Valour in the Presence of the Enemy

06/17/2026

Ask Mark Gasparotto whether he is a “war veteran,” or someone who carried out “special duty service,” and he will answer the question with a grim accounting of the costs of his time in Afghanistan. A retired colonel, Gasparotto led 23 Field Squadron, a combat engineer unit of the 1st Battali...

06/17/2026

Standing watch. 🇨🇦
This footage of the changing of the guard at Canada’s National War Memorial in Ottawa was captured by Mick Gzowski a board member of Valour in the Presence of the Enemy. It’s a moment that still gives chills.
The memorial was unveiled in 1939, originally to honour Canadians who served in the First World War. Its bronze figures, marching through a granite archway known as “The Response,” have since come to represent every Canadian who has served in war, conflict, and peacekeeping.
At its base lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, added in 2000. The remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier — killed in the First World War and originally buried near Vimy Ridge in France — were brought home and laid to rest here, standing in for the more than 116,000 Canadians who never returned and whose names were lost to history.
Each summer, young soldiers take turns standing sentry at the tomb and memorial, motionless for long stretches, then changing guard in a precise, silent ceremony. It’s not just pageantry — it’s a living act of remembrance, a promise that those who gave everything are never forgotten.
Lest we forget. 🍁
🎥 Footage: Mick Gzowski Mick Gzowski / Valour in the Presence of the Enemy

06/17/2026

The campaign to secure the Victoria Cross for Private Jesse Larochelle has gained renewed momentum, thanks to General (ret'd) Rick Hillier, Bruce Moncur, and thousands of supporters. With a parliamentary petition submitted and an external review committee established, advocates hope new evidence wil

06/17/2026

VICTORIA CROSS: Sjt. Raphael Louis Zengel

Born November 11, 1894, in Faribault, USA — raised on a Saskatchewan homestead — Zengel became one of the most fearless soldiers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

📅 August 9, 1918 | Battle of Amiens, France

Leading his platoon forward during the great Allied offensive, SGT. Zengel spotted a gap opening on his flank — and an enemy machine gun tearing into his advancing comrades.

He didn't wait for orders. He charged alone, 200 yards ahead of his platoon, straight into the German gun position. He killed the crew, scattered the rest, and silenced the gun that was cutting down his men.

Later that same day, with the battalion pinned by murderous machine-gun fire, he calmly directed his platoon's fire with devastating precision — even after being knocked unconscious by a shell. He got up and kept directing fire on the enemy.

His courage and disregard for his own safety became, in his men's words, what carried the attack to success.

He'd already earned the Military Medal near Passchendaele in 1917. Amiens earned him the Empire's highest award for valour.

Zengel survived the war and lived until February 27, 1977, passing away in Vancouver, B.C.

🎖️ Lest we forget.

06/16/2026

🍁 Closing out my series on Canadian soldiers decorated for bravery in Afghanistan with Lieutenant-General M.C. Wright, CMM, MMV, MSM, CD — Commander of the Canadian Army.

Born and raised in Southern Ontario, LGen Wright enrolled in the CAF in 1990 and has spent his career leading from the front. He was awarded the Medal of Military Valour for a single night in August 2006 that says everything about the kind of soldier he is.

On August 19, 2006, as a Major commanding Alpha Company in the Panjwayi District, his troops were surrounded and outnumbered — taking fire from all directions. He refused reinforcements for their safety, kept his cool, and led his force to outmanoeuvre the enemy. Not one Canadian casualty. The enemy couldn’t say the same.

He also earned the Meritorious Service Medal twice — once for that same Afghanistan tour, and again for commanding a 500-person task force across six Middle Eastern countries during the height of COVID-19.

He now commands the entire Canadian Army. 🇨🇦

It has been an honour profiling these extraordinary Canadians. LGen Wright is a fitting final entry — a soldier who led with courage as a Major and now shapes the future of Canada’s Army as a Lieutenant-General.

LestWeForget 🍁

06/15/2026

🇨🇦 Standing in the shadow of Parliament Hill, Ottawa, surrounded by those who gave everything for Canada. This is the Valiants Memorial — 14 life-sized bronze figures, nine busts and five statues, each one a chapter in Canada’s military story.

From the battlefields of 1812 to the skies of WWII, these are the men and women who shaped a nation. Among them: Victoria Cross recipients who displayed extraordinary courage under fire — soldiers, airmen, and sailors whose bravery became legend.

But walk around this memorial and you’ll notice some gaps. Canada sent 26,000 troops to Korea. We were the backbone of UN Peacekeeping for decades, losing hundreds of lives wearing the blue beret. And 158 Canadians came home from Afghanistan draped in flags. Where are their faces here?

These weren’t lesser wars. They were lesser memorials.

