Teacher, Soldier, Mentor, Mark Midan

By Barbra Fairclough

Mark Midan at his last Remembrance Day in uniform, with his daughter, Maple.(Photo contributed)

Mark Midan volunteers his time each year to help organize the proceeding on November 11th, from the ceremony at Sorrento Memorial Hall to the Cenotaph at St. Mary’s church. Remembrance Day is a time to pay your respects to the work and commitment of the many who have served and sacrificed for our freedoms.

When Mark was a young boy of twelve, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadets in Mission BC. Upon graduating high school, Mark joined Bravo Company of the Royal Westminster Regiment of the Canadian Army and was stationed at the Aldergrove Naval Communications Station. All the while attending University College of the Fraser Valley.

He was deployed to Matsqui Prairie during the Fraser Valley Flood of 2001. Many were stranded, and farms and homes were immobilized. Mark was responsible for conducting shallow water rescue using amphibious boats and played a key support role for sandbag response.

The Kelowna fire of 2003 burned 25,912 hectares and 239 buildings were destroyed. Mark was amongst the 1400 armed forces personnel and 1000 fire fighters who took part in controlling the fire. 27,000 residents were evacuated.

An especially memorable trip for Mark was the Veterans Escort Tour in 2005. He was assigned to escort older war veterans back to Italy for a commemoration.

He witnessed the stories and emotion of these experienced men who had witnessed the ravages of war firsthand. “During this tour I escorted the veterans to see some of the sights because even back then, most of them were still healing and they had a hard time getting around.”

Mark accompanied a soldier from the Royal Westminster Regiment which was a front line unit then that liberated Nazi positions. 

“I was also able to commemorate a plaque to one of our Victoria Cross recipients at the Malpha Crossing (Battle of the Malpha River Crossing, 1944.) Mark confirms there were only two units that share that battle order. 

Major Mahoney led his company across the Malpha River in Italy charged with securing the bridgehead. Under heavy artillery fire they sustained a hold of the bridgehead against vastly superior forces. He was wounded three times and remained a constant source of inspiration for his troops. “They faced nearly 3000 Germans.”

Graduating University Mark soon found himself in Gagetown, New Brunswick in September 2006. While there he studied basic engineering, and six months on, he was stationed at Edmonton to One Combat Engineer Regiment which was one of the frontline combat engineering units in the country. “I served there until 2011.”

Deployed on two tours in 2009 and 2010, Master Corporal Mark Midan was stationed in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. Part of a bomb disposal squad for Task Force 3-09, Mark worked as a combat engineer tasked with responding to improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Kandahar province.

“Any explosive that was in our area of operation, we responded with a search to make sure the site was safe. Any IED could potentially harm anyone in the country. If the device had not been deactivated, we had to render them safe which usually involves blowing them up either off the site or we got everyone else away from the site.

Mark conducted over fifty successful response calls for IEDs during his time in Afghanistan. He understood the risk of potential outcomes.” We had to take apart live explosives and render them safely. We were always the ones who had to go down and make it safe.”

Mark talks about his time at Gagetown in 2015. “We were training to be part of a unit that was to be sent to Ukraine for instruction of the Ukrainian Defense Force at the time. I was due to leave in 2015 to Ukraine.”

On summer training exercises Mark was teaching both his own cadet officers and the Ukrainian soldier going to do basic explosives on that exercise when things took a turn.

“I was the safety on that day, so I was supposed to be the last one in the bunker when the time fuse was cut too short. I was about twenty seconds away from the bunker when it went off.”

“It was a cratering charge so there was no risk of shrapnel.” Mark was hit by a shockwave. “It screwed up my guts and gave me a pretty brutal concussion. That kind of spelled an end to my career.”

Moving from field work, Mark was assigned administrative work and taught basic explosives courses to recruits.

“Basic demolition. Things that related to combat engineering realm like searching for a mine with your bayonet when you get stuck in a minefield. Soldiers who are truckers and supply technicians and medics might need to know that as the convoy gets trapped in a mine field.”

“I would also teach how to communicate a mine field and how to safely make your way out. Training basic operating skills in that kind of environment.” Mark enjoyed this kind of teaching.

He tried a few recovery options while in the military. He was posted to the Rocky Mountain Rangers for about a year and was Regimental Quartermaster. The work tested him to the extent of his health and in 2017 he was medically discharged. “Veterans affairs took over my life from there.”

Mark’s wife April was already living and working on the farm in Sorrento when Mark was supposedly on his way to the Ukraine. Renting the farm at the time, the owner was getting older, and they were offered the farm at a price that worked for all of them. They promised to keep it as a farm and Mark and April were able to purchase it and all rent paid was taken as a down payment. They took over the farm in 2015 and have been living there full time since. 

When Mark was a young man in school he was extremely interested in teaching. It was clear to him that working in the school system was not a fit for him. Every new turn in his life with the military tipped him toward his skill and passion for working with people in a teaching way. At his moment of discharge, he was fully engaged in the teaching and mentoring of others. 

Now at home with his family, he works in support of and in partnership with his wife April in helping to lead the Sorrento Lakeview 4H and to run the family farm.

Mark is busy working with animals and kids and enjoys the flexibility in his day. Their daughter Maple, named for Mark and April’s name in combination, was born in 2015 and she has been a light of their lives. 

Mark’s passion for teaching is in everything he does. Your child may have memorable stories of him from his visits to the school each Remembrance Day.