SilentKnight

This one hits close to home for us...


Dennis Brown: a hero for St. Catharines


Welcome home Dad.

We miss you.

We love you.

The simple, heart-wrenching messages were scrolled on handmade posters held up in a teeming rain by the four children of fallen St. Catharines Warrant Officer Dennis Brown as he made his final return home Tuesday.

The slain soldier’s journey back to St. Catharines from Afghanistan was less personal for hundreds of others.

But they wanted to show they cared about his sacrifice just the same.

A week to the day after Brown was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, thousands of people stood on highway overpasses and lined city streets Tuesday to welcome a motorcade carrying his remains from Toronto to St. Catharines.

The huge crowd honouring Brown’s sacrifice included reservists with his Lincoln and Welland Regiment, firefighters from across the region, army cadets and complete strangers who wanted to show their support.

“He’d be loving this,” said Pam Hendsbee of St. Catharines, a long-time friend of Brown’s and former reservist with his regiment.

Brown, 38, was killed last Tuesday along with two other Canadian soldiers when their armoured vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb northwest of Kandahar.

A motorcade led by Niagara Regional Police cruisers escorted Brown’s body from the Ontario coroner’s office in downtown Toronto to the Butler Funeral Home on Duke Street by about 1 p.m.

Full story - St. Catharines Standard