The ten most viewed stories of 2011

So it's a little cliché to do a end of year review but I wanted to give people an idea of what the ten most viewed stories of 2011 were even though this page has only existed since February I present to you "The ten most viewed stories of the year"  This is based on views for the entire year and amazingly enough one of the top 3 posts was only posted a few weeks ago.  We have everything from NHL teams surprising famlies with early homecomings to a six year old girl making a Christmas card for all soldiers.

I am also asking our members to vote for the "Story of the year" out of all these on the poll below all the links!

10. Father honours sons memory with travelling hockey jersey :
The story of Murrary Marshal who made a tribute jersey from his sons Calgary Flames jersey and wanted people to wear it to the games to keep his sons memory alive.  I had the honour of wearing this to a Flames game one night against the Chicago Black Hawks and was honored that Murray asked me to be a part of it.

9. Why I respect the Boston Bruins & Bobby Orr :   Just a simple write up I did about something very special the Boston Bruins did for the family of a fallen Canadian Soldier.  This was the first Bruins related Boston Bruins story I posted and the "Surprise Puck Drop" was just out of the top ten too

8.  A Soldiers Tribute - The Thankasoldier Bike - The story of WO Al Murray's bike that he had deisgned using the banner from our web site.  This was such an honor for him to want to do using our logo that a soldier would want to drive around and proudly display our banner on his motorcycle was truly overwhelming.

7.  Portraits Of Honour - The Faces  : made a new YouTube video for the Portraits Of Honour and it features a poem called "The Faces" written by Dan Gray specifically for the Portraits Of Honour. The video clip featured in it was taken by the "Canadian Heroes" group when the POH was visiting Hamilton, Ontario.

6. The All Star Dad Contest : I was approached by the wife of a soldier who wanted to nominate her husband Cpl Ian Spingle for the Dove Canada All Star dad contest, the prize was a trip for their family to the Grey Cup in Vancouver.  They suprised me after I won as they had one extra spot and I got to go along with them on this trip.

5. My Battle with PTSD : After creating a YouTube Project called Operation you are not alone I wanted to share my personal struggles with PTSD after an attack that happened to me in 1994 that I kept inside for many years and then decided to get help for it.

4. MCpl Elton Adams - What A Soldier Left Behind : This video features a song written by Elton Adams when he was on tour and I did a write up about him and the story of the song and linked to the YouTube video which now has over 41,000 views on YouTube.

3. Who Inspires you - Jody Mitic on The Ellen Show :  I saw a link on The Ellen Show's website about requesting people to submit who they find inspirational.  I instantly thought of MCpl Jody Mitic who lost both his lower legs after stepping on a IED in Afghanistan and is one of the most inspirational people I know.

2. Cassy's Card - The thing that amazes me about this post is that I only posted it eight days ago on December 12th and its the second most viewed post of the entire year.  I received an email from the mother of this little six year old girl who created a card she wanted all soldiers to see and the response has been amazing.

AND THE NUMBER ONE VIEWED VIDEO OF 2011 IS........................ 

1. Raw - Unedited footage from Afghanistan - Funker530  This YouTube channel features unedited footage of a soldiers tours in Afghanistan.  It is truly some of the best footage I have seen on YouTube and it doesn't suprise me one bit that its #1 on the list.  I interviewed Funker530 for this story and have featured his posts on my blog on several occasions.   "What you won't see on the news" took people on a tour of an outpost in Afghanistan and 

So there you have it, our top ten most viewed stories of 2011 and now it's time to vote for your favorite of these ten. Please leave a comment and tell us which story you liked the most and why, if its not on the list you can leave a comment also

The Invisible Wound - PTSD - Chris Dupee

The Invisible Wound - PTSD by Chris Dupee

A friend of mine Cpl Chris Dupee has just released a video today speaking out about PTSD and I have to say it is one of the most powerful videos I have ever watched.  I know many soldiers personally who are struggling with symptoms of PTSD but afraid to seek help for it as they have a fear of being seen as weak.  I hope this video by a fellow soldier may encourage them to get the help they need.

There's bravery that happens every day on the battlefield and then there's bravery like this that happens when our soldiers return.  Thank You Chris for speaking about PTSD and I really hope the message that "It's ok to ask for help" and "You are not alone" gets out there.

I'm proud to know you and proud to call you a friend.



If you would like to contact Cpl Chris Dupee you can do so on his Facebook page for Military Minds

Soldier meets baby for the first time

I received this in my Thankasoldier.net email tonight and was asked to share on the blog page

Welcome home soldier and congratulations

- Dave

"My husband is an Airman in the Unites States Air force & He was gone during the last 6 months of my pregnancy for training. My son was born on December 10th and my husband couldn't make it home until the 13th.

