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CALGARY (CP) - On a day usually celebrated by the military as Artillery Day, friends, family and comrades gathered Friday for the funeral of Capt. Nichola Goddard, a young artillery officer killed May 17 in Afghanistan.
Goddard, 26, was a forward observation officer in a light-armoured vehicle and died after Taliban insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at it. She was Canada's first female combat soldier to be killed in battle and the 17th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan.
Goddard's flag-draped coffin arrived at St. Barnabas Anglican Church on an artillery gun carriage pulled by a Second World War gun tractor. It was accompanied by a guard of honour and a group of honorary pallbearers made up of her comrades and friends at CFB Shilo, the Manitoba base where she was stationed before being deployed to Afghanistan.
The actual bearer party included soldiers from Goddard's unit, the First Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. May 26 was the day the Royal Artillery was first formed in 1716 in Britain, and has been adopted as a day to honour the Canadian artillery.
St. Barnabas was the same church where Goddard married Jason Beam in 2002. Beam will receive the Memorial Cross, a silver medal representing personal loss and sacrifice.
Goddard, who was once nicknamed Care Bear because of her compassion, also leaves behind parents, Tim and Sally Goddard, and two younger sisters, Kate and Victoria.
As the mourners filed in, each was handed a red poppy, Canada's symbol of war remembrance. At the front of the church, Goddard smiled widely from a large photo taken in Afghanistan.
Beside the remembrance book was a list of e-mails she had sent to the congregation at St. Barnabas from her last deployment.
One dated March 24 read: "I know that my family worries a lot about me being over here. It helps me a lot to know that they are supported at home. I think that in a lot of ways my job is the easy one."
Another one spoke of Pte. Robert Costell, who lost his life in Afghanistan on March 29.
"The ramp ceremony was especially moving as it was the first time in a long while that a Canadian has been killed overseas in a firefight. I was in the front rank standing beside the three injured soldiers as we saluted someone who epitomized everything Canadians in Afghanistan represent."
Intergovernmental Relations Minister Gary Mar, representing the Alberta government, was among the dignitaries and politicians at the service.
"I feel deeply for her family but their mission is one that Canadians need to support," said Mar.
"Canadians should sleep better at night knowing there are people prepared to risk their lives to defend our country and to make life in other parts of the world better for people."
Goddard will be interred at the National Military Cemetery of the Canadian Forces in Ottawa in early June.
© The Canadian Press, 2006
