I met Geoff Parker for the first time at Staff College in Toronto in 2003. He was an Oakville boy, a Major in the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) and, as an Army of the West soldier, I had little exposure to his regiment. Geoff was a tough infantry officer, one of our best: superbly competent, articulate with an amazing warmth of character. I learned in short order that he was easy to be around and awesome to work with. I used to think, “My God! I am glad this guy is on our side!” Having Geoff with you bolstered you--one could not fail if he was on your team. After Toronto we went our separate ways, I went on to command 1 Service Battalion in Alberta going overseas with the unit in 2006 while Geoff commanded 2nd Battalion RCR in New Brunswick.
After my command tour in Kandahar 2006, I was simply unable to get Afghanistan out of my mind. I left the Regular Army in April 2007 consumed by anger and an edgeless need for vindication. To say I left badly is an understatement and the change in temperature was immediate with many of my former comrades. My contacts and casual military friends either distanced themselves or moved on. I was dead to the Regular Force army, a betrayer of the castle—such is the cultural rift between the regular force and its astonishing reserve.
One cold Friday night in northern Ontario, my family and I were eating at a hotel restaurant. The kids were participating in a weekend speed skating tournament. A group of 4 or 5 soldiers, staff officers, came into the restaurant in combat fatigues. I recognized Geoff right way and the logistics staff officer in his party. The logistics guy was doing his best to ignore me--an embarrassment to the tribe-- but Geoff came right over. He chatted to my wife, asked my kids what was going on with their skating and the tournament. I will never forget that. For one shining moment I was not garbage, but rather valued by an officer who clearly mattered. He would never know how much that quantum of kinship meant to me: nearly all the difference between what was and what is now.
Over the weeks and months since that restaurant encounter he would get in touch from time to time to ask my opinion on different logistic challenges he was seeing from his office as a key decision maker at LFCA (now 4th Canadian Division). The last time I talked to him he was brimming with excitement for his own tour in Afghanistan which was to start late in 2010.
I stumbled upon his picture again last weekend. A small newspaper clipping announcing his death in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 18, 2010. Colonel Geoff Parker was on a reconnaissance mission getting ready to take over his new role in Afghanistan in the fall. His convoy was attacked during rush hour by a suicide bomber killing Geoff, 5 US soldiers who were with him in the column and 12 Afghan civilians. 47 others were injured in the blast. Forty-seven. Even now I cannot read the clipping without tearing up about a great officer and an even better friend. I think of Geoff often but always in early November.
If Parker is on board, we’ve got this won…Rest in peace my friend. And thank you Geoff.