http://www.recorder.ca/cp/National/060711/n071109A.html http://tinyurl.com/kx64r Return of soldiers' body to be closed to public at family's request OTTAWA (CP) - The repatriation ceremony for fallen Corporal Anthony Boneca will not be open to the media. An official with the Canadian Forces says Boneca's family wants the repatriation ceremony to be as private as possible. A spokeswoman for the Canadian Forces says they are looking into ways of staging the ceremony so it will out of the line of sight of cameras outside CFB Trenton. The Conservative government initially closed repatriation ceremonies to the public but backtracked after some military families asked that cameras be allowed onto the air base. The government now says it's up to families to decide if they want to open or close the base for repatriation ceremonies. Boneca died in a fierce battle with Taliban forces outside Kandahar City earlier this week. His family has criticized the nilitary saying it misled Boneca on the nature of his second tour of duty in the war-torn country. © The Canadian Press, 2006 --- http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060710/canada_soldier_boneca_060711/20060711?hub=Canada http://tinyurl.com/f4na5 Media may be granted access at soldier's ceremony Updated Tue. Jul. 11 2006 1:07 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff Allowances may be made to permit media access to the repatriation ceremony honouring a Canadian soldier slain in a firefight in Afghanistan. National Defence is to release a formal statement detailing the change in plans on Tuesday afternoon but early indications are that concessions will be made to allow media to film and photograph Wednesday's ceremony. "There will be some media availability in the form of a photo opportunity," National Defence spokesperson Lt. (N) Morgan Bailey told CTV.ca on Tuesday afternoon. Media access is decided by the family of the soldier, Cpl. Anthony Boneca, who was killed Sunday after Canadian troops battled Taliban gunmen near the village of Pashmul. Earlier, defence officials said Boneca's next of kin decided not to open the ceremony to media. Originally, the Conservative government banned public access to repatriation ceremonies but later reversed the move, saying the families could make the decision at their own discretion. The casket carrying Boneca's remains is expected to arrive at CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario on Wednesday. Boneca, an only child, was the 17th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan. Two other Canadian soldiers were wounded shortly after Boneca was killed in the same area Sunday. They suffered non-life threatening injuries. The area has long been friendly ground for the Taliban, who have recently upped attacks on coalition troops and Afghan National Police outposts. While reservists make up about 10 to 15 per cent of Canadian troops, they have accounted for three of the nine troop deaths since January. Soldier 'disillusioned' in Afghanistan Family and friends have painted the 21-year-old reservist as a disillusioned soldier who was desperate to leave Afghanistan. His girlfriend told reporters on Monday that Boneca "hated" his mission and felt ill-equipped for the task. "He hated it there," Megan DeCorte said. "They were told they were going to go out for seven days and they were out for 22 days. All they had were little ration packages and they ran out of food, he lost about 50 pounds." Megan's father Larry DeCorte, told CTV's Canada AM that Boneca had recently become "disillusioned" with Canada's role in the conflict and had not had the proper training to serve on the frontlines. "He wasn't ready mentally for this kind of thing," DeCorte told AM from Thunder Bay, Ont., Tuesday. "When he was over there before, he was guarding a post and doing short patrols, but nothing like this." A four-year reservist with the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment, in Thunder Bay, Ont., Boneca had been trained to handle a rifle and to conduct patrols. However, this mission was different, DeCorte said. This time, Boneca and other soldiers who were part of the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry battle group were sent to Kandahar to hunt the Taliban. "He knew the risks, but he didn't realize it was going to be this kind of stuff," DeCorte told AM. "I'm very angry that this has been done to a young man like this." But the deputy commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan told The Canadian Press that all soldiers in battle become disillusioned at some point. Commenting on the remarks attributed to Boneca, Maj. Todd Strickland said all soldiers who volunteer for duty in Kandahar know they'll face heat, hunger, thirst and a lack of sleep in the field. But Strickland said all of them, including Boneca, have carried out their responsibilities in spite of their difficulties. Low morale Meanwhile, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay are dismissing angry accusations that Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are suffering from low morale. "The morale of the troops in Afghanistan is literally fantastic as it is back here in Canada," O'Connor told reporters Monday. O'Connor said he would be surprised if soldiers were being misled about the nature of their operations. "These operations are well-planned, orders are given, they're all the way down the chain of command. So I am not contesting what Cpl. Boneca said but I'd be surprised if people are misled," he said. MacKay told CTV Atlantic that while "loss of life" was "a tragic situation," there was "also some comfort in knowing that Canada is making an enormous contribution. "This mission is making strides to bring about peace to a war-torn country," MacKay said Monday. With files from The Canadian Press --- http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=9e4cf1c8-eaa3-4859-acdc-6b0132200a75&k=26155 http://tinyurl.com/g4hz2 Tuesday » July 11 » 2006 All soldiers disillusioned at times, says slain Canadian soldier's commander Canadian Press Tuesday, July 11, 2006 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - The deputy commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan says all soldiers in battle become disillusioned at one time or another. Maj. Todd Strickland, second-in-command of Canada's battle group in Kandahar, was commenting on