Cpl. Mark Robert McLaren

by Don Bell
(Peterborough, Canada)

Corporal Mark Robert McLaren died a hero; the first Canadian soldier from Peterborough, Ontario to be killed in Afghanistan. We view the lists of casualties on TV, but war can seem foreign and remote until someone from your hometown is named.

Cpl. Mark McLaren, 23, was killed instantly when his armored vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) while on a joint patrol with the Afghan army in the Arghandab district, west of Kandahar city, Afghanistan on December 5, 2008. Sadly, he was just a month away from returning home to Peterborough for a visit with his family and fiancee.

The large roadside bomb also killed two other Canadian soldiers: Pte. Demetrios Diplaros, 25, and Warrant Officer Robert John Wilson, 27. All three soldiers were from the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, based in Petawawa, Ontario. Canada's military death toll for the US-led Afghanistan mission has risen to triple digits since 2002.

During an interview with The Peterborough Examiner, Alan McLaren, Cpl. McLaren's grieving father, paid eloquent tribute to his fallen son:

"Mark was our son who believed in what he was doing. He believed in it strongly enough to go on a second tour after being injured on his first tour. He was a person who stood up for what he believed. He lived his dreams. He was our son. He was our hero."

Cpl. McLaren proudly served with the Operational Mentor and Liaison Team that trains members of the Afghan National Army. He was on his second tour in Afghanistan, having been previously wounded during his first tour in 2006 when two American A-10 Thunderbolts mistakenly opened fire on a group of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, accidentally killing one and wounding 30 others.

Cpl. McLaren was praised by his superiors just weeks before his death for risking his life by crawling while under fire to provide first aid to an Afghan soldier who had been shot. Such was the conviction, dedication and bravery of this fallen hero.

On the cold, wintery afternoon of December 8, 2008, the bodies of Cpl. Mark McLaren and his fallen comrades, Pte. Demetrios Diplaros and Warrant Officer Robert Wilson, were saluted by thousands of ordinary Canadians, firefighters and police who lined the many overpasses as the repatriation motorcade made its way down the 172-kilometre stretch of Ontario's Highway 401 renamed "The Highway of Heroes."

Canada will be forever grateful.