Body of slain Canadian medic returns home from Afghanistan
The return home of the body of a Canadian army medic killed in southern Afghanistan on the weekend was marked Wednesday with an emotional ceremony at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in eastern Ontario.
Pte. Colin Wilmot, 24, died from his injuries Saturday after an explosive device detonated while he was on a night patrol in the troubled Panjwaii district near the city of Kandahar with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
He was the 87th Canadian soldier to die during the Afghanistan mission.
Wilmot was a dedicated medic who couldn't wait to go to Afghanistan, family and friends said.
In sombre proceedings in Trenton, attended by Defence Minister Peter McKay and 15 of Wilmot's family members, fellow soldiers carried Wilmot's flag-draped coffin from a military plane on their shoulders. A lone bagpiper played a lament.
In eulogies earlier this week at Kandahar Airfield, the young soldier was remembered as the top student in his basic medical course and a young man with a perpetually sunny disposition.
His senior officers confirmed that Wilmot, who had been with the military for three years, was not originally scheduled to join the current rotation in Afghanistan but demanded to be sent.
Wilmot was based in Edmonton with the 1 Field Ambulance unit.
Family members said he was inspired to become a medic by the television show M*A*S*H, but his commanding officer in Edmonton, Lt.-Col. Christopher Linford, said Wilmot did his medical work in the field during combat operations, not in a hospital behind the front lines.
A funeral for Wilmot, who grew up in a military family in the Fredericton area, is expected to be held in New Brunswick later this month.
With files from the Canadian Press