| CFB TRENTON (Agencies): Mourners and military representatives gathered at Canadian Forces Base Trenton afternoon as the bodies of the two most recently killed soldiers in Afghanistan were returned to Canadian soil.
A lone clergyman stood next to the ramp of a massive military aircraft as the two flag-draped caskets were carried by tearful comrades to waiting hearses during the solemn repatriation ceremony.
Weeping family members of Master Cpl. Pat Audet, 38, and Cpl. Martin Joannette, 25, clutched single flowers and each other as they approached the hearses on the sunny Trenton tarmac, approximately 200 kilometres northeast of Toronto.
The soldiers were killed Monday in a helicopter crash, which injured three other Canadian Forces members.
“You deployed to Afghanistan for the third time with a lot of enthusiasm and an exceptional sense of duty,” the Joannette family wrote in a statement.
“How many times did we hear you say, raising your glass: ‘In the name of the Father, the Son and the Airborne parachute!’ You loved your job and above all, you didn’t want to leave your buddies to go into battle alone.”
Joannette leaves behind his wife, Marie Eve, his parents, his brother and grandparents.
The family said they are deeply saddened by his death and that they will remember his generosity, his charisma and his infectious smile.
On Wednesday, Audet’s family remembered him as a man who wanted to make a difference in the world and died living his dream. “Pat left us doing what he loved most, happy (with) having seen some of his dearest dreams come true, being a soldier and serving his country,” Audet’s family wrote. |