On Canada Day we also acknowledge...

...a great former Chief of the Defence Staff:

...
While many pundits have sought to define the tenure of departing Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen. Rick Hillier [ready to keep Rockin'], in the oblique forms of masterminding our Afghanistan role or the re-equipment of the Canadian Forces, such opinions miss the essence of the man. And while those are things he certainly had a hand in, his tenure is better marked by the words of soldiers who wistfully mark his passage with regret that their greatest champion has left.

I first became close to the general as he prepared to take over the NATO mission in Kabul. At the time, I was acting as his point man for the Canadian team of officers and soldiers that would dominate the NATO mission in 2004. The first day he met his international staff, he disdained the norms and, instead of lecturing, he launched into a two-way dialogue with every single person regardless of national provenance and linguistic ability. Quite something in a span of three hours with more than 300 people in the room. But magically, he was able to do so and thus made everyone feel important and a part of what they were about to embark on.

To the class-conscious Europeans, this was unheard of. A Norwegian officer, among others, came to me afterwards saying "I have never seen a general like that." A refrain I would hear for the next four years.

In Kabul, nothing changed. He was the most accessible commander I ever saw, and I've seen every NATO commander since 2003. Germans, Italians, Brits and every other nation imaginable and of every rank, would come away amazed that this general would know their name, and preferred to eat in their company instead of in private or with other generals. Soldiers from other nations who had served in Bosnia with him a decade earlier would ask me about the "General" on seeing a Canadian flag on my shoulder. "Say hi to him for me" they would ask.

And while he did lead a re-equipment of the Canadian Forces, his prime thought was to connect and make Canadians understand the perils of service. Simply put, he refused to put soldiers in harm's way without the tools necessary for their survival. And Canadians should have no doubt, that prior to Gen. Hillier we frequently took short-cuts or "managed risk" as if soldiers were mere poker chips to be played on the international stage. The success of our soldiers and of our nation was always at the forefront of Gen. Hillier's thoughts.

But there are two images of the man that remain indelibly printed in my mind, which go far in explaining why soldiers loved him so.

On his last night in Kabul, there was a party held in his honour to say good-bye. The former Turkish foreign minister was moved to tears in saying farewell. Earlier that evening, Gen. Hillier had been given Afghanistan's highest honour for what is still remembered as one of the most successful NATO commands in that country, and what Canadians don't know is that Gen. Hillier almost single-handedly had forestalled a coup d'état against the nascent Afghan democracy.

But he left all of that and I watched him in his office write a letter in his own hand to the family of a Norwegian soldier who had been killed some weeks earlier. He didn't have to do that, all the protocols had already been observed, but he felt the need to connect and console a grieving family.

And in 2006, as our own casualties rose, I would frequently accompany him to the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where disdaining all protocol and pomp due his rank and office, would arrive in civilian clothes to simply sit at a soldier's bedside, many grievously wounded, to pass on hope and commitment with a tenderness that was moving.

And that commitment extended to their families. I saw and heard him speak to every single devastated family. Contrast that with years previous where soldiers were invalided out of the military as soon as was conveniently possible. Gen. Hillier alone changed that dynamic.

A few weeks ago he was at my home for dinner. As we spoke, his words focussed on the families and soldiers gone, by name remembered and with praise for their strength. I knew then, as I've always known, that I was in the presence of uncontrived greatness. As American and British friends told me "It is more than just you Canadians who will miss him."

They say you can't easily fool a soldier. Every single soldier knew that with this CDS, they would be cared for before, during and after their missions, as would their families. It is why they would do anything for this man. But these are not my words and thoughts alone; they are the thoughts of thousands of soldiers, who on Gen. Hillier's retirement could only say, "say it isn't so." It is like our own Camelot has ended.

It is that legacy of compassion that will endure: that he was the champion of the common soldier. And that legacy is probably the one he would prefer best; and it is why we loved him so.

George Petrolekas was involved [the link is from 2008] in the Afghan mission from 2003 to 2007, representing Canada at NATO's operational headquarters in Afghanistan.

[edited for clarity]