This is a picture of my husband Leigh meeting his son for the first time. He was feeding him for the very first time in this picture. he was 3 days old in the picture and we were still in the hospital. The look on my husbands face was priceless, I think he was the happiest man in the world at this moment. I'm so thankful that my husband got to come home for Christmas" - Roxanne

Pepsi can on IRAQ base

I saw this photo posted on a friends wall from a Roland Martinez with the following write up:

FB family I need your help, so today while in Iraq shutting down one of the bases there ironically enough I stumbled upon this can of diet pepsi. Take a close look at the picture and tell me the first thought that comes to your mind. Mine and many other of my brother in arms was not a pleasant one so I just want to make sure we re not bias. If you see the same thing I did, I will never ever buy another Pepsi product again, this is an insult. Thank you for your feedback and participation.

Here is the photo below:

I've also made the image larger so that you can see what this soldier is referring too: 

Please judge for yourselves

Snopes.com has posted a response to this on their site.

Pepsi America has also released a statement on their site :
"The can design you're referencing is one of two local Diet Pepsi can designs from our Middle East/Africa region, which was created by a South African design agency. The image was intended to portray the growth of active cities in the region.

We understand from some of our consumers that the design can be misinterpreted, which was never our intention. We have taken action to change the design of the can."
Related Article :
Dubai Refreshments launches special edition Pepsi cans in 50-year celebration

**Thanks to "Auntybrat" for the updates

Newsflash : All Canadian soldiers HAVE NOT returned from Afghanistan

While 2,850 Canadian soldiers have arrived back home in Canada over 1000 others have been in Afghanistan to help train Afghan security forces to take the lead role in securing the country by 2014. 

In the majority of the media all you read is “Canada’s Afghan Mission Ends’ yes the doors to the Tim Hortons have been closed, yes the hockey rink will no longer be in use by Canadian soldiers but some of our troops are still there and do face danger every day.

Yesterday I saw an article that said "Last Troops arrive home from Kandahar" - Ottawa Citizen 

I had a read through this and I've had several emails from people asking me "So now that our troops are home are you going to continue with your site" well the answer as this article states is "They are not all home yet" and it is 100% yes

- We have troops deployed at other operations in the world aside from Afghanistan such as Navy in Somalia and Panama, troops away from their families deployed in Alert and many other operations.

- Thank a Soldier is not only for Canadian troops, we have paired up people as Pen Pals from the United States, Britain, and even Australia. Also 70% of the 4.2 million members are from areas outside of Canada.

-Thank A Soldier encourages people to say Thank You to our men and women in uniform no matter where they cross paths with them.


-Our troops are always ready to go in the case of emergencies here at home i.e the ice storms in Montreal, floods in Manitoba and last winter helping stranded motorists in London, Ontario.

-With so many of our troops returning home showing signs of Combat Stress & PTSD Operation You Are Not Alone is more important than ever, as the song by Julian Austin says many of our troops although physically home are “Still Over There”

After speaking with a personal friend who is currently on tour who said "We don't want people to forget we are still over here" I ask you to please keep in mind that even though in our medias eyes our mission ended when the "Combat Mission" ended, lets not forget those men and women still putting their lives at risk every day.

As happy as I am that the the combat guys are home seeing stories like this makes me feel like the one's still there are already forgotten about 

Don't forget to check out our new Facebook Page 

Helmet Cam Firefight in Afghanistan - HD 1080

This is the clearest footage you will ever see from a Helmet Camera in Afghanistan, the video is courtesy of our friend over at @Funker530 and this is by far one of the best videos I have ever seen!!!

You can visit the Afghanistan Combat Footage - Funker530 Facebook page follow him on Twitter for frequent updates and visit his main YouTube Channel.

Cassy's Card

Today as I was checking my emails for Thankasoldier I received this email from a woman in Ontario who told me about her six year old daughter who had created a Christmas Card she wanted to send to soldiers.

"During Christmas break my 6 year old daughter Cassy created the attached card. Now what I think makes it so special is the fact that when she made it she was 1/2 way thru before she said to me " I'm making a Christmas Card for the soldiers Mummy" when I said " That is a great idea honey is this something you are talking about at school." Her answer was "No I just felt like doing it". I was so proud of her and I just had to share it. So I was wondering if you could help me forward it to "the soldiers."

"Do you mean soldiers in Afghanistan? Or do you mean the soldiers here in Toronto?"

I asked Cassy which soldiers she meant and this was her reply.... "I meant the soldiers who have died, and the soldiers in Afghanistan, and the soldiers in Hati, and here and all over the world. I know that we can't guarantee that the dead ones will see it but I want every soldier in the world to see it".

I replied and told them about my "Christmas cards for Sunnybrook Veterans" project and they are going to get involved and send a few along to the address.

IMPORTANT: If you are on Twitter it would be amazing to see #CassysCard trending and this is my attempt to make that happen, so if you have a twitter account you can copy and paste the following and TWEET IT :) 


Help 6yr old Cassy get her Christmas wish for troops http://bit.ly/CasCard #CassysCard

Here is a photo of her card :

If you know someone serving and want to send them the link to this page feel free too share it with whomever and help this little girl with her goal for every soldier to see her card.

Thanks