In February and March 2010 I was privileged to be a part of the “Task Force Afghanistan Show Tour”. I played guitar in the band that accompanied the headline acts. We played evening shows in Kandahar and Kabul and spent a part of each day touring the bases and mingling with the troops, Canadian and otherwise. At the Kandahar Airfield the members of the show troupe were split into 4 groups, each group being assigned a military chaperone who drove us around the base. One of the more poignant moments of the tour [and there were many] occurred when the driver of my group spoke briefly about a “ramp ceremony”, performed for a good friend killed in action, before his casket was loaded on a cargo plane to be repatriated. That story inspired this song.