They Are Home

The mournful strains of Amazing Grace mingled with traffic noise at a sombre repatriation ceremony Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 to honour the latest victims of Canada’s military effort to bring order to Afghanistan. With dignitaries and family on hand, the flag-draped coffins of Quebec-based Cpl. Nicolas Beauchamp, 28, and Pte. Michel Levesque, 25, were lowered from a military transport to waiting hearses.

"He will never cease to live among us and in our hearts," Levesque’s family said. "He will always be a hero to us."

Above: Military pallbearers carry the caskets of Cpl. Nicolas Beauchamps and Pte. Michel Levesque Jr. who were killed in Afghanistan on Saturday, during a repatriation ceremony at Canadian Forces base Trenton, Ontario, Tuesday November 20, 2007. Photo credit: Fred Chartrand

Beauchamp’s spouse, Cpl. Dolores Crampton, a medical technician based with the same unit, accompanied his body back to Canada. Crampton laid flowers on his coffin before returning to stand with Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier on the windswept runway. Also on hand was Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean and about 100 members of the public, who pressed against the fence that circles the base to watch the ceremony.

ABOVE: Chief of National Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hiller stands

with Cpl. Dolores Crampton, wife of Cpl. Nicolas Beauchamp.

Photo Credit: Fred Chartrand

"Nicolas was strong, generous, proud and convinced that he could make a difference in this world," the Beauchamp family said.

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Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Industry Minister Jim Prentice bow their heads along with other Members of Parliament for a moment of silence in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Tuesday (Photo Credit: Tom Hanson)

Supporters were seen along overpasses of the Highway of Heroes, a section of the TransCanada Highway renamed in honour of Canada's fallen soldiers, as the hearses made their way to Toronto .

Veterans from the Trenton, Ontario area drape flags from an overpass as the motorcade carrying the caskets of Cpl. Nicolas Beauchamps and Pte. Michel Levesque Jr. drives by on the Highway of Heroes. (Photo Credit: Fred Chartrand)

Repatriation Itinerary in CFB Trenton

Our fallen soldiers, Corporal Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp, 28, 5e Ambulance de campagne, and Private Michel Levesque, 25, 3e Bataillon, Royal 22e Regiment, both were based out of Canadian Forces Base Valcartier, Quebec, are tenatively scheduled to return home to Canada tomorrow (Tuesday November 20th, 2007) - to be confirmed by CFB Trenton.

Where: 8 Wing Trenton, Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ontario.
When: Tuesday November 20, 3:00 p.m.

Present to pay their respects will be Her Excellency, the Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada, The Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, the Honourable Peter Gordon MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and other dignitaries.

After the repatriation at CFB Trenton... tentatively at 4:00 pm, a motorcade carrying the soldiers will travel the Highway of Heroes from Trenton to Toronto. it has become the custom for people to line the overpass bridges along the route to honour the soldiers and their families.

The Oshawa Navy Club plans to form an honour guard at the Harmony Road overpass in Oshawa while Whitby-Oshawa MP Jim Flaherty is organizing a bridge tribute at the Brock Street overpass in Whitby.

Welcome them home and honour our soldiers along our Highway of Heroes

(401 West from Trenton to Toronto)

Ramp Ceremony in Afghanistan

Hundreds of soldiers attended a twilight ramp ceremony Sunday at Kandahar airfield to pay tribute to two Canadian soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.
Cpl. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp, 28, and Pte. Michel Levesque, 25, were riding in a light armoured vehicle that drove over a large improvised explosive device early Saturday.
The blast, 40 kilometres west of Kandahar, also claimed the life of an Afghan interpreter and injured three Canadian soldiers.


The flag-draped casket of Cpl. Beauchamp of the 5th Field Ambulance in Valcartier, Que., was carried by his fellow medics to a waiting Hercules transport plane to take him on his journey home. Photo: Cpl Simon Duchesne
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Photo: Cpl Simon Duchesne

Cpl. Dolores Crampton (common law wife of Cpl. Nicolas Beauchamp) walks behind the casket of her husband. She carried his beret as she walked behind the coffin and later boarded the plane with him for the long journey home.

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Photo: Cpl Simon Duchesne

The flag draped casket of Pte. Lévesque, of Quebec's Royal 22nd Regiment at Valcartier is carried by his fellow comrades to an awaiting Hercules plane to bring him home to an 18-year-old pregnant fiancée in Rivière-Rouge, a small village north of the Laurentians. Just last week, the young couple became engaged while Levesque was on a two-week leave.
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Photo: Cpl Simon Duchesne
They are coming home. Bless Pte. Levesque and Cpl. Beauchamp and their families - their military families still serving over seas and their families awaiting their arrival home. They shall be remembered always.