Two fallen soldiers headed back to Canada

Maj. Yannick Pepin (left) and Cpl. Jean-Francois Drouin of the 5th Canadian Combat Engineers were killed in an IED strike south of Kandahar City on Sept. 6, 2009.

Maj. Yannick Pepin (left) and Cpl. Jean-Francois Drouin of the 5th Canadian Combat Engineers were killed in an IED strike south of Kandahar City on Sept. 6, 2009.

 KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — The most senior Canadian to die in combat in Afghanistan and one of his combat engineers began their long journey back to Canada on Monday after their flag-draped caskets were slowly marched on to a CC-130 Hercules transport as a lone piper skirled a sad lament.

 Maj. Yannick Pepin, 36, of Victoriaville, Que., commander of the 51st Field Engineers Squadron of the 5th Combat Engineers, and Cpl. Jean-Francois Drouin, 31, of Quebec City, who served with the same unit, were killed and five other Canadians were injured Sunday when their armoured vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in Dand District, southwest of Kandahar City.

 Three of the five wounded soldiers were released from hospital by Monday. All were listed in good condition.

 Pepin and Drouin were the 128th and 129th Canadian soldiers to die in Afghanistan since the first Canadian troops came to this war-plagued nation early in 2002.

 “Our thoughts and prayers go out to their loved ones in this time of grief, and to the five other Canadian Forces members injured in this attack,” said Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

 Quebec Premier Jean Charest said: “News of the death of Yannick Pepin and Jean-Francois Drouin distresses us deeply and touches all Quebecers . . . In the name of all Quebecers I salute their courage and generosity.”

 Five weeks ago, after a ramp ceremony for two of his sappers, Pepin said: “Everybody has fear in a mission. If you don’t, you’re not normal.

 “My sappers go first ahead of everyone to save the lives of civilians and soldiers.”

 Despite the deaths on Aug. 1 of Sapper Matthieu Allard and Sapper Christian Bobbitt, Pepin, who joined the army in 1999, had said his unit would only take 12 hours to mourn before getting “back on the road.”

 Sapper Alexandre Beaudin-D’Anjou of Quebec City, his face swollen and bloodied from wounds he suffered in Sunday’s blast, and Sapper Junior Lecours of Victoriaville, whose right arm was in a huge cast, stood to attention with some difficulty beside the rear door to the aircraft as the caskets of their fallen comrades passed by.

 After the ceremony was completed, Beaudin-D’Anjou made an emotional appeal to his countrymen to try to understand the Afghan mission better.

“I want to say that part of the Canadian population negatively views the work that we do here, above all because they don’t understand what we do,” Beaudin-D’Anjou said, as Sapper Junior Lecours, of Victoriaville, whose arm was in a large cast, stood beside him.

 “In my opinion the majority of the Afghan population benefits from what we do. Sadly, there are dangers in this, as you saw in yesterday’s incident. All the soldiers feel deeply that we will finish this work for one another.”

 Beaudin-D’Anjou’s own recollections of the blast and aftermath were incomplete because he lost consciousness soon after the incident.

 “I was hit on the left side of my face,” the sapper said. “All I could think of was, ‘Can I move my arms and my legs?

 “My first reflex was to call out to those who were with me. Some called back. Others didn’t.”

 Pepin had had breakfast with Canada’s senior engineer in Afghanistan, Lt.-Col Mike Gilmore, only hours before he died.

 “Yannick was telling me how much he was looking forward to going back to school to complete a degree,” a visibly shaken Gilmore said.

 Pepin and Drouin were attached to the Royal 22nd Regiment battle group and were in the last weeks of their six-month tour.

 The French-speaking Van Doos will be replaced soon by a battle group drawn largely from the Alberta-based Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry.

 Pepin was not the kind of officer who was “at his best in a cubicle in Ottawa but out leading his troops in the field,” said Lt.-Col. Joe Paul, the Van Doo battle group commander. “He adored his wife and loved his children and spoke constantly about them.”

 Pepin is survived by his partner, Annie, and their two children, Alexandra and Charles. Drouin leaves behind his partner, Audrey.

 Drouin was a great favourite of the other engineers, who called him “Big Drou,” said Col. Roch Lacroix, the deputy commander of Task Force Kandahar. He had been a sapper for only three years but had received an “accelerated promotion” to corporal before deploying for Afghanistan with his unit.

