Medals wrongly issued after Afghan vet's suicide, Lawson tells parents
Canada’s top general has personally written to the parents of a dead soldier to tell them their loved one’s suicide wasn’t the result of his military service and to suggest that the medals issued in the aftermath of the death weren’t deserved.
Shaun and Sheila Fynes of Victoria, B.C., said they were stunned when they received the letter on Monday from Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Tom Lawson.
Lawson told the couple that a military board of inquiry concluded that the suicide of their son, Cpl. Stuart Langridge, in the barracks at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton wasn’t related to his service. In addition, because of that determination Lawson raised the issue in the June 22 letter about whether medals should have been awarded to the parents. The couple received Memorial Crosses and the Sacrifice Medal.
“Those medals were the only tiny bit of honour we had left from the military,” explained Sheila Fynes in an interview Tuesday. “Now they’ve said Stuart wasn’t worthy and we shouldn’t have the medals.”
Langridge, a model soldier and veteran of Bosnia and Afghanistan, was suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder when he killed himself in 2008. The death of the 28-year-old set off a sequence of military bungling; paperwork naming Shaun as the executor of the estate was eventually found behind a filing cabinet at CFB Edmonton, but in the meantime the military allowed another person to assume that role.
READ MORE: http://www.canada.com/News/canada/Medals+wrongly+issued+after+Afghan+suicide+Lawson+tells+parents/11195445/story.html
Shaun and Sheila Fynes of Victoria, B.C., said they were stunned when they received the letter on Monday from Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Tom Lawson.
Lawson told the couple that a military board of inquiry concluded that the suicide of their son, Cpl. Stuart Langridge, in the barracks at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton wasn’t related to his service. In addition, because of that determination Lawson raised the issue in the June 22 letter about whether medals should have been awarded to the parents. The couple received Memorial Crosses and the Sacrifice Medal.
“Those medals were the only tiny bit of honour we had left from the military,” explained Sheila Fynes in an interview Tuesday. “Now they’ve said Stuart wasn’t worthy and we shouldn’t have the medals.”
Langridge, a model soldier and veteran of Bosnia and Afghanistan, was suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder when he killed himself in 2008. The death of the 28-year-old set off a sequence of military bungling; paperwork naming Shaun as the executor of the estate was eventually found behind a filing cabinet at CFB Edmonton, but in the meantime the military allowed another person to assume that role.
READ MORE: http://www.canada.com/News/canada/Medals+wrongly+issued+after+Afghan+suicide+Lawson+tells+parents/11195445/story.html
No comments:
Post a Comment