Canadian Army hero Collin Fitzgerald found out how brave anti-war people are last weekend. These cowards should have a choice to go to jail for attempted murder or have their asses enlisted and shipped out to Afghanistan to show what badasses they really are. If they do decide to take jail, the rest of the prison population should be told what they did, it would be interesting to see just how popular they would be.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...ottawa_soldier_070313/20070313?hub=TopStories
Soldier calls nasty bar beating a 'sneak attack'
Updated Tue. Mar. 13 2007 10:40 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A soldier honoured for his military valour in Afghanistan is wondering why strangers attacked and beat him in his hometown bar this past weekend.
"This wasn't two guys on the ice dropping gloves and going, 'OK, let's go'," Master Cpl. Collin Fitzgerald told CTV Ottawa on Tuesday.
"This was an attack -- a sneak attack. To blindside a guy ... and hit him with an object, there's something wrong."
Fitzgerald is well known in Morrisburg, Ont., a small town about an hour's drive south of Ottawa.
He says he'd been in the bar only about 20 minutes late Friday, visiting with a childhood friend who introduced him to people as a war hero, when he was suddenly struck from behind with some type of object. Four men jumped him and began beating on him.
"They were saying 'What kind of hero are you now?'," Fitzgerald's mother Arlene told CTV News. Bystanders pulled the attackers off Fitzgerald and his friends drove him to hospital.
"If it was true that they said that, then they're ignorant," Fitzgerald said.
The weapons instructor at CFB Trenton, recognized by Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean on Feb. 19 for braving enemy fire in Afghanistan, had his foot broken in three places and needed 10 stitches to close a cut above his right eye.
Fitzgerald, 27, also suffered a broken nose and two black eyes in the Friday night attack.
"Whatever he hit me with, he could have easily taken out an eye," the soldier said. "What if he hit me in the throat? It could have been an artery." Fitzgerald is married, with a young family.
Decorated hero
He served eight months in Afghanistan. He was one of the first recipients of the Canadian Medal of Military Valour, "for outstanding selfless and valiant actions" carried out on May 24, 2006, during an enemy ambush "involving intense, accurate enemy fire."
According to the military, Fitzgerald "repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire by entering and re-entering a burning platoon vehicle and successfully driving it off the roadway, permitting the remaining vehicles trapped in the enemy zone to break free."
"Collin was safer fighting the Taliban. At least he saw the enemy coming, or knew the enemy was there," said his mother. "They are just total cowards, nothing but snakes," said Gerald, Collin's father.
Fitzgerald will need at least a month to recover from his injuries. Several of his army buddies are still recovering from injuries suffered in Afghanistan.
"They don't realize how good we have it here in Canada and what we're trying to help the Afghan people have," he said of his attackers.
Ontario Provincial Police have arrested 21-year-old Travis Baldwin, a Morrisburg resident and hockey player, and charged him with aggravated assault. An investigation is ongoing.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...ottawa_soldier_070313/20070313?hub=TopStories
Soldier calls nasty bar beating a 'sneak attack'
Updated Tue. Mar. 13 2007 10:40 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A soldier honoured for his military valour in Afghanistan is wondering why strangers attacked and beat him in his hometown bar this past weekend.
"This wasn't two guys on the ice dropping gloves and going, 'OK, let's go'," Master Cpl. Collin Fitzgerald told CTV Ottawa on Tuesday.
"This was an attack -- a sneak attack. To blindside a guy ... and hit him with an object, there's something wrong."
Fitzgerald is well known in Morrisburg, Ont., a small town about an hour's drive south of Ottawa.
He says he'd been in the bar only about 20 minutes late Friday, visiting with a childhood friend who introduced him to people as a war hero, when he was suddenly struck from behind with some type of object. Four men jumped him and began beating on him.
"They were saying 'What kind of hero are you now?'," Fitzgerald's mother Arlene told CTV News. Bystanders pulled the attackers off Fitzgerald and his friends drove him to hospital.
"If it was true that they said that, then they're ignorant," Fitzgerald said.
The weapons instructor at CFB Trenton, recognized by Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean on Feb. 19 for braving enemy fire in Afghanistan, had his foot broken in three places and needed 10 stitches to close a cut above his right eye.
Fitzgerald, 27, also suffered a broken nose and two black eyes in the Friday night attack.
"Whatever he hit me with, he could have easily taken out an eye," the soldier said. "What if he hit me in the throat? It could have been an artery." Fitzgerald is married, with a young family.
Decorated hero
He served eight months in Afghanistan. He was one of the first recipients of the Canadian Medal of Military Valour, "for outstanding selfless and valiant actions" carried out on May 24, 2006, during an enemy ambush "involving intense, accurate enemy fire."
According to the military, Fitzgerald "repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire by entering and re-entering a burning platoon vehicle and successfully driving it off the roadway, permitting the remaining vehicles trapped in the enemy zone to break free."
"Collin was safer fighting the Taliban. At least he saw the enemy coming, or knew the enemy was there," said his mother. "They are just total cowards, nothing but snakes," said Gerald, Collin's father.
Fitzgerald will need at least a month to recover from his injuries. Several of his army buddies are still recovering from injuries suffered in Afghanistan.
"They don't realize how good we have it here in Canada and what we're trying to help the Afghan people have," he said of his attackers.
Ontario Provincial Police have arrested 21-year-old Travis Baldwin, a Morrisburg resident and hockey player, and charged him with aggravated assault. An investigation is ongoing.
