As you were

Description:

Summer, 1974 — Six teenaged boys died and fifty-four were injured in an explosion on a Canadian Forces Base in Valcartier, Quebec. A live grenade inadvertently made its way into a box of dud ammunition, and its pin was pulled during a lecture on explosives safety. One hundred and forty boys survived, each isolated in their trauma, yet expected to carry on with their lives. Thirty-four years later, Gerry Fostaty, who was an 18-year-old sergeant that summer and one of the first on the scene after the explosion, received an unexpected e-mail from his former sergeant-major, triggering a journey into memory, a quest for a true picture of what had happened on that day. In As You Were, Fostaty pieces together the story of how a series of preventable mistakes led to tragedy. The only full account of an event that received minor attention at the time, As You Were is the story of a normal day turned horrific; how duty, responsibility, and honour make ordinary people take extraordinary measures; and how the military did their best to ignore this devastating incident.

subjects: Canada,  Explosion, 1974,  Canada. Canadian Forces Base (Valcartier, Québec),  Accident victims,  Military education,  Biography,  Accidents,  Explosions,  History,  Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,  PTSD,  cadet,  Canada, royal canadian air force,  Canada, biography

Places: Québec (Province),  Valcartier,  Canada

Times: 1974,  2009