The DVP is closed for construction, but I just talked to Toronto Metro Police and they will be making an exception for Maj Mendes procession and it will be travelling the same route as always.

And I find it interesting that this newpaper has said: "Source: Written by Department of National Defence, Highway of Heroes " when in fact it is from the Facebook group Highway of Heroes and I wrote it. 

I wondered about that myself. You are a gem for posting it up @ Facebook! I know of people who want to attend tomorrow but don't want to go into Toronto; I've had people inquire about the bridges along the route; that's why I posted it.

RIP Major Mendes.

[ENGINEERS WIFE]

Leroi, I am not sure of exactly how many bridges there on the Highway of Heroes.  Are you needing help finding a bridge to go to?

[leroi]

ENGINEERS WIFE,

No bridge needed. I'll be going into Toronto tomorrow since my daughter lives there.
 

[Petard]

The procession will go by near her hometown of Wicklow, hopefully the community will have been informed of this too, I don't doubt many there would like to pay their respects to this remarkable young woman.

I knew Michelle from having been one of her instructors during Arty Phase 3 and 4, she struck me as being very confident and capable, she had all the potential to being a fine officer in the Combat arms. Yet besides being very driven and thoughtful, she was also very self aware and sensitive; she appreciated her strengths and weaknesses. Following some difficulty during phase 4, she reclassified to Intelligence, rare for this to be granted while someone is still in the last part of  phase training, but it says a lot about her ability that this was supported fully by the chain of command. I thought that it was definitely going to be the int world's gain, and the Artillery's loss back then, little did I know how soon the loss would be permanent for us all.

Farewell Michelle, hope to see you on the other side, down the trail.

[jollyjacktar]

RIP, Major. 

I was involved in preparations for her Ramp Ceremony.  My first on this tour and I hope my last.  I remember seeing her during the workup phase, beautiful smile and aura.  She had a large turnout amongst the nations here.  Safe trip home...

[ENGINEERS WIFE]

Body of Maj. Mendes returns to Canada

By Steve Petrick, THE CANADIAN PRESS
   
 


CFB TRENTON, Ont. - The body of a Canadian soldier found dead at Kandahar Airfield last week arrived home Sunday to the same adulation given to those who have died in combat.

An aircraft carrying the casket of Maj. Michelle Mendes touched down at this eastern Ontario military base at 2 p.m., with Canadian-flag waving military supporters watching outside.

Mendes was found dead in her accommodation room Thursday. The Canadian Forces are investigating the death, but have ruled out enemy action.

As is usually the case whenever a fallen soldier returns home, hundreds of people lined a fence outside the base to pay their respects.

"It's still a soldier," said Mark Allen, who travelled from Prescott, Ont., to watch the repatriation ceremony with his daughter Dakota, 5, son Travis, 3, and his parents.

"She (was) still doing her job in Afghanistan for all of us." 
   

Allen said the family made the trip on the advice of his daughter.

"Dakota said, 'This is someone's mommy, someone's wife, someone's daughter,"' he said.

Ray Hellam and his wife Debbie, made the trip from Port Hope, Ont., about an hour west of Trenton.

They said they normally pay their respects to fallen soldiers along a highway overpass near their home, but felt compelled to watch this repatriation ceremony in Trenton, because Mendes has roots in the area.

The fact that Mendes did not die in combat did not take away the pain of losing another soldier, the Hellams said.

"She was over there and we appreciate her position," Ray Hellam said. "We try and treat them with the same respect, if it's combat or not combat. She's still over there, away from her family."

"It doesn't matter how many times you go (to pay respects to a fallen soldier), a feeling passes under you," Debbie Hellam added.

"You never get it over it."

Moments later, the brigade of vehicles left the air force base and received salutes from military supporters and members of the Canadian Army Veterans motorcycle club, who lined the streets.

The procession then proceeded up to Highway 401, the "Highway of Heroes," and toward Toronto, where Mendes' body will be subject to a post-mortem examination.
 

[Vets Dottir]

My condolences go out to Maj. Michelle Mendez's family and friends. 

RIP Major Mendez

[Eye In The Sky]

RIP Ma'am. 

[Digger Hale]

Rest in Peace Ma'am. Thank you for what you gave your country and i hope you find relief.

[exgunnertdo]

Details of Service for Major Mendes,

Funeral Home:  Gordon F. Tompkins, 435 Davis Drive, Kingston, ON.  Phone 613/546-5150.

Visitation.  The visitation will be held on 30 Apr from 1430 - 1630 hrs and from 1900 - 2100 hrs.  The visitation is open to the public and closed to the media.

Funeral Service.  A military funeral will be held on 1 May from 1100 - 1230 hrs at the Sydenham Street United Church, 82 Sydenham Street, Kingston, ON.  The funeral is open to the public and closed to the media.

Interment.  Maj Mendes will be interred immediately following the funeral service at St Mary’s Cemetery, 718 Division Street, Kingston, ON.  The interment is open to the public and closed to the media.

[karl28]

RIP

[Baden Guy]

THE AFGHAN MISSION  GLOBE & MAIL

Hundreds of mourners attend soldier's funeral
IAN ELLIOT

The Canadian Press

May 2, 2009

KINGSTON, ONT. -- Both of Major Michelle Mendes's families - military and civilian - said goodbye to her yesterday.

Eight days after she was found dead in her living quarters at Kandahar Air Field, a death that is still under investigation by the military, Maj. Mendes's body was returned to this Eastern Ontario city for a funeral service at Sydenham Street United Church.