criticism of the Afghan mission attributed to Cpl. Anthony Boneca, killed in a firefight Sunday. Strickland says all soldiers who volunteer for duty in Kandahar know they'll face heat, hunger, thirst and a lack of sleep in the field. But he says all, including Boneca, have carried out their duties despite the hardships. The father of Boneca's girlfriend has been quoted as saying the 21-year-old, killed near Kandahar on Sunday, was "disillusioned" and desperately wanted to leave the war-torn region. © The Canadian Press 2006 Copyright © 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved --- http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=44ea297d-1deb-4279-b402-7c6a392e3d36 http://tinyurl.com/gq636 Tuesday » July 11 » 2006 Canada's biggest battle in decades City soldiers in thick of fighting that leaves 20 Taliban dead, 20 wounded Matthew Fisher CanWest News service Tuesday, July 11, 2006 ZHAREI / PANJWEI, Afghanistan - With a heavy contribution by Edmonton-based soldiers, the fiercest fighting by Canadian troops in more than four decades has left at least 20 Taliban dead, 20 seriously wounded and six captured, the Aghan Army says. The Battle of Zharei/Panjwei, which tailed off at dusk Monday, involved virtually all of the city's 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and the big guns of the army field artillery. U.S. forces added fighter jets, attack helicopters and armed airborne drones to the most intense combat by Canadian troops since Cyprus's civil wars of the early 1960s or the Korean War. "This was by far the biggest engagement since we got here. "The intensity level was dialled up to 11 for awhile," said Maj. Nick Grimshaw, commander of Bravo Company, which spent about 15 hours fighting its way out of an ambush early Saturday and battled again with Taliban insurgents on Sunday. "This is my usual area of operations and we are used to the ground to a degree, but the enemy has always been changing tactics. They were very cunning." When interviewed at a forward operating base near the site of the fighting, Grimshaw, 35, said the Patricia's had repeatedly called for air and artillery support because "this is complex terrain that can only (be) dominated if you use a combined arms approach." Among the prisoners seized was a Taliban dubbed "the Man Who Wouldn't Die," because he had eluded multiple attempts by Canadian troops and coalition aircraft to kill him. He was finally captured Monday in a tunnel complex underneath a compound where Cpl. Tony Boneca of Thunder Bay, Ont., was shot and killed Sunday. Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, the Patricia's commander, praised Boneca -- the 17th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan -- as a volunteer from the reserves who chose to be in Afghanistan because he wanted to help Afghans achieve a better life. "We know it will cost in the lives of our soldiers and we will pay that cost," Hope told a news conference held for Afghan and Canadian journalists at the forward operating base. After about 1,000 Canadian and coalition troops paid their respects at a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield at dawn Monday, a C-130 Hercules carried Boneca's flag-draped casket on the first leg of the long journey back to northwestern Ontario. Three other Patricia's infantrymen were hospitalized with battle wounds. Four other Pats were treated for severe heat stroke after daytime temperatures touched 60 C. "It was really hairy, for sure the heaviest firefights since we've been here," said Master Cpl. Donald Haley of St. Lawrence, N.L., one of several medics who returned fire when his armoured ambulance was ambushed. "Our troops did really well. There would have been a lot more injuries except for our superior training and equipment." The Patricia's "deserve so much more recognition that they are getting," said Master Cpl. Ronald Duchesne, a former artilleryman who captured vivid scenes of the battle in his current post with the military's Combat Camera unit. "I was really impressed with how they handled heat, gunfire and stress without any sleep." SHELLING The Royal Canadian Horse Artillery of Shilo, Man. -- the army's field artillery -- joined the fight by firing 40 rounds of high-explosive, illumination or rocket-propelled shells at places where the Taliban were believed to be hiding. "It got pretty hot and hectic, but so far, so good. We've been very effective," said Sgt. Eldon Seawood of Stephenville, Nfld., who worked with the 155-millimetre howitzers. "With three companies in the fight area, it was very hard to keep track of where everyone was because Zharei/ Panjwei is nothing but compounds where it is so easy to hide behind a wall." The Patricia's medics were busy, too, treating not only with the Canadian wounded but dozens of injured Afghan national army and Afghan national police troops. "At one point, we handled six air medevacs in two hours," said Sgt. Maj. Jim Butters. Capt. Ahmadzia Massoud, commander of the Afghan national police quick reaction force, who worked alongside the Patricia's leadership during the battle, described it as a great success. "The best thing about this was that the Canadians fought by walking alongside the Afghan army and police," Massoud said. "That was wonderful and something that was very positive. "We had lots of gains in this operation and some losses. The Taliban are now out of Pashmol, but the damage they suffered was a lot in human casualties and prisoners and equipment captured." The Canadians had already defeated the Taliban several times in Zharei/Panjwei. But the insurgents kept returning because they needed to control the local poppy crop to sell for heroin in order to buy weapons, Hope said. Meanwhile, it was finally confirmed Monday that Britain plans to send 900 more troops as well as more helicopters to Afghanistan to help 3,300 British troops who have been facing heavy fighting against the Taliban in neighbouring Helmand province. © The Edmonton Journal 2006 Copyright © 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved. --- http://66.244.236.251/printer_7578.php http://tinyurl.com/g49uu From the Chronicle journal.com Local News City pays tribute to a hero By SARAH ELIZABETH BROWN Jul 11, 2006, 23:21 Trees in a second Thunder Bay neighbourhood are sprouting yellow ribbons in memory of a soldier killed in Afghanistan. Monday morning, 23-year-old