 “The promotion was testimony of the high regard in which he was held and his devotion and desire were unsurpassed,” the colonel said. “He was a very generous man with a heart as big as the three barbells he liked to lift at the gym.

 “He was a bon vivant who liked to make others laugh. His favourite phrase was ‘Why do tomorrow what you can do today.’”

 Lacroix also recalled the time when Pepin stopped while on patrol to fetch a kite that had been caught in his vehicle’s antenna “and handed it to a small Afghan child who thought it had been lost,” the colonel said.

 “On that day we wore a big grin.”

 During the first four years of Canada’s war in Afghanistan, the Taliban favoured attacks by suicide bombers.

 During that period only eight of the 44 Canadian deaths were the result of IED blasts striking vehicles.

 However, since 2007 home-made landmines often fashioned out of old Soviet ordnance or farming chemicals have become the Taliban’s weapon of choice.

 Over the past 32 months, 58 of Canada’s 85 deaths have occurred when vehicles drove over IED’s.

 Six more Canadians died when they stepped on IED’s during foot patrols. Another three Canadians died while trying defuse the homemade devices.

 “There is progress,” Sapper Beaudin-D’Anjou said. “Colonel Paul came with a different vision. We are more dismounted now and out with the people to understand them and know how they live. It is more effective to listen and to make projects with them.”

 Task Force Kandahar includes about 2,500 Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan and about 300 others in the region.

 About 1,000 U.S. infantry troops are attached to the Canadian task force.

 Beaudin-D’Anjou’s own recollections of the blast and aftermath were incomplete because he lost consciousness soon after the incident.

 “I was hit on the left side of my face,” the sapper said. “All I could think of was, ‘Can I move my arms and my legs?

 “My first reflex was to call out to those who were with me. Some called back. Others didn’t.”

 Pepin had had breakfast with Canada’s senior engineer in Afghanistan, Lt.-Col Mike Gilmore, only hours before he died.

 “Yannick was telling me how much he was looking forward to going back to school to complete a degree,” a visibly shaken Gilmore said.

 Pepin and Drouin were attached to the Royal 22nd Regiment battle group and were in the last weeks of their six-month tour.

 The French-speaking Van Doos will be replaced soon by a battle group drawn largely from the Alberta-based Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry.

 Pepin was not the kind of officer who was “at his best in a cubicle in Ottawa but out leading his troops in the field,” said Lt.-Col. Joe Paul, the Van Doo battle group commander. “He adored his wife and loved his children and spoke constantly about them.”

 Pepin is survived by his partner, Annie, and their two children, Alexandra and Charles. Drouin leaves behind his partner, Audrey.

 Drouin was a great favourite of the other engineers, who called him “Big Drou,” said Col. Roch Lacroix, the deputy commander of Task Force Kandahar. He had been a sapper for only three years but had received an “accelerated promotion” to corporal before deploying for Afghanistan with his unit.

 “The promotion was testimony of the high regard in which he was held and his devotion and desire were unsurpassed,” the colonel said. “He was a very generous man with a heart as big as the three barbells he liked to lift at the gym.

 “He was a bon vivant who liked to make others laugh. His favourite phrase was ‘Why do tomorrow what you can do today.'”

 Lacroix also recalled the time when Pepin stopped while on patrol to fetch a kite that had been caught in his vehicle’s antenna “and handed it to a small Afghan child who thought it had been lost,” the colonel said.

 “On that day we wore a big grin.”

 During the first four years of Canada’s war in Afghanistan, the Taliban favoured attacks by suicide bombers.

 During that period only eight of the 44 Canadian deaths were the result of IED blasts striking vehicles.

 However, since 2007 home-made landmines often fashioned out of old Soviet ordnance or farming chemicals have become the Taliban’s weapon of choice.

 Over the past 32 months, 58 of Canada’s 85 deaths have occurred when vehicles drove over IED’s.

 Six more Canadians died when they stepped on IED’s during foot patrols. Another three Canadians died while trying defuse the homemade devices.

 “There is progress,” Sapper Beaudin-D’Anjou said. “Colonel Paul came with a different vision. We are more dismounted now and out with the people to understand them and know how they live. It is more effective to listen and to make projects with them.”

 Task Force Kandahar includes about 2,500 Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan and about 300 others in the region.

 About 1,000 U.S. infantry troops are attached to the Canadian task force.

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