Embedded with Warriors

Your intrepid correspondent had the opportunity to join the Warriors on their first campaign of the year. Unlike the war correspondents who were embedded with the coalition-of-the-willing forces in Iraq, there were no restrictions or limitations on my interviews or photographs, although I was chased off the bus when the Warriors were changing their clothes for dinner. But like the embedded war correspondents, I could not go to the front line with them, only watch from shore and report.

It was perhaps almost too easy to make comparisons with the war against terrorism after the bombings in London this past week, but the parallels kept coming to mind as I travelled to Port Perry with the Warriors of Hope for the teams’ first Dragonboat Festival of the season. Watching them and listening as they chatted about the upcoming races, you could easily pick out the veterans and the ‘green’ recruits, the boisterous and the quiet ones, the readers from the few playing craps (or maybe it was euchre) at the back of the transport (ONR Warrior bus).

The young coach and steersperson, who was heading into her first competition with the Warriors, could have easily been cast as the green lieutenant leading a first patrol into the jungles of Vietnam in a Hollywood film. The team captain, like a seasoned Gunnery Sergeant, was moving up and down the aisle, checking everybody, asking about old injuries, gear and rations. The older veterans were nodding their heads knowingly or chatting to seat mates about some past campaign and strategies that saw them through the last confrontation. There were thoughtful reflections on that just being there was more important than winning, all the while everyone knowing that it wasn’t just the fight, it was the wining that counted.

And these warriors know their enemy. You know the meaning of terrorism when you have fought with cancer. They have all been through the hands of the enemy – taken captive and hostage, cut by scalpels, burned by radiation and poisoned by chemicals far beyond any sanctions of a Geneva Convention. Some of the squad have those days of imprisonment and torture behind them, others are still fighting the dragon, but all of them watch for the enemy with a wary eye for they know it is never far away. The growing list of fallen comrades is fresh on their minds.

These warriors are not conscripts but volunteers. Their aim is to show that breast cancer survivors can lead a very active life; that they can be strong, that they can work and train to get into a physical condition that many able-bodied people could only hope to achieve. Most of these warriors have had surgery or radiation on the very part of the body that demands the most when paddling a dragonboat. They make jokes about the chemo therapy addling their post-menopausal brains, but those poisons do take a toll on strength and resilience.

The Port Perry Festival was the first for that town, organized by the Dragon Flies, the local breast cancer survivor team. For the first time, fully one half of the 30 teams registered were women’s and breast cancer teams (note that there one was one male breast cancer survivor in a crew). Competitive dragonboat rules say that there must be 8 of the 20 paddlers who are women, so to have so many female teams may say that the message about the fight for a cure for breast cancer is getting through to younger women. But there was to be another lesson for those younger women this day.

So many of the survivors from across the province know each other through the dragonboat racing that there is a friendly camaraderie as the paddlers walk through the paddlers’ village greeting each other that you would not expect the sudden change when they get into the boats. Woe to any team, female or mixed, that thinks they are going to have an easy race against the grandmothers wearing the red and black Warriors of Hope uniform. They may stand around in the marshalling area with their paddles slung easily over their shoulders like a bunch of green recruits with their rifles, but the moment they are seated in the boat and the coach says Paddles Up!, they turn into a drill team that would earn the envy of the Fort Henry Guards. I have yet to hear a crowd be silent of Ahs as the Warriors respond to the order of ‘Take her away” and the paddles dip in perfect unison.

The results from the first heats Saturday morning set the tone for the day. Tied at 3.07.80 in the 500 metres race with Row Bust from London, the Warriors were once again the team to contend with in the survivor and women’s races. In the 250 metres Sprint event, the Warriors surprised their competitors by winning their heat with a surge in the last 50 metres that would place them at the top of the women’s’ teams by a four second lead over Row Bust. The London team are not only survivors but they are fighters too. In the Breast Cancer division, Row Bust drew from the same source of energy as the Warriors had in the Sprint and pulled ahead in the last few metres to take the gold medal.

140 breast cancer survivors then formed a flotilla of seven boats for the carnation ceremony, with the eighth team standing on shore as an honour guard for fallen friends. Afterwards all the survivors made a paddle arch as they greeted one another and promised to meet again at another dragonboat festival. Even tough old war correspondents can not keep a dry eye as we watch these fighters celebrate life.

Two silver medals is a great showing in any competition, but as the coach told them afterwards, she was extremely proud of these medals since they had been won in a real fire-fight. It was not an easy victory. The older survivors knew exactly what she meant for they had fought and were winning another battle off the water.

After refreshments and a team dinner followed by forbidden ice cream cones, the adrenalin slowly wore off and the trip home was quiet. The cards were boxed, some read, while others dozed. Gunny was still patrolling the darkened aisle, asking about injuries, offering thoughts on strategy for the next campaign to those who could not sleep. All was quiet until Bruce our driver turned on the radio and we all sang along to The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Maybe the dragon was sleeping for a while.

The next campaign will be on July 23rd at Olmsted Beach on Trout Lake. Be there to hear the coach call “Warriors - Paddles Up!”