Sandra Carreiro and her mother-in-law tied yellow ribbons to trees in their block of McLeod Street in the East End. Cpl. Anthony Boneca’s mother used to live in the neighbourhood, and the Bonecas attended events at the Portuguese hall on Mapleward Road, Carreiro said. Boneca, a 21-year-old reservist with the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment, was killed during a firefight Sunday morning. As neighbours learned that the enthusiastic kid known for playing soccer on his street had been killed on duty, yellow ribbons began appearing on that north-end street. A steady stream of people have been by the Boneca house to drop off flowers at an ever-growing shrine on the family’s front lawn. The young soldier who was serving with the Edmonton-based Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry was the only son of Tony and Shirley Boneca. He leaves behind a girlfriend, Megan DeCorte, he’d intended to marry. Though they’d lost touch in the last few years, Carreiro and Boneca were friends through school and the Portuguese community’s events. She recalls him never lacking a smile and “he would just bring a smile to the face of everyone.” Carreiro and her mother-in-law decided to tie yellow ribbons on McLeod Street’s trees “to show that he’s a hero. “He fought for us. It came to a tragic end but now he’s looking down over us. He’s going to be a guardian angel, especially to his mom and to his girlfriend.” Funeral plans for Boneca are not yet finalized, nor is it known whether Boneca will be buried in a full military ceremony or a private family service, said a spokeswoman for 38 Brigade Group, the reserve brigade headquartered in Winnipeg and which encompasses the LSSR. The military was arranging for Boneca’s family to be flown to CFB Trenton to meet their son’s body when it arrived from Kandahar. Canadian flags at Thunder Bay city hall were flying at half staff Monday, as were flags at OPP, city police and fire stations, along with assorted private businesses. Throughout the city, the maple leaf flies lower than usual in many private residents’ front yards. A book of condolences for the Boneca family is set up at city hall just inside the main doors. By late afternoon Monday, the National Post newspaper’s website carried 20 pages of notes, condolences and prayers for Boneca and his family from every corner of the country and the globe. One note was from Cpl. Robin Rickards, another Thunder Bay soldier currently serving in Kandahar. “I pray that God will help you overcome your grief, rest assured that heaven is a better place today,” Rickards wrote. “I’m sorry I couldn’t bring him home to you safe and sound.” Boneca was the 17th Canadian soldier to die in the Afghanistan mission, and the second Thunder Bay-born man killed in the war-ravaged country. Pte. Robert Costall, 21, was killed in a fire fight with Taliban in late March. He was a member of the regular forces as a private with the PPCLI. Another PPCLI regular from Thunder Bay, Cpl. Kory Ozerkevich, was shot last month through the right shoulder during a firefight. He’s still in Kandahar and recovering. © Copyright by Chronicle journal.com --- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060711.wxcowent11/BNStory/National/home http://tinyurl.com/f4uog No wonder Cpl. Boneca wanted out MARGARET WENTE 11 Jul 06, From Tuesday's Globe and Mail The 17th Canadian killed in Afghanistan didn't fit the heroic script we love when our soldiers fall in battle. Corporal Anthony Boneca was not at all happy to be fighting. In fact, he hated it. "He was misled," his girlfriend's father told the Toronto Star. "He was very mad about it." Cpl. Boneca, who was on his second tour in Afghanistan, was a reservist. He never expected to find himself in a blistering hellhole, short of rations, being shot at by bad guys. His friends back home aren't playing by the script, either. Declared one: "It's not our fight." The 21-year-old Cpl. Boneca was not the only one to be unpleasantly surprised at the reality of Afghanistan. Just three months after Britain's then-defence secretary chirpily speculated that British troops might be able to complete their mission without firing a shot, they're rushing in reinforcements; six of their soldiers have been killed in the past few weeks. For Canada, of course, reinforcements are not an option, since we have no extra troops to send. On paper, the odds don't look bad. The Taliban or al-Qaeda or whatever they're called -- they're an ever-changing mix of religious fighters and men in the employ of various warlords and drug lords -- are said to number no more than 5,000. There are 28,000 American soldiers (some of whom will go home when NATO ramps up), and NATO forces will amount to 17,000. But the number of combat troops is just a fraction of the total deployment -- in Canada's case, about 550 in a total contingent of 2,200, although now our resupply troops are also seeing action. These soldiers are supposed to impose peace across a forbidding land the size of Texas, much of which is under the unofficial rule of mullahs. The polite fiction is that, in NATO's mission, security and reconstruction go hand in hand. But, in most of Afghanistan, there's nothing to reconstruct. As for aid, you need an infrastructure to deliver it, and there isn't any of that, either. Donor aid has been pouring in by the billions. But the main beneficiaries, as usual, are expensive international consultants and corrupt local officials, who've created a housing boom in Kabul but very little else. Only 6 per cent of the population has access to electricity. According to The Economist, not a single new dam, power station or water system has been built in the five years since the Taliban fell. Kabul has no sewer system. And Afghans are increasingly disillusioned at the West's failure to deliver security and services. Meantime, Western governments and aid agencies have been shockingly naive about the task at hand. "The West has been guilty of applying Western precepts on an almost post-medieval economy," warns Lieutenant-General David Richards, the British commander of the NATO forces. "A quarter of children die by the age of 5. Worrying about civil service reform and gender rights are really tomorrow's problems." Everyone was surprised by the Taliban's resurgence. "We took our eye off the ball," says Gen. Richards. But NATO's strategy also looks