Yet again!

[John McGillivray]

Soldier killed in Afghanistan as others come home
Updated Sat. Aug. 5 2006 1:10 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The first group of about 2,000 Canadian soldiers who will be returning home from Afghanistan touched down in Edmonton early Saturday -- the same day another Canadian soldier was killed and three others were injured in the war-torn nation.
The death and injuries occurred when an armoured jeep accompanying a supply convoy crashed into a civilian vehicle in Kandahar province, said CTV's Steve Chao, reporting from Kandahar.
"We understand one soldier was killed. He was a reservist. The family at this time has asked to withhold the name," Chao told CTV Newsnet.
Of the three injured soldiers, Cpl. Jared Gagnon, a reservist with the Royal Edmonton Regiment, is listed in very serious condition, Chao said. The names of the other soldiers have not yet been released.
The accident occurred in the same region where four Canadian soldiers were killed earlier in the week.
Meanwhile, the roughly 100 troops who returned home Saturday were greeted by loved ones, cool 10 C weather, and Tim Horton's coffee in a fitting homecoming.
The military jet the soldiers travelled home on was accompanied by two CF 18 jets for the last leg of its journey to Edmonton's airport, as a tribute to the returning troops.
The troops spent an hour filling out paper work and updating medical reports, before boarding three buses which carried them to the Edmonton military base where their families waited.
Andelaine Nelson, 21, held her two-month old son out as her husband Cpl. Kevin Pavan rushed to meet her and pick up his child.
Pavan's parents and brothers had flown from Vancouver to surprise him, carrying banners with the Canadian flag and the words "We support our troops."
Undoubtedly, however, many were thinking about the four Canadian troops who were killed earlier in the week.
"I'm very excited about him coming home,'' Pavan's mother Jan Pavan told The Canadian Press. "But I have mixed feelings because I'm also sad for all the parents that their kids aren't coming home.''
Pte. Kevin Dallaire, Sgt. Vaughn Ingram, Cpl. Bryce James Killer and Cpl. Christopher Reid were killed Thursday during fighting with Taliban forces west of Kandahar.
Their bodies are scheduled to arrive at Ontario's CFB Trenton Saturday afternoon.
Pavan's joy was dampened by concern for his comrades still in Afghanistan.
"I'll be relieved when all the boys come home safe,'' he said.
His fellow soldier, Edmonton paramedic and reservist with 8 Field Engineer Regiment Darcy Ressler, took a similar stance.
Though he admitted he was glad to be safe and sound in Canada, and to have some relief from the nosebleeds due to heat that have plagued him in Afghanistan, he was worried about those left behind.
However, Ressler told CP he believes in the work Canadian troops are doing in Afghanistan.
"I do feel we've made a lot of progress in helping social programs, helping some of the villagers with the necessities they didn't have before we came, like running water, digging wells, helping them with crops,'' he said.
The majority of the soldiers who will be rotating home in the next few weeks will spend the next month on vacation and adjusting to life back in Canada.
Their replacements, about 2,000 troops mostly from Ontario and Manitoba, began arriving in Kandahar on Wednesday, where they will undergo training to take over the Canadian contingent's duties.
The work in Afghanistan is becoming more dangerous. More than 800 people have been killed in southern Afghanistan as the result of fighting, suicide bombs and ambushes. Of those, 23 Canadian soldiers have died since the mission began in 2002.

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