Lodge 580 Members Will Never Forget the Canadian Troops

August 30, 2010

Lodge 580 Members Will Never Forget the Canadian Troops

In the dockyards of the Halifax harbour, the members of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Lodge 580 have been serving the Canadian military since 1927. It was not very long after the start of the war in Afghanistan that we started to lose brave young Canadians in battle. Brother Steve Sweeney knew that something needed to be done to remember these heroes.

Steve Sweeney next the monument, "This is Lodge 580's way of saying they will not be forgotten."
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In 2002, Nathan Smith, a soldier stationed in Afghanistan was killed. The house Sweeney had bought a few years earlier was owned by the father of Nathan Smith. Steve explained the night the family heard about the loss of this young man, "My son heard the news and came downstairs and said he could not sleep because he was in Nathan's room". Steve looked his son in the eyes and told him, "go back to sleep because he was sleeping in a hero's room, he slept the rest of the night." That night confirmed he had to do something to remember the fallen soldiers.

The next day, Sweeney found a toolbox and had bass plates made up bearing the names of the soldiers who had lost their lives to protect our way of life, along with a flag at half mast.

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After 35 years at the dockyard, Steve Sweeney retired on July 31, 2010. Sweeney said "On the day before I retired, I put up one more name, hoping it was the last one, number 151. I doubt it will be the last one of the brave young men and women who pay the ultimate price for us."

Lodge 580 President, Bob Fish, reports that Sister Chrisanna Doyle has accepted the responsibility to keep the monument going. Sister Doyle is an active member of Lodge 580 serving on the executive board.

Fish tells us, "When top rank military officers tour the Plate and Boiler Shop, they have great comments about the monument that Steve started. I know that Chrisanna will do a great job looking after this, the same as Steve did."

Sweeney hopes that the monument will always remain on the shop floor in the Halifax Dockyard, long after the war has ended.

IVP of Eastern Canada, Edward Power, said "This monument Brother Sweeney has developed is not just a testament to the brave Canadians, it is also a memorial of respect to mothers and fathers who have lost a child due to this conflict in Afghanistan."