naive. The plan is to establish secure areas as bases from which to inject aid into the surrounding region and build loyalty to the Western-backed government. That was the idea in Iraq, too. There has been some progress. Some girls are going to school. The police are not quite as brutal as before. As Sima Samar, the head of Afghanistan's human-rights commission, says: "Everyone had to be tortured before. Now they do torture, but not everybody." The insurgents, meanwhile, are armed with an endless supply of weapons and a bottomless well of opium money. They are largely trained in Pakistan, where NATO troops can't reach. And NATO is handicapped not so much by mission creep as by mission fuzz. Long-time Afghan hand Christina Lamb, writing in The Sunday Times, reports that one senior British military officer talks despairingly of "military and developmental anarchy." On top of that, there's the notoriously short attention span of the West, which wants results now without bloodshed. Repairing Afghanistan is a noble cause. It's also mission impossible. I suspect that, before too long, more and more Canadians will decide that it's not our fight. mwente@globeandmail.com --- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060711.wxafghan11/BNStory/Afghanistan/home http://tinyurl.com/ktjf6 Three days of fierce, bloody war I'd been following Cpl. Mooney around like a bad smell. But in the battle that killed Cpl. Boneca, I lost sight of him. CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD From Tuesday's Globe and Mail E-mail Christie Blatchford | Read Bio | Latest Columns KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Corporal Keith Mooney sat hunched in his wheelchair on the tarmac at Kandahar Air Field yesterday, his blond head bent, his sweet face contorted as he tried not to cry. The body of the young man he knew only a little and then only to tease -- I forget what he said it was about but it would have been in the way soldiers relentlessly rag on one another, gentle, funny and profane all at once -- was being carried up the ramp into the belly of a green-grey Hercules aircraft to head home to Canada. Just hours after Cpl. Tony Boneca was killed Sunday morning while clearing a mud compound in Panjwei district west of Kandahar City, Cpl. Mooney himself was hit and wounded, perhaps by enemy fire, although he remains unconvinced of that, perhaps by the secondary explosion of a Taliban weapons cache that blew up when a bomb was dropped in a mud-walled maze of grape fields where for three long days ending yesterday Canadians fought in the sort of sustained and vicious battle Cpl. Mooney calls "a shitshow." It was a classic example of war in its most modern and ancient form, the running counterinsurgency -- multifronted, with more than a dozen mini front lines popping up in the alternately lush-then-desert rural moonscape of this part of southern Afghanistan; soldiers deking in and out of grapevines and from behind low mud walls as they sought to engage what Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Hope, the Canadian commanding officer, estimates were a minimum of 40 Taliban fighters, and probably between 60 and 70, who were on home turf they knew intimately; the high-tech weaponry that was later called in by the Canadian and coalition forces of limited use, and such a dearth of safe places that even medics were occasionally forced to use their weapons. For instance, two insurgents -- for the sake of convenience, everyone here calls them Taliban, but while the six arrested included two men believed to be actual Taliban junior commanders, no one is entirely sure how many of the fighters were simply poor, uneducated Afghan boys who saw no other option, or narcotics thugs drawn here to protect the lucrative poppy fields of the region, or hardened foreign fighters -- from their hidey-hole atop the roof of a mud grape-drying compound held a section of the Canadians at bay with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades for the better part of Saturday and Sunday. After one of them shot Cpl. Boneca as he headed up the stairs, the building was utterly pounded with Harrier-fired missiles, bombs and the big guns of the 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, the rooftop repeatedly strafed by a U.S. Apache helicopter. Yet one man survived this onslaught with only modest injuries, Lt.-Col. Hope confirmed yesterday, by availing himself of a tunnel system built by the Taliban. He was arrested. Although waged in the tight quarters of the villages of Pashmul -- these small villages are in their way every bit as indistinct and alike as North American suburbs, and many have no names -- the battle was both so diffuse and shifting that while a CTV crew, reporter Steve Chao and cameraman Tom Michalak, and I were probably never more than 50 metres apart, we never once saw one another, and indeed, emerged with entirely different snapshots of the same fighting. I was embedded with Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry; Mr. Chao and Mr. Michalak with Bravo Company. We might as well have been at different wars, though each of ours had elements in common -- highly disciplined Canadian soldiers and undisciplined Afghan National Army forces working together (a fabulous piece of tape shot by Combat Camera photographer Master Corporal Ronald Duchesne shows one cowering ANA soldier blindly firing into the air over a mud wall, while beside him Canadian troops stand calmly waiting for a decent shot, and I saw one "N.D.," or Negligent Discharge, by an ANA soldier) and an incredible amount of gunfire and smoke. In the first 12 hours of battle, Lt.