The crew of a Royal Canadian Navy ship based in Halifax is paying tribute to a soldier from Cape Breton who lost his life in Afghanistan 14 years ago. Sgt. Jimmy MacNeil, from Glace Bay, N.S., was killed by a roadside bomb near Kandahar City on June 21, 2010. In a special gesture, the chief and petty officer’s mess on H.M.C.S. Glace Bay will be renamed in honour of MacNeil. Lt.-Cmdr. Paul Morrison, the commanding officer of the vessel, shared that the idea for the tribute originated during Remembrance Day ceremonies in Glace Bay last year, where the ship’s company was present.
During the ceremonies, the crew noticed a car wrapped with an image of MacNeil, which belonged to his father, Jimmy MacNeil Sr. Lt.-Cmdr. Morrison expressed the crew’s desire to strengthen ties with Glace Bay, the ship’s namesake city, and incorporating MacNeil’s memory seemed like a fitting tribute to honor all the service from Glace Bay residents. Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Sinclair, the ship’s coxswain, along with other crew members, visited the Glace Bay Legion to commemorate the occasion with MacNeil’s father.
Upon the ship’s return to Halifax, a commemorative plaque will be created for the mess door, featuring a photo of Sgt. MacNeil and a brief summary of his time in Afghanistan and his service career. The crew of 45 members on Glace Bay has been training on Cape Breton’s Bras d’Or Lake for the past two weeks in preparation for a mission to the Baltic Sea in mid-July as part of a NATO mine countermeasures operation. This tribute serves as a reminder of the sacrifices made by Canadian soldiers like Sgt. MacNeil in service to their country.