CFB TRENTON, Ont. - The 112th Canadian soldier to die on the Afghanistan mission returned home Thursday amid respectful applause from dozens of friends and family members who gathered on the tarmac of this eastern Ontario military base on a windy and frigid afternoon.
After the casket carrying the remains of Trooper Marc Diab was lowered from a military aircraft, the supporters, numbering about 85, huddled around a hearse, exchanging hugs and clapping their hands to pay their respects.
Diab, 22, of Mississauga, Ont., died Sunday after an improvised explosive device detonated near the armoured vehicle he was riding in while patrolling the Shah Wali Kot district, northeast of Kandahar city. He was member of the Royal Canadian Dragoons based at CFB Petawawa, Ont.
The repatriation ceremony for Diab came less than a week after the remains of three other soldiers -- Warrant Officer Dennis Brown, Cpl. Dany Fortin and Cpl. Kenneth O'Quinn -- were returned to CFB Trenton.
Many supporters who regularly attend repatriations said Thursday it was emotional to return for another ceremony so soon.
About 100 people braved the weather to line a fence outside the tarmac of the base, with many of them holding Canadian flags that whipped about in the stiff wind.
"It's tough all the time to come out," said Ed Melanson, a member of the Canadian Army Veterans Motorcycle Unit, who lives in Kingston, Ont.
"But maybe Trooper Diab will be the last one. I can only hope."
Joe Gallant, who lives in Trenton, said he regularly attends repatriation ceremonies.
"When you leave you say to the person next to you, `I hope I don't see you again,' and you go home and it starts all over again," he said.
But Gallant, a retired member of the military and the father of a son who has served in Afghanistan, feels Canadians should stay in the country until the mission is complete.
"If you cut and run now, it's a waste of these deaths," he said. "My personal opinion is we have to stay the duration."
Lianne Durant, also of Trenton, attended the ceremony with her sons Jordan, 14, and Connor, 12.
She said Jordan hopes to enrol at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston when he completes high school, and she believed attending a repatriation ceremony would be a good life lesson for him.
"It's too bad they have to make this sacrifice," she said. "I hope I'm not on the other side of the fence one day."