-Col. Hope said, the Canadians had 17 separate and distinct engagements with the enemy; in the remaining two days, a total of six. Bravo Company alone had in swift succession its 13th, 14th and 15th all-out fights with the enemy over the weekend, but as Officer Commanding Major Nick Grimshaw said yesterday at Zharei, where the Canadians have established a forward operating base in the region, "It should be known that of those 15 firefights, we haven't started a single one. We were not on the offensive. We were reacting. If the enemy wants a fight, we give them a fight." For all that Major Grimshaw, 35, is proud of how his soldiers have stepped up as the intensity level occasionally ratchets "up to 11," he is most impressed by those occasions when the soldiers, "in full battle rattle" as they call their body armour and kit, can switch gears on a dime to speak to villagers on medical outreach visits and the like. "We're not afraid to talk to people," he said yesterday. "Very genuinely, that's the Canadian approach. We honestly believe we're here to help." As for Cpl. Mooney, before he was hit in the upper legs and evacuated to the small but sophisticated base hospital at Kandahar Air Field, he was ruminating on the randomness of battle. "Bullets," he said, "have no prejudice." In one of Charlie Company's major battles, on June 12, two of his fellows were wounded, and as he checked one to find the wound, he emerged covered with blood. "I thought I was hit," he told me as we made our way to Pashmul on Friday night. When he realized he wasn't, he was as furious as if he had been. When a brother goes down, he said, "Everything else, whether you knew the guy, or if you didn't like this guy -- it all goes out the window. It's all about winning the fucking firefight and killing the enemy. I was so proud to be with my fucking company that day." Cpl. Mooney's turn came Sunday afternoon. I had been following him around like a bad smell -- his calm and his bulk made me feel safe and his rich Newfoundland accent falls lovely on the ears -- for two days, but during one running skirmish, briefly lost sight of him. Next thing I knew, he was hit. He felt, he said yesterday, as though someone had whacked him hard across the knees, and looked down in surprise to see blood pouring out the top of his legs. "I started shaking," he said, "and I was so cold." He was evacuated out of the immediate danger zone, assessed by medics, who now, knowing Cpl. Mooney will recover, fondly remember him as their most cheerful patient -- once he was repeatedly reassured that his private parts were all in place and intact. As the signaler for Major Bill Fletcher, the Officer Commanding of Charlie Company, Cpl. Mooney, a 29-year-old from St. Mary's Bay, Nfld., went virtually everywhere the OC did: He had the radio and it was his job to keep the OC in constant touch with the other companies and with Lt.-Col. Hope. In theory, and in some armies, that would mean Cpl. Mooney would be in a nice safe spot at the rear. But the company commanders -- Major Fletcher, Major Grimshaw of Bravo Company and Major Kirk Gallinger of Alpha Company -- are all fierce young officers who lead from the front lines. The other soldier who goes everywhere Major Fletcher does is his Sergeant-Major, Shawn Stevens, a long, lean man of 46. Of the OC, he said, with faux weariness, "Just once I want a short, fat OC who doesn't run fast, so I can start acting my age." As Cpl. Mooney told his wife, Shannon, before heading to Afghanistan, "Don't think I have a safe fucking job. Don't be shocked if something happens. . . . You can't think nothing's going to happen. You better expect the worst, and anything good that happens, it's a bonus. It can't be a shock. "You want combat experience, this is where you come. You come here." When I saw him yesterday on the tarmac, I wanted to tousle his hair and thank him for looking after me better than he did himself. But then the command was barked, and 1,000 soldiers stiffened their backs: "Task Force Afghanistan, to your fallen comrade, salute!" cblatchford@globeandmail.com --- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060711.AFGHANCDA11/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/ http://tinyurl.com/hol6l Slain soldier well trained, officer says Father of Boneca's girlfriend says reservist was unprepared for combat in Afghanistan GLORIA GALLOWAY OTTAWA -- The father of the young woman whose sweetheart was killed on Sunday when a Taliban bullet pierced his neck during a firefight in Afghanistan says Corporal Anthony Boneca was terrified of his mission and ill-equipped for the task. "They weren't prepared for what they ended up with over there, that's the big thing," said Larry DeCorte, whose daughter Megan had received a promise ring from the 21-year-old soldier. The body of Cpl. Boneca, a former high-school quarterback who was his parents' only child, is expected to be returned to Canada tomorrow. A four-year reservist with the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment, he had been trained to handle a rifle and to conduct patrols. And the demands of a previous mission he served in the war-wracked country were in keeping with his training. This tour was different, Mr. DeCorte said. This time, Cpl. Boneca and other soldiers who were part of the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry battle group were sent to Kandahar to rout the Taliban. "When they went over there, they didn't think they were going to have that kind of combat," Mr. DeCorte said. "They thought it was going to be the same kind of things, going on patrols and stuff like that, not hand-to-hand combat like he ended up in. Also, they aren't mentally prepared for it. He wanted out in the worst way." But Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, who was asked about Mr. DeCorte's allegations yesterday during a visit to Winnipeg, said the Canadian soldiers who are in Afghanistan are there because they want to be -- and they can't just leave when the going gets tough. "If a reservist didn't want to go to Afghanistan, they wouldn't be sent. And if they were regular soldiers who didn't want to go, they wouldn't be sent either because it wouldn't be in the interest of the military commanders to have people there who didn't want to be there," said Mr. O'Connor, a former brigadier general. "When you get there, just because you don't happen to like the tasks, well, this is the army. And everybody has to take equal risks and they get equal opportunities." Reservists like Cpl. Boneca do not get an escape clause, the minister said. "There might be regulars who have concerns and want out, too. But unless there is cause, unless there is some justification other than they don't want to do it, we're in operations. You don't vote in and vote out of operations. You're in it," he said. Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Lemay, who has served in Afghanistan and who witnessed the preparation that Cpl. Boneca received at the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre in Wainwright, Alta., said the army "trains its personnel to their utmost capabilities." That is as true for reservists as it is for the regular forces, Lt.