Inspite of bitterly cold weather yesterday afternoon myself and a surprisingly good number of people were out on the Herley St. bridge a Colborne to pay our respects to Gunner Dion and his family as they made the sad trip with his remains from CFB Trenton to Toronto.

One of the local snowplows joined the fire service and EMS vehicles with their lights flashing on the bridge. The plow had cleared the snow from the walkway over the bridge allowing those of us who turned out to stand on the walkway instead of climbing over snowbanks.

As I stood on the bridge with the wind occasionally nipping at the back of my head, my gaze to the east watching for the flashing lights of the motorcade my thoughts went to the footage I watched on Monday morning of hundreds of troops on a tarmac in bitterly cold Kandahar solemnly saluting Gunner Dion as he started his journey home.

While I’m saluting his service and sacrifice on a bridge over the Highway of Heroes in Ontario and wondering how many more of those troops will come home this way I can’t help but think that some of those troops saluting their fallen comrade allowed themselves the question “Will I be next?”

Stay safe those who serve so selflessly for us.