Marc Léger

Sergeant Marc D. Léger (March 26 1973-April 17 2002) was a Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan when a U.S. plane dropped a laser-guided bomb on the 3rd Battalion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. The infantry was participating in a training exercise which involved firing anti-tank and machine-gun rounds.

Léger was originally from Lancaster, Ontario. He was 29 and had served in the Canadian Army for 9 years when he died.

The death of Marc Leger was a huge loss for not only his family but for the Canadian military as well as Leger was indeed a soldier of remarkable courage, devotion, skill and compassion. During his UN Peacekeeping tour at an earlier time in Bosnia, Sergeant Marc Leger became known as 'King Marco.' While serving in Bosnia, Leger was exposed to the horrors of 'ethnic cleansing.' In the Livno Valley, Bosnia, 'King Marco' is hailed as a hero. While on his peacekeeping tour of duty, Leger was charged with disarming potential insurgents and providing security for all ethnic groups.

Additionally, he was given the responsibility of assisting returning Serb refugees as they settled back into their communities. Most of the farmhouses had been destroyed by a rampaging Croat army hell bent to ethnically cleanse the area of all Serbs. The Croats killed or drove off livestock, poisoned wells, destroyed Serb Orthodox churches and laid land mines. One Serb family that managed to survive by fleeing, returned to their homeland only to face a place of destruction. With their few possessions, the family of Miorad Kozomara began to rebuild their home; all that remained from before was their house with its partial roof but little else; no doors, no windows, no livestock, and no seed to plant a crop. One day, a jeep with some Canadian soldiers arrived and told the Kozomara family that they were there to help. Sergeant Marc Leger was their leader.

When he saw the desperate state that faced the Serb family, Canadian Leger "badgered the local United Nations High Commission of Refugees' representative and any aid agency that drove through the area." For six months, Leger hounded the UN representative and other officers for resources. In the words of one of Marc's superior officer's, "He took leftover and thrown-away building supplies and distributed them while on patrol. He snuck food from the camp kitchen and spirited off the camp water truck when no one was looking."

Leger managed to pry money from the Canadian International Development Agency to re-roof 28 local houses. One re-roofed house is emblazoned with the Canadian Maple Leaf and the CIDA logo.

When the Serbs in the Livno Valley learned of Sergeant Marc Leger's death, they mourned. One said, "We never could have returned to this valley without the help of that big Canadian soldier." [ibid.] The Kozomara family learned of King Marc's death through one of their sons who lives in Canada. The news of Sergeant Leger's death shattered Mrs. Kozomara. "I got very nervous and started crying as if my son had died," she said. [ibid.]

His widow, Marley Léger, created a memorial fund in his name to help with restoration in Bosnia, where her husband had served on a peace keeping mission in 2000.cite web
url=http://www.nato.int/sfor/indexinf/articles/030523a/t030523a.htm
title=In Honour of their Fallen Comrade
author=Captain Cat Haylock
date=May 23, 2003
publisher=NATO Stabilization Force
accessdate=May 25
accessyear=2007] On May 10 2003, she opened a restored orthodox church and community centre in the Vrbica village in Livno Valley there which was rebuilt using money from the fund and the Canadian International Development Agency.

Léger's mother, Claire Léger, was named the Silver Cross Mother in 2005 by the Royal Canadian Legion.

Marc Leger and the three other soldiers who were killed were the first Canadian combat casualties since the Korean War. The other paratroopers that were killed that night were:

Cpl Ainsworth Dyer, Age: 24, Montreal, Quebec. Pte Richard Green, Age: 21, Mill Cove, Nova Scotia. Pte Nathan Smith, Age: 27, Porters Lake, Nova Scotia.

The outpouring of support that the Leger family received was overwhelming as the entire nation grieved their loss with them.

In November 2006 a special ceremony was held at Stittsville Public School in the Ottawa suburb of Stittsville where his parents Claire and Richard Leger currently reside. At this service the new school's library was officially named in his honour. The Marc Leger Library contains many framed photographs and testemonies of Marc's remarkable compassion and courage as a soldier. Several members of Marc's former unit, the Princess Patricia's Light Canadian Infantry, were in attendance.

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