-Col. Lemay said. "You all go through the same training, very demanding training, that the army puts all its soldiers through prior to deployment. And then, following that, you still have about a month of theatre-specific training." But Mr. DeCorte said Cpl. Boneca did not believe he was ready for the duties he had been handed and even considered telling an army padre that he was suicidal in a bid to be released from the mission. It was a feeling of dread that Cpl. Boneca said was shared by many of the young Canadian soldiers, added Mr. DeCorte. Seven-day patrols stretched to three weeks without adequate food and water, he said. And the exhausted Canadian troops are under constant threats from rocket-propelled grenades or small-arms fire. Mr. DeCorte's 19-year-old daughter Megan, who had been dating Cpl. Boneca since just before his first deployment to Afghanistan, met up with her boyfriend in Italy in May when the soldier took a scheduled leave. "He said he just didn't want to go back. He was scared. He was scared for his life. He was scared of the whole thing. He was scared of the Taliban, scared of everything." --- http://winnipegsun.com/News/Canada/2006/07/11/1678408-sun.html http://tinyurl.com/z67l5 Aware of dangersDead soldier not misled, says O'Connor By BOB HOLLIDAY, STAFF REPORTER Defence Minster Gordon O'Connor offered his condolences yesterday to the family of the latest Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan but denied claims Cpl. Anthony Boneca, 21, had been misled about the nature of his mission. O'Connor received an enthusiastic round of applause from about 100 members of Canada's military at 17 Wing in Winnipeg when he said soldiers have no choice but to follow orders. "You don't vote in and you don't vote out of an operation. You don't get a choice of what you do or don't do. This is the military," said O'Connor. "You only volunteer once." The family said Boneca, who was to return to Canada in 19 days, said during a recent call he was so desperate to return home he contemplated telling an army priest he was suicidal in the hopes of being discharged. "He expected to be on patrol, not fighting a war for someone else," said Larry DeCourte, father of Boneca's girlfriend Megan. "He wasn't ready for that." O'Connor said he wouldn't contest what Boneca told his family, but expressed doubt that he would be unaware of the dangers. EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY "Boneca was an infantry man. Right now there is a lot of infantry functions going on: patrolling; guarding and seeking out the Taliban. I'd be surprised if he was misled," said the defence minister. Boneca's body is expected to be flown to Trenton, Ont., tomorrow, said O'Connor. The family will decide if media is allowed to cover the return of the corporal, a member of the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment, based in Thunder Bay. He was the 17th Canadian to die in Afghanistan. Canadian troops are going into every nook and cranny looking for Taliban members, said O'Connor. He denied reservists are not properly prepared for service in Afghanistan. Once they become operational, said O'Connor, reservists receive the same intensive training as regular members of the military. "If a reservist didn't want to go to Afghanistan, they wouldn't be sent. If there were regular soldiers who didn't want to go, they wouldn't be sent, either. It wouldn't be in the military interest to have people there who didn't want to be there" said O'Connor. "The morale is very, very high." O'Connor leaves Winnipeg today for a tour of Canada's north. A 30-year veteran of Canada's military, O'Connor said he is exploring the possibility of setting up a training base at Frobisher Bay, a deep water docking-facility in Iqualuit and setting up at least one major operational unit in Goose Bay. O'Connor said the moves are to re-establish Canada's northern sovereignty. Meanwhile, Defence Department documents obtained by Sun Media indicate 14 Canadian soldiers were fined for being careless with their weapons while posted in Afghanistan in the last 18 months. Records of disciplinary proceedings show charges relate to improperly securing rifles, leaving guns unattended or allowing a weapon to accidentally fire. Fines ranged from $400 to $1,400, and all cases were dealt with by summary trial instead of court martial. Retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie said it points to a "pretty spotless" record for Canadian troops in Afghanistan that no other disciplinary breaches were listed. But he noted that lax handling of weapons is considered serious because it could potentially put arms in enemy hands or lead to injury or death among friendly troops. Also yesterday, a U.S. warplane dropped four 225-kilogram bombs on a militant hideout in southern Afghanistan, killing more than 40 suspected Taliban fighters. The attack coincided with Britain announcing it is sending 900 more troops to the region. --- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back to Quick Search ===================================================================== Gov't brushes aside claims reservist 'misled' by military The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) Tue 11 Jul 2006 Page: B6 Section: National Dateline: TORONTO Source: Canadian Press TORONTO (CP) -- Angry accusations that reservist Cpl. Anthony *Boneca* was "misled" by the military about Canada's role in Afghanistan and ill-trained for the combat role that claimed his life were brushed aside Monday by the Conservative government. Family and friends of the 21-year-old soldier, who died Sunday in a firefight west of Kandahar City, said *Boneca* was so desperate to return home he contemplated telling an army priest he was suicidal in the hopes of being discharged. "He expected to be on patrol, not fighting a war for someone else," said Larry DeCourte, father of *Boneca*'s girlfriend Megan. "He wasn't ready for that," he said. *Boneca*, a reservist with the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay, Ont., whose tour of duty was to end in three weeks, didn't have the proper training to engage the enemy, added DeCourte. While Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said he wouldn't contest what *Boneca* told his friends and family, he added he "would be surprised if people are misled" about the hazards of the Afghan mission. "Everybody has to take equal risks," O'Connor told a news conference in Winnipeg. "Once you're in and committed, you don't get a choice about what you do and don't do. This is the military." As for the claim *Boneca* would have been ill-prepared to face the enemy, O'Connor noted reservists -- who make up 10 and 15 per cent of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan -- are treated as regular soldiers. "(Reservists) receive the same training, the same protective equipment. . . . There is no difference." Lt.