National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother named

News Article / November 2, 2012

Mrs. Roxanne Marie Priede, mother of Master Corporal Darrell Jason Priede, has been named as the National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother for 2012–2013 by Gordon Moore, Dominion President of the Royal Canadian Legion.

MCpl Priede was a member of the Air Force and a military photographer, posted to the Army News team at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, N.B. He was deployed with the International Security Assistance Force’s Regional Command South Headquarters at Kandahar Airfield as one of two imagery technicians working in their public information office.

He was travelling on board a U.S. Chinook helicopter on May 30, 2007, when the helicopter went down. MCpl Priede was killed along with five American soldiers and one British soldier. He was the 56th member of the Canadian Forces to die in the Afghanistan theatre of operations.

As the Silver Cross Mother, Mrs. Priede will lay a wreath at the National War Memorial in Ottawa on November 11, 2012, on behalf of all Canadian mothers who have lost a son or a daughter in the military, either in action or in the course of his/her normal duty.

Mrs. Priede, who lives in Grand Forks, B.C., remembers her eldest child as modest, soft-spoken and kind hearted.