Oromocto, N.B. - The small town of Oromocto, N.B. was rocked Sunday with news that five of the six soldiers killed in the deadliest day for Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan hailed from the nearby Gagetown military base.
"It's going to be one of the greatest shocks to the town of Ormomocto -- when you have five, it's a big shock,'' said Mayor Faye Tidd as news that a roadside bomb killed five soldiers from 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, swept through the riverside community.
"It's going to be very hard on the families. We said goodbye to so many people, over a thousand people last year,'' she said referring to soldiers from the area who have been sent to Afghanistan.
"You can never prepare for it.''
Oromocto, a town of about 9,000 people, was developed around Canadian Forces Base Gagetown -- one of the largest military training bases in the country.
Almost all the townspeople are members of the armed forces or are connected to the military in some way.
"It has been an extremely tough day for CFB Gagetown and for the community,'' base commander Col. Ryan Jestin told a news conference on the base late Sunday.
"This is a very tragic incident, especially as today is Easter Sunday, and most of us gathered with our family and our friends to enjoy this special season.''
Jestin, who appeared phyiscally and mentally shaken after spending the day helping to contact the soldiers' families, said the tragic news was nothing the base could have prepared for.
"We've been talking about what-if scenarios probably for six or eight months,'' he said. "This was not anywhere close to what we'd been expecting. This is really, really tough to come to terms with.''
The dead men were identified as Sgt. Donald Lucas, 31, of Burton, N.B., Cpl. Aaron E. Williams, 23, of Lincoln, N.B., and Pte. David Robert Greenslade, 20, of Saint John, N.B.
Also killed was Pte. Kevin Kennedy, 20, of St. Lawerence, NL, and Cpl. Christopher Paul Stannix, 24, of Dartmouth, N.S., who was a reservist from the Halifax-based Princess Louise Fusiliers.
A sixth soldier killed was also based in Gagetown, N.B. but was not identified at the request of his family.
Ten soldiers were travelling Sunday in a LAV-3 armoured vehicle, accompanying coalition convoys to the Sangin district, the scene of fierce fighting between the coalition and the Taliban, when the bomb exploded.
The explosion injured two other Canadian soldiers, one seriously.
It was the worst single-day toll for the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.
It was felt especially hard in Atlantic Canada where all the men were from.
Wade Rowsell, the mayor of Kennedy's hometown of St. Lawrence, remembered a young man with a lot of potential.
"Kevin was certainly very jovial, very witty, and character of sorts, and a leader,'' Roswell said in an interview Sunday. "He was always military-minded, wanted a career in the military to serve his country, and certainly he did admirably.''
He said Kennedy moved away from St. Lawrence after graduating from high school a number of years ago and began his military training.
He said the tight-knit community of about 1,500 will be deeply affected by the news.
"It's very difficult to heal the wounded heart. We have to be proud of his efforts for his country. This young gentleman had so much to offer and it's really tragic.''
Kennedy expressed his enthusiasm in an interview in early March with The Canadian Press, just prior to the start of a major offensive against the Taliban.
"Everyone is really pumped here this morning,'' Kennedy said at the time. "We came here. We've trained for years and we are finally going to go out and do our job and we are ready to do it.''
New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham extended his sympathies to the families of the soldiers, saying it was a sad day for the province and the country.
Sunday's toll brings the total number of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002 to 51. A Canadian diplomat has also been killed.
Canadians are among 4,500 NATO and 1,000 Afghan soldiers involved in Operation Achilles -- one of the largest multinational forces fielded in a single operation in Afghanistan.
The military said in March that a force of more than 200 soldiers from the Royal Canadian Regiment battle group would be supporting the offensive by setting up a blocking position in the Maywand district just inside the northwestern border of Kandahar province.
Kandahar province, where Canada's 2,500 troops operate, is adjacent to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, a senior Canadian commander, said then that the Gagetown-based soldiers were to be tasked with preventing Taliban militants from retreating through the region, said the senior Canadian commander.
They were also to disrupt bands of local insurgents, including drug lords who control the opium trade.
"I don't expect to see and I hope not to see any fighting by Canadians in the Maywand district,'' said Grant, who noted the battle group includes a force of 46-tonne Leopard 2 tanks.