-Col. Chris Lemay, who trained the task force that included *Boneca*, said troops and reservists receive highly specific training as part of a seven-level training program conducted over several months. "We always train for the worst-case scenario," said Lemay, noting the troops take part in live-fire and roadside bomb exercises. O'Connor stressed any reservist who "didn't want to go to Afghanistan, wouldn't be sent," but once deployed they are not sent home without good reason. The morale of the troops remains high despite *Boneca*'s death, he said. "Morale of the troops in Afghanistan is literally fantastic, as it is back here in Canada." DeCourte, in a telephone interview from Thunder Bay, accused the military of "glorifying" the mission and said *Boneca* had recently become "disillusioned" with Canada's role in the conflict. He said it was *Boneca*'s second tour in Afghanistan, but that the mission was very different from his last -- guarding a post in Kabul. DeCourte said *Boneca* -- who he described as a "fantastic person," and a "proud" reservist and Canadian -- recently became more and more desperate to leave. "He wanted to get on with his life," said DeCourte, who added his daughter had been given a promise ring by *Boneca*. Edition: Final Story Type: News Length: 465 words Illustration: Photo: (Anthony) *Boneca* ===================================================================== Canadians kill 20 Taliban in intense battle: Fiercest fighting for troops since Cyprus and Korea, commander says National Post Tue 11 Jul 2006 Page: A4 Section: News Byline: Matthew Fisher Dateline: ZHAREI/PANJWEI, Afghanistan Source: CanWest News Service ZHAREI/PANJWEI, Afghanistan - The most intense fighting Canadian troops have been part of since the civil wars in Cyprus or the Korean War involved virtually the entire 1st Battalion Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry and the big guns of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, as well as U.S. fighter jets, attack helicopters and armed airborne drones. The Battle of Zharei/Panjwei tailed off at dusk yesterday in the village of Pashmol with at least 20 Taliban dead, 20 seriously wounded and six captured, according to General Ahmad (who goes by one name only) of the Afghan Army. "This was by far the biggest engagement since we got here. The intensity level was dialled up to 11 for a while," said Major Nick Grimshaw, commander of Bravo Company, which spent about 15 hours fighting its way out of an ambush early Saturday and had further gun battles with Taliban insurgents on Sunday. "This is my usual area of operations and we are used to the ground to a degree, but the enemy has always been changing tactics. They were very cunning." When interviewed at a forward operating base near the site of the fighting, the 35-year-old major from Kingston said the Patricias had repeatedly called for air and artillery support because "this is complex terrain that can only [be] dominated if you use a combined arms approach." Among the prisoners seized was a Taliban dubbed "the Man Who Wouldn't Die," because he had eluded multiple attempts by Canadian troops and coalition aircraft to kill him. The insurgent was finally captured yesterday in a tunnel complex underneath the compound where Corporal Anthony *Boneca* of Thunder Bay was shot and killed on Sunday. Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Hope, the Patricias' commander, praised Cpl. *Boneca* -- the 17th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan. "We know it will cost in the lives of our soldiers and we will pay that cost," Lt.-Col. Hope told a news conference held for Afghan and Canadian journalists at the forward operating base, which was crowded with weary and dirty soldiers returning from battle in LAV (light armoured vehicle) III and Bison armoured fighting vehicles. After about 1,000 Canadian and coalition troops paid their respects at a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield at dawn yesterday. A C-130 Hercules carried Cpl. *Boneca*'s flag-draped casket on the first leg of the long journey back to northwestern Ontario. Three other Patricias infantrymen were hospitalized with injuries suffered during the fighting. Four other Pats were treated for severe heat stroke after daytime temperatures touched 60C. "It was really hairy, for sure the heaviest firefights since we've been here," said Master Corporal Donald Haley of St. Lawrence, Nfld., one of several medics who returned fire when his armoured ambulance was ambushed. "Our troops did really well. There would have been a lot more injuries except for our superior training and equipment." The Royal Canadian Horse Artillery of Shilo, Man., joined the fight by firing 40 rounds of high-explosive, illumination or rocket-propelled shells at places where the Taliban were believed to be hiding. "It got pretty hot and hectic, but so far, so good. We've been very effective," said Sergeant Eldon Seawood, of Stephenville, Nfld., who worked with the 155-millimetre howitzers. "With three companies in the fight area, it was very hard to keep track of where everyone was because Zharei/Panjwei is nothing but compounds where it is so easy to hide behind a wall." Despite the lopsided casualty figures, Lt.-Col. Hope did not describe the Battle of Zharei/Panjwei as a triumph. "We will have victory when we no longer have to fight in places like Pashmol," he said. "We can have victory when I can bring my children here as visitors." The Canadians had already defeated the Taliban several times in Zharei/Panjwei. The reason the Taliban kept returning was because they needed to control the local poppy crop to sell for heroin in order to buy weapons, Lt.