Pte. Aidan Goulding’s remains returned to B.C. on Wednesday, with a police motorcade escorting the hearse from Vancouver International Airport to a funeral home in New Westminster.
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The remains of Pte. Aidan Goulding, a 23-year-old soldier from North Vancouver, returned to British Columbia on Wednesday, where dozens of police officers, firefighters and others gathered to pay their respects.
A motorcade escorted the hearse carrying Goulding’s remains from Vancouver International Airport to a funeral home in New Westminster. Along the route, police and firefighters stood at attention and saluted as the vehicle passed beneath a large Canadian flag strung over the road using fire truck ladders.
Sgt. Maj. Ray Gardner from the Vancouver Police Department was among those lining the route. A veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, Gardner offered condolences for Goulding’s family and said the young soldier “mattered to the country.”
“It’s so important that they can at least take that with them, that we all feel deeply, deeply affected,” Gardner said. “I know that all of Canada is feeling heartbroken about what happened,” he added.
Goulding, who served with 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, was one of four soldiers killed in a fire that overwhelmed a live-fire training exercise at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright on Oct. 17.
The other soldiers reported killed were Pte. Hayden Lykkemark, 19, of Langley, B.C.; Sgt. Morgan Wong, 26, of Edmonton; and Pte. Shaun Farrell, 23, from Prince Albert, Sask.
The Richmond Fire-Rescue chief, Jim Wishlove, said first responders came from across Metro Vancouver for the return and paid their respects while supporting the families. “We’re hurting with them today,” Wishlove said, adding the situation underscored how dangerous these jobs can be, including for members of the Armed Forces.
Brennan MacLachlan, a reservist with the Canadian Armed Forces and emergency programs manager for the City of Richmond, said “no words could assuage the grief” felt by the families, while emphasizing the community’s support. “But we stand with them,” he said. “It’s a weight that we all carry.”
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