EDMONTON — It is the life of a soldier to bid farewell to loved ones and face the dangers ahead.
And it is the lot of military families to let them go.
The tightly knit Edmonton Garrison played out this age-old ritual during an emotional farewell Saturday morning as about 80 soldiers departed for conflict-ridden Afghanistan — the first wave of a major new deployment of Canadian troops to the danger zone.
The planes carrying the soldiers eastward landed at Canadian Forces Base Shilo in Manitoba later Saturday to pick up another 60 soldiers, en route to Germany at first. It wasn’t immediately known when they would arrive in Afghanistan.
More groups of soldiers will be leaving every few days over the next several weeks. About 1,250 soldiers altogether — 1,000 from Edmonton and 250 from Manitoba — will join a multinational brigade for a six-month tour of duty. Some will stay for nine months.
Loading ...
1 response so far ↓
1 kehoe1941 // Jan 24, 2006 at 12:02 pm
Soldiers should defend a country, not colonialize and or occupy it. There is not the slightest good reason for any military to be in Afghanistan and certainly no resaon for canadian soldiers to die for dust and rocks !
You must log in to post a comment.