Ramp Ceremony in Afghanistan

Hundreds of soldiers attended a twilight ramp ceremony Sunday at Kandahar airfield to pay tribute to two Canadian soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.
Cpl. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp, 28, and Pte. Michel Levesque, 25, were riding in a light armoured vehicle that drove over a large improvised explosive device early Saturday.
The blast, 40 kilometres west of Kandahar, also claimed the life of an Afghan interpreter and injured three Canadian soldiers.


The flag-draped casket of Cpl. Beauchamp of the 5th Field Ambulance in Valcartier, Que., was carried by his fellow medics to a waiting Hercules transport plane to take him on his journey home. Photo: Cpl Simon Duchesne
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Photo: Cpl Simon Duchesne

Cpl. Dolores Crampton (common law wife of Cpl. Nicolas Beauchamp) walks behind the casket of her husband. She carried his beret as she walked behind the coffin and later boarded the plane with him for the long journey home.

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Photo: Cpl Simon Duchesne

The flag draped casket of Pte. Lévesque, of Quebec's Royal 22nd Regiment at Valcartier is carried by his fellow comrades to an awaiting Hercules plane to bring him home to an 18-year-old pregnant fiancée in Rivière-Rouge, a small village north of the Laurentians. Just last week, the young couple became engaged while Levesque was on a two-week leave.
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Photo: Cpl Simon Duchesne
They are coming home. Bless Pte. Levesque and Cpl. Beauchamp and their families - their military families still serving over seas and their families awaiting their arrival home. They shall be remembered always.