Only 30 years old, Maj. Mendes was one of the highest-ranking military members of the 118 Canadian Forces personnel to die in Afghanistan.

Hundreds of mourners, many military, packed the church to show their respects, a number openly weeping as the flag-draped casket was carried into the church by an honour guard from her Ottawa unit, the chief of defence intelligence.

Her parents, Ron and Dianne Knight, clung to each other as they watched the pallbearers remove the casket from the hearse.

As per military protocol, the honour guard carrying her casket was from her home unit, each one wearing the North Star insignia that denotes military intelligence, and a comrade from Afghanistan accompanied her body the entire trip still wearing his desert camouflage uniform.

Her sister Melissa delivered a moving eulogy for the young officer to the packed church.

"It breaks my heart that my little girls will never get to know you," she said, her voice cracking with emotion as she remembered the pair growing up on an apple farm near Grafton, Ont., and engaging in the usual sort of teenage rivalries with her sister before learning to appreciate one another as they grew older.

Her sister remembered how Maj. Mendes, known as "Mich" to her friends, thrived in the intellectual and athletic pressure cooker of Royal Military College and how she fell in love there with soccer coach Victor Mendes, whom she married after graduation.

She was immediately accepted by his family and the Portuguese community in Kingston, her sister recalled, and she said the death of the young officer had left a hole in the heart of those who knew her.

"She was so beautiful, inside and outside," Melissa said. "Maj. Michelle Mendes, we salute you."

Two of Maj. Mendes's classmates from RMC, Rebecca Barton and Amber Comisso, remembered her as an athletic overachiever, noting that she was the first person in the 2001 graduating class to achieve the rank of major, an appointment she earned just months before being posted to Afghanistan.

"We were so proud to have known her," Ms. Barton said. "Her beautiful, brilliant smile would light up any room she was in."

Her family has not spoken publicly since her death, but released a written statement yesterday thanking the public for their gestures of condolence.

"She was all Canadian - proud, strong and free," her family said.

[MCG]

Military probes death of major
Intelligence specialist found dead in her room at Kandahar Airfield within days of arrival
Allan Woods
The Star
Apr 25, 2009 04:30 AM


OTTAWA – On Tuesday, Maj. Michelle Mendes told friends she was just getting settled into her new life at Kandahar Airfield, the sprawling military base where she had arrived only days before as part of the most recent Canadian deployment to Afghanistan.

If it was tough to adjust, it may have been due to the rapid pace of change in the days leading up to her six-month mission, according to recent posts on her Facebook page.

Amid shuttling between her job in Ottawa and the home in Kingston she shared with husband, Victor, a soccer coach at the Royal Military College, heading to her family home near Cobourg for Easter, and packing for her second Afghan tour, the 30- year-old was promoted from captain to major. It was another step in what appeared to be a steady rise up the ranks of the Canadian Forces.

There was also a party thrown by 120 friends and family at the Portuguese Hall in Kingston that was partly to celebrate her promotion, partly to say goodbye.

No one anticipated it would be for the last time. Days after arriving in Kandahar, messages of good luck turned into streams of condolences. Mendes was discovered dead on the base about 72 hours after telling friends the adjustment was going well, in part because the Afghan heat hadn't yet flared.

One friend recalled "Mic," as her friends knew her, as "one of the fittest women at (Royal Military College). And, of course, her infectious smile and enthusiasm."

…

Mendes was an accomplished soldier. She was a scholar of war, earning a master's degree in conflict analysis and resolution at Ottawa's Carleton University in 2003 that she used in her work on counterterrorism as a military intelligence officer. But she was also a thoughtful, churchgoing girl from small-town Ontario.

"One of the things she used to do was she'd bake pies and bring them into the school for students and faculty and sports staff," said Fenn Hampson, director of Carleton's Norman Patterson School of International Affairs. "Everyone around here, I think, is both shocked and saddened by what we've heard. She was a very gifted student and also a very popular one."

Mendes's first tour in Afghanistan was also cut short. She was deployed as an intelligence officer in August 2006 ahead of Operation Medusa, a full-scale clash with the Taliban in Kandahar's Panjwaii district. Military officials said she was injured in an incident they would not disclose and was treated at Landstuhl military hospital in Germany before returning home.

Her mother, Dianne Knight, told the local newspaper shortly after Mendes's deployment that she worried about her daughter heading off to war but believed herself luckier than other military parents.

"I tell myself she's safe because her job is working on a computer," she said of her daughter's role as an intelligence specialist.

Dianne and husband Ron raised Mendes and sister, Melissa, in Grafton, a tiny town east of Cobourg. It is a dot on a map, nestled between the shores of Lake Ontario and the Highway of Heroes that the young soldier's body will travel along when her remains are returned to Canada in a few days time.

I hadn’t even known Michelle for a year, but it didn’t take long to recognize she was good people and outstanding in her job.  She was more than competent in her job; she was the type of person you wanted to know was supporting you when you are doing operations.

At the same time, she brought an energy & a compassionate human element to any group.  Always pleasant, always finding time for others, and always going that extra step to show consideration for others or to make things a little better for those she worked near.  She might also be described as a social organizer – arranging parties, home cooked meals (very appreciated by groups on months long courses & too far from home to escape the shacks on weekends) and other activities – I don’t think she ever expected anything in return either.

I wasn’t surprised to see her funeral so well attended.  She is the type of person that we could stand to have a few more of, and she is already missed.