MWO (Ret’d) William MacDonald & Cpl (Ret’d) Jim Sinclair were interviewed together. Listen to their full interview here:
We got the guy within 24 hours that killed four Canadians thanks to [Sinclair] being diligent in what he was doing and the fact that him and I were willing to be out in middle of nowhere in Afghanistan. Two Saskatchewan boys in different subunits in Afghanistan bump into each other, find the guy, and take some bad people off the scoreboard that day.
MWO (Ret’d) William MacDonald
MWO (Ret’d) William MacDonald and Cpl (Ret’d) Jim Sinclair launched their careers with the Royal Regina Rifles — Sinclair in 1988 and MacDonald in 1990. Over the next two decades, both deployed worldwide — to Croatia, Kosovo, Bosnia, and the wider Balkans — though they wouldn’t serve together overseas until Afghanistan in 2006. While assigned to different subunits, their platoons regularly worked together.
Both could share hundreds of accounts from 2006 but one moment defines their shared story: two Saskatchewan soldiers meeting unexpectedly in the Afghan desert.
It started when an IED strike claimed the life of four Canadian soldiers. Sinclair remembers hearing an explosion. “It just echoed through the valley … you know exactly what’s going on. So our platoon spools up, and we go rolling out of the gate, and we get down there.”
Finding evidence, Sinclair tracked the enemy to a village nine kilometres across the desert. “When you’re going through enemy held territory, you have no idea what’s gonna happen. Am I gonna get ambushed? But I’m able to find this village and it’s just a beehive of people.”
Meanwhile, MacDonald’s recce platoon was rerouted to the blast site. He was told that Sinclair had taken off across the desert. “I look at my pachinko battery and go, ‘Hey, man, this is Sinclair. We have to go find him.’”
Sinclair had no map and no radio. Concerned about being spotted, he turned to head back to command and relay what he saw. Then, “Who do I see running across the desert? I look through my binos and I’m like, ‘That’s Willie McDonald!’ And first thing I thought of is, ‘Willie’s got a radio!’”
They watched the village for the night. The next morning a Canadian detection dog identified the individual using scent from the bomber’s head covering — preserved in a bag by Sinclair.
Coming home had its challenges. In the years that followed, both men committed themselves to supporting others with similar experiences. Together, they launched “Banger at the Beach,” an annual gathering at Sinclair’s family farm at Regina Beach, SK. It’s evolved into an informal peer-support network for veterans, first responders, and their families.
If they need that assistance and community, then we’ll be there for them … first responders … all these different folks from different walks of life who we can relate to and speak their language.”
Sinclair