I just found out this afternoon that a guy who was in my platoon during Infantry training Phase II at CFB Gagetown died on July 7th of this year. It just about knocked me over. I was watching the live text feed from the Senate floor yesterday when it was mentioned in opening remarks and Senators' Statements, but the reporter had heard "Dodd". I only saw it today when I read through the finished hardcopy publication. Still thinking it could have been someone else, another Dawe perhaps, I googled him... I wasn't mistaken. It was him. In that link to the Hansard, Senator Segal spoke very well of him.Now, I wasn't best friends with Dawe, but I certainly remember him well and we got along during our brief stint. There weren't many people I met in training that I looked at and thought "I'd follow you, trust you, in a theatre of war" but Dawe was definitely one of them. Him, Miksa, Luft.
I remember Dawe actually grinning after Warrant Ashford PT-raped 26 minutes of our lives away during range week for having wasted 26 minutes of Cpt Sharlack's time two weeks prior during a night navigation pre-inspection. Hell, during firing practice, he challenged the warrant to a pull-up competition. As sections were firing C-7 rounds a few feet away, they were up in the rafters, doing chin-ups. Dawe beat Ashford in two-handed pull-ups, but Ashford kicked Dawe's ass in one-handed ones. Throughout all the exercises, barracks time, down-time (ha!), etc., Dawe never had the "RMC airs" - that attitude of superiority over us reservus goofs.
I'm going to see if next week while I unpack I can find some pictures of him from our days in Gagetown. I don't think I have any, as most of the ones I took were from pre-RESO, the first three weeks of training before RMC students showed up for Phase II. Though I seem to recall a photo of us all eating freakin' IMPs in the woods during night nav/camo week. Think Mundi and Dawe are in that one.
A good article about Dawe can be found here. The picture of him with his son is just... hard to look at, I guess.
5 comments:
That sucks Patrick. It sounds like he was the type of guy I'd like to meet. Anyone who'd challenge an officer to a chin-up competition has my vote for having balls.
This makes my news of WarHammer Online being delayed somewhat less important. Here's a link anyways.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6182168.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;1
Andy
Yeah, it was quite funny. Warrant Ashford was not pleased at being beaten in chin-ups, so he proposed one-handed ones. The guy was like a tank wrapped in flesh. After Dawe did 19 pull-ups to Ashford's 16, Ashford did 7 one-handed to Dawe's 2.
I also forgot to mention that when I was doing my recce patrol and was planning to fail, Dawe did his camo like Gene Simmons and Luft did the Braveheart half-and-half war paint. lol
Yeah, saw the announcement delay on the forums. Sucky, but not wholly unexpected. At least I'll have Assassin's Creed and Force Unleashed to play. ... need to buy an xbox360, though...
16 chin-ups followed by 7 one-handed (or 19 followed by 2 one-handed)? Man! When I was really into rock-climbing, I once did 18 chin-ups in a row. I thought that was pretty good ... and then I almost blacked out when I started sucking wind again. I couldn't do a single one-handed jobbie though. Those are frigging tough.
Andy
I have an idea how you feel. When I heard my buddy Chris Saunders died in a sub, it knocked me off my feet.
I keep this shortcut handy. It puts a face on the cost of war. And everytime news of another bomb hit the press, I can't help but check to ensure one of my buddies isn't on the list.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/afghanistan/casualties/total.html
PG
I was just surprised at feeling so struck by the whole thing given that I only knew Dawe for 6 weeks. Just something about the whole thing really nailed me. I'm just really glad that you did your tour before all the shit really hit the fan with the insurgency.
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