It’s time to add three more figures to this circle. A Korean War veteran. A Peacekeeper. A soldier from Kandahar. They earned their place in bronze just as much as anyone here. 🎖️

“No day will ever erase you from the memory of time.” — Virgil

Do you agree? 👇🇨🇦

06/15/2026

General Jennie Carignan — Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff

Canada’s highest-ranking military officer, General Jennie Carignan has led the Canadian Armed Forces since July 2024 — and she is making history at every turn.

Commissioned into the Canadian Military Engineers in 1990, Carignan has built a career defined by firsts. She became the first Canadian woman from a combat command to reach the rank of brigadier-general, commanded NATO Mission Iraq, and in 2024 became the first woman ever appointed Chief of the Defence Staff.

Now, she is being put forward for one of NATO’s most influential positions. The Canadian government has nominated General Carignan as its candidate for Chair of the NATO Military Committee — the alliance’s most senior military post and principal military adviser to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. An election for the role is scheduled for September 2026 in Copenhagen. If successful, she would be the first Canadian to hold the position since retired General Ray Henault in the early 2000s.

General Carignan will continue leading the Canadian Armed Forces while the NATO selection process unfolds.

A decorated leader with two master’s degrees, the Commander of the Order of Military Merit, and a career spanning over three decades — General Carignan represents the best of Canadian military leadership on the world stage.

06/14/2026

Calling all bike groups, all veteran associations, and anyone looking to support our troops.

July 25th 2026 Third annual Ride for Jess. We would like to thank our sponsors whose continued support allows us to get closer to our goal of erecting an Afghanistan War Memorial Monument. Nordic Sons Veterans MC can’t wait to see everyone out. Jess for VC!

06/14/2026

🎖️ Lest We Forget: Private John Francis Young, VC

Born in Kidderminster, England in 1893, John Francis Young came to Canada as a young man — and when his adopted country called, he answered without hesitation.

On September 2, 1918, during the brutal fighting along the Drocourt-Quéant Line near Dury, France, Private Young did something extraordinary. As a stretcher-bearer with the 87th Infantry Battalion, he ran into open, fire-swept ground — with zero cover — to dress his fallen comrades’ wounds. When he ran out of medical supplies, he went back to headquarters under intense enemy fire to get more. He did this again and again, for over an hour, never stopping. His citation says it best: “To his courageous conduct must be ascribed the saving of the lives of many of his comrades.”

He was awarded the Victoria Cross — the highest military honour in the Commonwealth.

But here’s the part history doesn’t always tell you. 💔

John Young never truly came home. Not in the way that mattered. Like so many men who survived the trenches, the war followed him in his lungs, in his body, in every breath he took. The poison gas and the damage done on those front lines never left him. He spent his final years at the Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts sanatorium in Quebec, fighting tuberculosis — a battle made unwinnable by what the war had already taken from him.

He died on November 7, 1929. He was just 36 years old.

Like Jess Larochelle and so many others, John Young is a reminder that not every war wound bleeds where you can see it. Some soldiers survived the battlefield only to lose the longer fight — quietly, away from the headlines, far from the glory of the medals they earned.

He saved countless lives on that ridge in France. Remember his. 🌺

06/13/2026

Sgt. Graham Marc Verrier (front and centre)

There are soldiers who serve. And then there are soldiers who lead — who stand in the fire so others don’t have to, who charge forward when every instinct screams to take cover, who carry their troops through the worst places on earth.

Graham didn’t do one tour and call it done. He went back. Again and again. Four front-line tours in Afghanistan — over two years in theatre — when most men had seen enough after one. Each time his boots hit that ground, he knew exactly what was waiting. That’s devotion — to his country, to his regiment, and above all, to the men beside him.

He served with the legendary “Crazy Eights” — 8 Platoon, C Company, 1 RCR — a platoon that went from 40 to 5 in two days of fighting. He was there for Operation Medusa in September 2006 — the largest NATO ground offensive since the Korean War. The Panjwai District. Taliban stronghold. The Crazy Eights were at the tip of the spear. And Graham Verrier was there — first man up.

On July 31, 2010, Sergeant Verrier’s patrol was caught in open terrain — fully exposed, nowhere to go, an insurgent ambush pouring fire down on them from a prepared position. Fully exposed to enemy fire, he immediately initiated a frontal assault on the enemy position — alone at first — then inspired his fellow soldiers to follow. He relentlessly engaged the insurgents until they broke contact and fled. His actions were later officially recognized as critical to protecting the remainder of his platoon and defeating the ambush.

For this act of extraordinary courage, Sergeant Graham Marc Verrier was awarded the Medal of Military Valour — the third highest military decoration in Canada — awarded August 12, 2011, invested January 26, 2012.

But a citation can only capture one moment. Ask the men who served with him. Graham was first man up — every single time. First through the door. First across the open ground. First into the fight.

Four tours. Two years in theatre. The Medal of Military Valour. And countless acts of courage and leadership never recorded in any citation.

Sergeant Graham Marc Verrier gave everything this country asked of him — and then he gave more.