Hundreds of soldiers held a sombre ramp ceremony in Kandahar Tuesday as the bodies of six Canadian soldiers were loaded on to a plane to begin the journey home. A lone bagpiper played Amazing Grace as 60 pallbearers — all from the same battle group the dead soldiers had served in — slowly carried the flag-draped coffins on their shoulders.
The Canadians were killed Sunday when their armoured vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the desert region near Afghanistan's Helmand province. Two others were injured in the attack, which happened at about 1:30 p.m. local time. One was treated and released while the other is recovering in an American military hospital in Germany. The explosion killed Sgt. Donald Lucas, 31, Cpl. Aaron E. Williams, 23, Pte. Kevin Vincent Kennedy, 20, Pte. David Robert Greenslade, 20, Cpl. Christopher Paul Stannix, 24, and Cpl. Brent Poland, 37. Stannix was a reservist with the Halifax-based Princess Louise Fusiliers Army Reserve Infantry Regiment. The others were members of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment, based in CFB Gagetown, N.B. |
More than 1,000 soldiers saluted and stood to attention in the dark to bid farewell to the six Canadian troops killed by a roadside bomb Sunday.
