| Charles Trevor Greene | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1965 |
| Nationality | Canada |
| Occupation | Writer, journalist |
| Known for | Victim of the 2006 « Axe Attack » in Afghanistan; subject of CTV's documentary Peace Warrior |
Captain Charles Trevor Greene is a writer, journalist, and a former officer in the Seaforth Highlanders of the Canadian Forces. Greene sustained a massive brain injury after a much publicized attack on March 4, 2006, in the Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. [1] [2] [3] Greene is notable for being one of the first recipients of the Sacrifice Medal and being the subject of a feature length documentary that won a Gemini Award, Peace Warrior, which documents his recovery. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Greene was also a torch-bearer for the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics. [9]
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Trevor Greene was born in 1965 to Richard and Elizabeth Greene. He attended King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he completed a bachelor degree of journalism with honours in 1988.[10][11] Greene moved to Japan soon after, to work for Bloomberg News and the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Greene joined the Canadian Navy in 1995, where he sailed on the HMCS Oriole, the Navy's tall sail-training ship and the oldest commissioned ship of the Canadian Forces.[12] He then settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and transferred to the Canadian Army's reserve, as an officer in a reserve infantry unit, the Seaforth Highlanders. He also joined Bloomburg News Vancouver bureau, in addition, he began researching and writing about the Downtown Eastside, an area encompassing five neighborhoods, and noted for a high incidence of poverty, drug use and sex trade.[10]
In 2001, Trevor Greene met his wife, Debbie Lepore, a chartered accountant. In 2005, their daughter Grace was born.[2] On July 24, 2010, Lepore and Greene were married. [13]
Captain Trevor Greene is the honorary patron of the Honour House Society, an organization dedicated to help the families of wounded Canadian soldiers in the Vancouver area.[14] He was also awarded with an Honorary Doctor of Civil Laws in May 2009.[11]
Greene deployed to Afghanistan in 2006 as a Civilian-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) officer, volunteering from his home unit of the Seaforth Highlanders.
On March 6, 2006, his platoon, composed of members of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, 1st Battalion, Alpha Company, visited the village of Shinkay in the Shinkay District, to talk with the village elders about access to clean water and other basic needs under Canada's area of responsibility.[2] After the soldiers removed their helmets, a common practice and show of respect, Abdul Kareem[2] (or Abdullah Karim[15]), a sixteen-year old boy, almost split Greene's brain in half by hitting him with an axe. Kareem tried to hit again but was instantly shot and killed by other members of the platoon. The platoon then came under heavy fire while waiting for a US Army medical evacuation helicopter.[2] Greene received care on the helicopter, and medic Gary Adams was able to unblock his airway. Greene was transported to the then Canadian-led hospital at Kandahar Air Field where he was stabilized.
He was later evacuated to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany from which he was transferred to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest US Army medical facility outside the continental United States.[15] There, he underwent further surgery to allow his brain to swell without causing further damages. [16]
Shortly after being stabilized, Trevor Greene was transferred from Landstuhl to the Vancouver General Hospital, where doctors initially thought he would never come out of his coma.[15] Greene underwent two bilateral cranioplasties, with the second one successfully repairing his skull.[16] He was also subject to physiotherapy sessions, which were lacking results at first.[17] Greene was then released from the hospital and was transferred to a private-care rehabilitation center in Langley, BC.[16] On April 30, Trevor Greene started speech therapy sessions.[16]
In July 2007, Greene was admitted to the Centennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury in Ponoka, Alberta, for long-term care and rehabilitation. [18] [19] At that stage, he had made slow but significant progress, and was able to open and close his hands, among other things.[16]
In December 2007, Canadian Forces engineers installed a lift at Lepore's residence in Alberta, which allowed Trevor to come home for Christmas and on week-ends.[17] Around the same time, they also received a wheelchair accessible van from the then-new Military Casualty Support Foundation.[18]
In September 2008, Greene moved to Nanaimo, BC, with his wife and daughter, after spending 14 months at the Alberta facility. As of 2010[update], Trevor Greene is now able to stand, but still cannot walk.[13]
Trevor Greene was the subject of the documentary « Peace Warrior », by filmmaker Sue Rideout, and produced by CTV. The documentary was narrated by Eric McCormack.[20]