ANGOLA TO AFGHANISTAN

Malcolm Thomson was a tracker with the South African Defence Force in 1978. Three decades later, the 48-year-old resident of Edmonton, Canada, became a patrol commander (Sgt.) on convoys with the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan. He was born in Sierra Leone and lived in South Africa with his parents. After two years of national service in the SADF, he moved to Canada where he spent 21 years in the Armed Forces on peacekeeping tours in Cyprus, Bosnia and Croatia. He later became a reservist.