Captain Goddard died in May of 2006; she was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in October of that same year. Not all soldiers who die for their country are dignified with this medal. According to Veterans Affairs Canada, the Memorial Cross and the Sacrifice Medal are automatically awarded when soldiers die in war; the Meritorious Service Medal is not. Did her Meritorious Service award have anything to do with Captain Goddard’s gender? Is that an offensive question? It is unmanly to not ask annoying questions for fear of offending someone. There is no particular act of heroism mentioned as the reason for awarding this medal to her. She died during an ambush by ‘a chance ricochet’ while sitting in her turret. Other soldiers who died in similar ways did not receive that medal. Why not? They weren’t women, that’s why. ‘Quickly promoted to captain…destined for high command,’ says a video (from 2017) about her on a channel called ‘Valour Canada.’ Of course she was destined for high command. Of course she was promoted to captain. This is not surprising in today’s ideological landscape in Canada. A woman in a man’s role has to be promoted in a rush because she must be ‘destined.’ That’s how it goes in feminist Canada. There are many things named and done in her honor—so many things that I guess she might soon be thought as great as Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, or Robert E. Lee. Not only is there a school named in her honor. There’s a coast guard vessel—a bridge—and a sword—and a lake—and playgrounds—and scholarships—and a peace summit—and a memorial fund. All of that? Yes, all of that; but even all of that is not all. There’s also ‘The Captain Nichola Goddard Reception Series’ and ‘The Captain Nichola Goddard Game Changer Award.’ I even found a ‘lament.’ She was even nominated for her own bank note. What’s next? Saint Nichola day? When will the motion picture about her premiere? What about a television series? It’s hard to believe that there is no statue of her yet. Once one is carved, it could replace, I suppose, the John A. Macdonald statue that was taken down by radicals just like her. I see that her Ottawa Citizen Guest Book runs on for seventy-five pages. Finding all of this information is instructive of how old wives’ tales originate. It makes me wonder how much to believe about Jeanne d’Arc.
We all know that the cornucopia of honors being conferred on Nichola Goddard has nothing to do with her having been a combat officer, a good combat officer, or a heroic combat officer, but everything to do with her having been an exceptional combat officer. In what way was she exceptional? She was exceptional in that she was a woman. This exception is why she has been honored excessively for being killed by ‘chance.’ And the result from adoring this exception is that she is destined to appear more apocryphal than actual. After learning what she was honored with, someone in the future will inquire into what she was honored for, and he will look behind the door to see what is there. Then, like a losing contestant on Monty Hall’s Let’s Make a Deal, he will be disappointed at the sight of an almost empty space. If we compare Captain Nichola Goddard with military heroes from the past, and if we dare to be honest while we do it, we will have to admit that her contribution, while deserving more than a booby prize, does not deserve the considerable notice that it has received. That her service and death deserve to be noticed, in a reasonable measure, I affirm. This is why I excluded no one in the roll call on my video, Ode to Fallen Soldiers in Afghanistan. But it is over the top to say, as ‘Valour Canada’ says, that “the loss of her life shook the nation.” And it is not true that thereafter, as ‘Valour Canada’ says, “somewhere along the way she had become Canada’s daughter.” And she did not, as her mother says on ‘Valour Canada,’ ‘epitomize what we want our children to become.’ Did her death shake the nation? It shook some households and some soldiers; it thrilled the hearts of feminists; but it did not shake the nation. The death of George Washington shook a nation; the death of Winston Churchill shook a nation; the death of Charles Haddon Spurgeon shook a nation; her death, as unnecessary, and therefore as pitiful, as it was, did not shake a nation.
