Henry Louis Norwest, MM. He possessed all the skills required for this role: excellent marksmanship, an ability to keep perfectly still for long periods and superb camouflage techniques. Born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, of French-Cree ancestry, he was a ranch-hand and rodeo performer as a young man.
Lance-Corporal Norwest served with the 50 th Battalion and achieved a sniping record of fatal shots. He was an inspiration to his unit with a fellow soldier writing of him:. Henry Norwest carried out his terrible duty superbly because he believed his special skill gave him no choice but to fulfil his indispensable mission. Our 50 th [Battalion] sniper went about his work with passionate dedication and showed complete detachment from everything while he was in the line.
Yet when we had the rare opportunity to see our comrade at close quarters, we found him pleasant and kindly, quite naturally one of us, and always an inspiration. For the members of his battalion, a genuine hero had been lost. Captain Simon Mailloux was severely wounded in Afghanistan when an improvised explosive device hit his light armoured vehicle during a night operation in Kandahar in He lost one leg at the knee and was left with a fractured jaw and lacerations.
Mailloux returned to Canada to begin a grueling rehabilitation. He was soon fitted with a prosthetic leg that proved to be a game changer. As far as Mailloux was concerned, his business in Afghanistan was unfinished, and he wanted to continue the work he had started there. Two years after losing his leg, the determined soldier returned and became the first Canadian amputee to be deployed as a combatant.
He began to compete in adapted sports and went on to take part in the Invictus Games in , returning as co-captain of Team Canada in The Invictus Games were established by Prince Harry in to give injured and ill service members and Veterans from different countries a chance to come together and compete in a variety of sporting events to inspire and support one another. Captain Collette with local Afghan children in Photo courtesy of Ashley Collette.
