The Ultimate Price of Being a Soldier

We lost three soldiers in Afghanistan. It was a very difficult time for everybody, very difficult, certainly for their immediate mates and friends but the whole unit wears that. That’s really when reality hits. All the rest before that is just adventure. Yes you are focused, you’re tuned in to what’s going on but it isn’t really real until somebody loses a life, then it’s not a game, it’s not adventure, it’s business. It’s remarkably tough but I think for the average soldier you can’t speak for everybody but for the average soldier you realize that that’s part of the price. We all know that. It’s just we don’t ever believe it’s really gonna happen. It’s a theory at the beginning. It just becomes reality at some point. The soldiers talk amongst themselves, they become their own therapists. I’ve talked about that before and that’s very true. It’s painful but it is also sobering and you realize that is what you signed on to do. This is really what it’s about, this is the real deal. This isn’t about carrying a rifle in area 7 in Petawawa practicing to be a warrior. This is the outcome and it’s been that way for generations and will continue to be that way. So it’s difficult, difficult to put into words. I will tell you this, that some of the most difficult part of it is actually to having to face the families. As the commanding officer with the RSM, not only you were obliged, you were honored to go and meet the families and talk to them. Now that’s a remarkably difficult thing and we’re all family, not all of us but most of us have families. We have sons, my son is in the navy as we speak. I get it and so does everybody else. It’s a remarkably painful thing because the soldier bought onto that. He knows or she knows that that may ultimately be the price. Families haven’t always bought onto that That is not part of their contact, that’s not part of their deal. So that too becomes remarkably difficult because how do you express that. How do you say, “Well, you know, he knew that could be a possibility.” As far as the wife or the husband that lost a loved one is concerned, that’s not what they signed on for.

Mr. Bradley reflects back on those lost during his service in Afghanistan and the difficulties that the families face when their loved one does not return home.

Daniel Bradley

Mr. Daniel Bradley was born June 24, 1958 in Ottawa, Ontario. At 18 years of age, walking by a recruiting centre, Mr. Bradley made an impulsive decision to join the military having a desire for the infantry. Mr. Bradley became a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment holding rank as an infanteer and obtained training at CFB Cornwallis in Trenton, Ontario. After training, Mr. Bradley spent a bit of time In Canada service but in 1978 experienced his first operational deployment to Cyrpus. In 1992 Mr. Bradley was given another opportunity to deploy to Somalia and joined a contingency from the RCR and became part of the Airborne Regiment where he held rank of Chief Warrant Officer. As his military career continued Mr. Bradley was part of an operational to Croatia in 1994, Bosnia in 1997 and more recently 2002/03 travelled to Afghanistan on two different operations, one being Roto O as Company Sergeant Major. Mr. Bradley retired in 2011 with 35 years of military sevice.