No Christmas in Afghanistan

Christmas just isn't Christmas for our Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

My wife's cousin's husband — I just call him Ryan because it's easier — has started a six-month tour in Afghanistan with the Canadian Forces. He's in the Air Force and is responsible for planning all incoming and outgoing flights at Kandahar's airport.

He sent some pictures home that I'm not going to post without his permission, but you can be assured Afghanistan is as barren as what you see on TV, and yet Ryan and his colleagues are smiling in all the pictures, despite what they face on a daily basis and the fact they're there, while we celebrate another Christmas season here.

I saw Ryan's wife and son a couple of times over the holidays and they're doing well, but they obviously miss him. She talked to him over the holidays but he couldn't talk long because, as she said, "he said it has been a bad day". That usually means another Canadian soldier died in the line of duty, and on Boxing Day it was Private Michael Freeman, 28, of the 3rd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment.

Unfortunately, Pte. Freeman wasn't the only Canadian who died over the holidays, as Warrant Officer Gaétan Roberge and Sergeant Gregory John Kruse died in a roadside bombing on Saturday.

All are being repatriated on Tuesday afternoon, as I write this.

Tomorrow is the last day of 2008, a horrific year for Canadian casualties in Afghanistan. I continue to hope that each repatriation is the last and that Ryan and all Canadian troops come home safely soon.