The casket carrying soldier Sebastian Halmagean, the 24-year-old Hamiltonian who died last week in Latvia where he was deployed, arrived in Canada on Tuesday.
Soldiers, some in dress uniforms and carrying firearms, lined the tarmac at Canadian Forces Base Trenton as the flag-draped casket emerged from a hatch in the side of an aircraft just after 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
A bagpiper played a mournful tune as the casket came into view of those assembled.
Other mourners in civilian clothes, under a nearby awning to avoid what was at times heavy snow, held white flowers as eight pallbearers slowly marched the casket past them to a waiting hearse. After being led to the hearse by a handful of soldiers, the mourners took turns placing their flowers inside.
One woman struggled to steady herself as she leaned into the hearse’s open back door, appearing to put her head inside to rest on the casket before walking away with a soldier.
Halmagean was on his first deployment when he died, his father Alin told CBC Hamilton on Sunday. He said his son enjoyed his job as a gunner based at the 5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown in Oromocto, N.B.
Halmagean helped extinguish fires in Newfoundland and Labrador last year and was proud to serve other Canadians in need, his father said.
The soldier died near the Latvian capital of Riga on Jan. 29, said Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) in a media release. The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation by military police with support from Latvian State Police, said the DND, adding no further information will be provided.
Halmagean was part of Operation Reassurance — CAF’s largest overseas mission that includes 3,000 members, says its website. It is contributing to NATO deterrence and defence measures in Central and East Europe.
The snow continued Tuesday afternoon as a procession of vehicles, including the hearse, several unmarked sedans and several emergency vehicles, left the tarmac.
Alin said his son was honoured to be a soldier and represent Canada.
“My son was immensely proud to be a part of the Canadian Armed Forces [CAF],” Alin wrote in an email to CBC. “He cherished everyone involved in the CAF and all that came with the duties of a soldier.”
On Monday, Ned Kuruc, Conservative MP for Stoney Creek, paid tribute to Halmagean in the House of Commons.
He said Halmagean was a Stoney Creek resident, and someone he had the privilege to know and watch grow up since he was five years old.
“I solemnly rise in the House today to offer my most sincere and heartfelt condolences to the family of Canadian Armed Forces Gunner Sebastian Halmagean or as we knew him, Sebi,” Kuruc said, as he fought back tears.
