By Michael Blais CD
Private Jess Randall Larochelle, Medal of Military Valour, Afghanistan War combat veteran and proud member of The Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR), was called to ‘Niner-Higher’ on August 30th, 2023. He was 40 years of age and died at his home on Commanda Lake, just outside of Nipissing, Ontario.
Sadly, Private Larochelle had been suffering from serious health issues for some time and first responders had been summoned on more than one occasion to his home to either provide him with treatment or transport to the hospital. At the time of his death, he understood how ill he was and according to his parents, Larochelle was at peace with the fact that he would soon die.
His cremation has already taken place and as per his final wishes, there will be no formal service to celebrate his life. As Jess loved sitting around a roaring bonfire, his family has encouraged supporters to light a bonfire as a tribute to his memory. Jess proudly served our nation and his extraordinary act of valour, committed seventeen years ago at the height of Canada’s combat mission in Afghanistan will never be forgotten.
Private Jess Larochelle was awarded the star of Military Valour for his actions on the fateful night of 14 October, 2006. He had volunteered to be part of a small contingent dispatched to an Observation Point (OP) on his rifle company’s flank as they stood down from offensive operations to bivouac for the night. Larochelle was manning the OP’s General-Purpose-Machine-Gun (GPMG) when a superior Taliban force attacked with a salvo of Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG).
The enemy barrage was lethally effective. The GPMG sustained a direct hit, the blast flinging Larochelle to the ground. He blacked out momentarily. Awakening to discover he had sustained serious spinal injuries, he was deafened by the blast and his vision was impaired due to a detached retina. Looking around, he was shocked to discover he was virtually on his own. Two of his fellow RCR comrades were dead, and three others were bleeding, unconscious and in dire need of medical attention.
The enemy advanced on the RCR OP, unleashing a hail of rifle, light machine gun fire and RPGs. The insurgents were closing in on Larochelle’s position. Surely no one would have condemned Larochelle for retreating under such adverse circumstances. He was 23 years of age, a private, without the benefit of the extensive military experience, combat skills and leadership training possessed by the other nineteen Medal of Military Valour recipients.
This critical moment was when the battlefield intensity required an extraordinary act of bravery. The tactical situation was critical, borderline catastrophic. The GPMG, the OPs primary defensive weapon, was non serviceable and the position’s rudimentary defensive barriers had been compromised. To make matters worse, Larochelle was grotesquely outnumbered. The odds he faced were subsequently assessed as being somewhere between 20-40 to one.
Against these odds Private Jess Randall Larochelle, of the RCR, stood fast. Despite being partially blinded, deafened, crippled with pain and bleeding from his wounds, he fought back with the only weapons available to him. He managed to get the GPMG working, however as his ammunition rapidly dwindled the situation remained critical. Larochelle resorted to firing M-72 rocket launchers.
Repeatedly exposing his upper torso to enemy fire, Larochelle laid down an effective barrage of no less than 15 M-72 rockets. These explosive warheads disrupted the Taliban attack and eventually drove the superior Afghan force to withdraw. As such, at no point did the Taliban engage their primary target, which had been the bivouaced RCR rifle company.
Without a doubt, Larochelle saved the lives of his three injured comrades and through his valour alone, provided sufficient time for his ‘sleeping’ rifle company to hastily adopt a defensive posture and to reinforce the OP.
General (ret’d) Ricky Hillier, a wartime former Chief of the Defence Staff, formally approved Larochelle’s nomination for the Medal of Military Valour. Today, Hillier claims that he was not aware of certain crucial information when he submitted the original nomination. Hillier believes this new information would have elevated Larochelle’s nomination would have merited him the Canadian Victoria Cross.
Never pass a fault.
In recent months Hillier has spearheaded the drive to see this fault corrected. In tandem with Afghanistan veteran Bruce Moncur, Hillier helped to create the not-for-profit organization, Valour in the Presence of the Enemy. Their goal is to get Larochelle his due recognition.
Despite Larochelle’s tragic, premature demise, Hillier and his team have vowed to keep alive their quest to have the Medal of Military Valour’s citation reviewed by the office of the Governor General.
Hopefully, this fault will soon be resolved and Private Jess Larochelle, will be awarded the first Canadian Victoria Cross posthumously.
Pro Patria
