ALONG THE 401 WESTBOUND — Whenever Canada loses a soldier in battle, the procession home follows this stretch of the 401 from Trenton to the Toronto.

It has become known as the Highway of Heroes and watching citizens voluntarily line up along the roadsides and on the overpasses to bid farewell to the fallen hero is perhaps one of the most moving sights you will ever see.

Now, Highway of Heroes has a theme song, thanks largely to the Oshawa Legion Branch 43 Pipe band and the trucking industry of Ontario.

Keith Jones, a piper with the legion band, has been one of those people on the overpasses saluting the motorcades.

"It is an image I will never forget," says Jones. "It became a natural extension of that experience that we, as musicians, would use our music to help carry people in thought to those journeys."

He composed a piece of music titled "Beneath the Vigils" for, as he says, "that is the path that the highway takes; it winds beneath the bridges where citizens gather in vigils to comfort, to honor, and to mourn." His band has been playing it since 2009.

Soon after they played the song the first time, people started asking where there might be a recording.

Recording takes money, something Jones et al had little of.

At one point, Jones encountered a trucking-industry retiree at a Belleville truckstop; and that person suggested Jones go, big-ostrich-feather-bonnet-in-hand, to the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA).

"The trucking industry," says Jones, "seemed a particularly good fit because every minute, of every hour, of every day, trucks move along the Highway of Heroes. I had also seen how respectful the truckers were when sharing the road with the motorcade bearing a fallen soldier."

"I actually had truckers offer money, on the spot, no questions asked, to help our recording efforts. There is a deeply rooted compassion and generosity in the industry."

OTA president David Bradley agreed.

He told Jones that the OTA would be honored to support the recording project.

"The association," Bradley says, "has a long history of supporting our troops and, given our link to the Highway of Heroes, this project was a natural fit. It’s a great song, too."

The recording was done in Spring of this year.

"Our musicians and the band leaders worked so very conscientiously to maintain that high level of competence needed for a successful recording," states Keith.

"They are the truckers of the music world, but what they move are emotions, feelings."

An anchor in the project was Dan Clancy, the lead singer for Lighthouse. Clancy provided vocals, guitar and production talent to the recording effort.

The CD (which can be purchased at www.beneaththevigils.ca) is jacketed with lyrics, biographies on the music makers and a detailed description of where all the profits from the project are directed: The Operational Stress Injury clinic at the Parkwood Hospital, St. Joseph’s Health Care, London, Ont.

In thanking the OTA, the jacket says: "You not only deliver the goods, you helped deliver the good of this project."

The song is also available online on iTunes and Amazon.

Lighthouse will be the entertainment at the OTA annual gala on November 19, 2010 at which time Clancy will provide a solo performance of Beneath the Vigils.