It’s now a place where families and flags belong.
After a rotation at Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar, Minto’s town flag returned via Mark Shannon for a special Remembrance Day service in Harriston.
Before the recent council meeting started, Mayor David Anderson said a resident noted her son was serving in Afghanistan on a peacekeeping mission. His group was working in different regions in Kandahar helping with reconstruction efforts.
Shannon was born and raised on a family dairy farm located near Harriston, and is the middle child of a family of six children. He attended Minto-Clifford Public School, Norwell District Secondary School, and Ryerson University where he obtained a Bachelor of Technology in Applied Computer Science.
After many years working in the Information Technology field, Shannon enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1989. He joined The Queens Own Rifles of Canada, the only Reserve Infantry Airborne unit in Canada, and parades out of Moss Park Armoury in downtown Toronto.
During his 20 years in the Canadian Forces, he has been deployed outside of Canada on three separate occasions: from September 1992 to May 1993, he in Cambodia as part of the United Nations peacekeeping operation UNTAC – United Nations Transitional Authority; from September 2003 to April 2004 he was part of a NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia as part of the Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina; and from August 2008 to April 2009 he was in Afghanistan as part of NATO’s mission in International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
While in Afghanistan he was employed as CIMIC – Civilian Military Cooperation Operator. All CIMIC operators worked in the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Kandahar. Specifically, he was the CIMC leader assigned to the Arghandab and Shah Wali Kot districts, located west and north-west of Kandahar City. As a CIMIC operator, his job was to be the “face” of the Canadian military and to liaise directly with the local Afghan leadership on behalf of the Canadian Commander.
Shannon’s rank in the Canadian Forces is Master Warrant Officer. He is an active Canadian paratrooper with over 60 parachute descents and has also earned American and British jump wings.
Shannon currently has two jobs in the Canadian Forces. He is the Operations Officer for the Op Connection Cell, whose job is to organize events in order to “connect with Canadians” by showcasing Canadian military personnel and equipment.
His second job is Company Sergeant Major for the Reserve Infantry Airborne Regiment he belongs to – The Queens Own Rifles of Canada.
Anderson said that while overseas, they are asked for a bit of history and background on where they come from. His request was for a town flag to fly at the base he was staying at.
On Remembrance Day in Harriston, Shannon presented the flag back to the municipality. He said it was kind of interesting that the flag still has sand creases from Afghanistan sand.
Shannon tried to wash it out as best he could, but he could not get it all out, Anderson said.
The plaque also had a photo of Shannon holding the flag in front of the base at Kandahar.
As well the plaque contained a certificate in recognition of the Town of Minto’s support “to the men and women in uniform and to the families of those military personnel serving in Afghanistan.”
“It’s kinda nice that our municipality had that bit of international flavour. There’s a lot of issues about our troops being over in Afghanistan, but there is one group that’s deployed there just to help with the rebuilding of the infrastructure of the area.”
“It was perfect,” Anderson said.
He said Shannon was able to present the plaque to during the Remembrance Day Service in Harriston at noon. It was then put on display there.
However, during the Legion dinner later on, Deputy-mayor Judy Dirksen and councillor David Turton were left to explain that the mayor had taken it to the Legion dinner held the same night in Palmerston.
“It’s hard to be in two spots at once,” Anderson said.
