Relatives of fallen soldiers visit Kandahar base

Family members of five fallensoldiers arrived atKandahar Air Field aboard a C-130 Hercules transport plane on Saturday to tour the Canadian base in southern Afghanistan andmark Remembrance Day.

They came to remember Pte.Kevin Dallaire of Calgary, Cpl.Matthew Dinning of Richmond Hill, Ont., Cpl. Christopher Reid of Truro, N.S.,Cpl.Jason Warren of Montreal andChief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard of Bathurst, N.B.

The eight Canadians wore helmets and flak jackets as they chattedwith soldiers on a tour led by Commodore Paul Maddison, whosaid the familieswanted toseethe country where theirloved ones served and died.

"These folks are seven parents of four of the fallen and one widow of one of the fallen who asked Gen. [Rick] Hillier if they could come here to Kandahar, perhaps in and around Remembrance Day, to be close to where their sons and their husband last lived," Maddison said.

The families of the fallen soldiers also stopped by amemorial bearing the names of the 71 Canadians who have lost their livessince the combat mission against Taliban fighters began in 2002.

A ceremony at the memorial will be held on Sunday to mark Remembrance Day.

Maddison saidthe plan to bring the group to Afghanistan had been in the works for a few months at the request of Hillier, Canada'sChief of Defence Staff.

"They've known for a while they were coming here. I think now that they're here this is just a very personal, deep moment for them to finally arrive here," he told CBC News.

The five soldiers were all killed last year.

Pte. Dallaire, 22, and Cpl. Reid, 34, both died when their Light Armoured Vehiclestruck a roadside bomb. In a separate incident, the same kind of explosion killed Cpl. Dinning, 23, andfour Canadian soldiers travelling in aG-wagon.Cpl. Warren, 29,and another soldier were killed when their Bison was struck bya suicide bomber.

Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard, 46, whose widow is visiting the base,died when a suicide bomber drove his vehicle into a Canadian military convoy.

Remembrance Day traditionally marks the end of the First World War in 1918, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

But it now stands for the more than 100,000 dead of all of Canada's wars, including the one being fought in Afghanistan.