Zilke, Jason

Jason Zilke (born 1975) of Lot 30, Concession 7, became a “weekend warrior” with the Royal Canadian Regiment in Stratford in June 1994 and spent that summer training at Petawawa. While studying law and security at Fanshawe College in London, he continued to train with the 4th RCR. In 1996 he was chosen by his peers to take more in depth leadership training in Petawawa.  He again spent the summer there and passed the course easily.  The course had only a 50% pass rate.  After college, he lived in London and worked as a security guard until 1998, when he took another six months of army training at Petawawa and was sent to Bosnia as a member of a United Nations peacekeeping initiative. He eventually decided to pursue a plumbing career but remained a reservist and trained RCR recruits out of the barracks in Stratford.  In 2001 he was presented with the newly designated Canadian peacekeeping service medal.  Etched with the words "Peacekeeping and Service De La Paiz" the medal depicts three figures on the obverse taken from the Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa, which was dedicated in 1989.  The figures are an unarmed Observer accompanying a man and woman in full uniform on duty, all beneach a Dove of Peace.  On the reverse is the Queen's Cypher on a Maple Leaf surrounded by two sprigs of laural and the word "Canada".  The ribbon for this medal consists of 4 colours - green, red, white and United Nations blue.  The green represents volunteerism, the red and white are the colours of Canada's flag and also carry additional meaning.  White is associated with purity, and peacekeeping is one of mankind's highest ideals.  Red is symbolic of the blood shed by Canada's peacekeepers who have fallen in service to their Country while on peacekeeping and observer missions.  This is a medal dedicated to the highest ideals of the human family.