-Col. Hope said. Edition: Toronto Story Type: News Length: 653 words ===================================================================== Canadian soldiers recover from battles with Taliban The Daily News (Kamloops) Tue 11 Jul 2006 Page: B3 Section: News Dateline: ZHAREI, Afghanistan Source: Canadian Press ZHAREI, Afghanistan (CP) -- Drained and exhausted, Canadian soldiers tried to recover Monday from a series of fierce battles with the Taliban, as they solemnly bid goodbye to a fallen comrade and their commander cautioned against claiming any victory. The flag-draped remains of Cpl. Anthony *Boneca*, 21, the youngest Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan, were slowly carried by pallbearers across the tarmac at Kandahar airfield to a CC-130 Hercules transport for his final flight home. "Task force Afghanistan, to our fallen comrade, salute," commanded an officer as 1,000 soldiers from coalition countries stood to attention. There was no military band or bagpiper at the ramp ceremony. The only audible sounds were the drone of helicopters and the quiet sobs of a wounded soldier in a wheelchair. The firefight in which *Boneca* was killed was one of 23 small, separate engagements that Canadian troops fought over the weekend in the Zharei district west of Kandahar City. Supported by coalition assault helicopters, ground attack jets and heavy guns, the running battle pitted most of the Princess Patricia's battle group against a force of 60 to 70 lightly armed insurgents, some of whom were no more than boys. While the Canadians won each battle, killing about 20 Taliban fighters, Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, the battle group commander, refused to call it a victory. "There is no military victory in this kind of environment," Hope said during a news conference at a forward patrol base. Nearby as he spoke, his gaunt, exhausted soldiers collapsed into sleep beside their battered vehicles. "A military victory is impossible. When the people of this district and this province have confidence in their army, in their police and in their government, and dismiss the Taliban as an option, then we will have success. We are not there yet. We will get there." During the running battles, Canadian and Afghan National Army advanced through mud-hut villages and lush farms until they made contact with the insurgents, sometimes being caught in ambushes. It was during a house clearing operation that *Boneca* was shot just above the breastplate of his body armour. Infantry and armoured vehicles then brought their superior firepower to bear, pinning the insurgents in place. Air strikes and heavy artillery support were then called in. © 2006 The Daily News (Kamloops) Edition: Final Story Type: News Length: 376 words Illustration: Photo: CanWest News Service / Tony *Boneca*, who was shot and killed Sunday, poses in the mountains of Afghanistan for a photo he sent to his family and friends back home in Canada. ===================================================================== Body of Corporal *Boneca* heading home CTV News and Current Affairs Mon 10 Jul 2006 Time: 23:00:00 ET Network: CTV LLOYD ROBERTSON: As Steve Chao mentioned, the one who didn't make it out alive was Corporal Tony *Boneca* aged twenty-one, the youngest Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan. As his body began the solemn journey home, his grieving girlfriend and her family revealed *Boneca*, a reservist, had been disillusioned and distraught about the mission and was desperate to get out. More from CTV's Roger Smith. ROGER SMITH (Reporter): Another sombre send-off. The body of Tony *Boneca* heading home just weeks before his tour was to end. The silence broken only by footsteps, and by the sobs of a wounded comrade. Sobs, too, for a reunion that will never be. MEGAN DECORTE (Girlfriend): He was supposed to be home August 10th and I'm still hoping that he'll show up at home that day. SMITH: What makes it even worse, knowing how unhappy her boyfriend was in Afghanistan. DECORTE: He hated it there. They were told they were going to go out for seven days and they were out for 22 days. They ran out of food. All they have are those little ration packages. They ran out of food. He lost about 50 pounds. SMITH: That's not all. The 21 year old reservist also reported home that he felt misled about the mission, that he did things he didn't want to do. He even thought about threatening suicide in hopes he’d get sent home. GORDON O’CONNOR (Defence Minister): I'd be surprised if he was misled. SMITH: Deflecting *Boneca*'s complaints, Gordon O'Connor insisted troop morale is still high, and that reservists are trained to take the same risks as regular soldiers. O’CONNOR: You don't get a choice in what you do or don't do. This is the military. SMITH: But for Megan Decorte, it's time to bring them all back. DECORTE: It's wrong. They should all be taken out and sent home to the people that love them. SMITH: Since reservists make up 10 to 15 percent of troops in Afghanistan, the Defence Minister says odds are they'll suffer that same share of casualties. In fact this year the toll is running even higher. Of nine Canadians killed since January, *Boneca* i s the third reservist. Roger Smith, CTV News, Ottawa. © 2006 CTV Television Inc. All Rights Reserved. Length: 370 words ===================================================================== Inside Afghanistan CTV News and Current Affairs Mon 10 Jul 2006 Time: 23:00:00 ET Network: CTV LLOYD ROBERTSON: Good evening. Tonight we're going to take you inside the battle with pictures of Canadian troops fighting in Afghanistan like you’ve never seen before. Over these last several days, our forces have been engaged in especially tough c ombat operations against the insurgents. On dusty battlefields, Canadians faced off against dozens of Taliban in an area called Pashmul, west of Kandahar. It’s a region where Canadians have fought the Taliban before, but never with this kind of intensity. And it was here that Corporal Tony *Boneca* was killed in an ambush. CTV’s Steve Chao was with the troops during 60 hours of deadly contact. Steve take us through the operation as you saw it. STEVE CHAO (Reporter): Lloyd, this all started when Canadian commanders received a tip from villagers that the Taliban had gathered in the area of Pashmul. They decided to move in. Canadian soldiers were looking to pick a fight on this night. They didn't have long to wait. Caught in a Taliban ambush, soldiers returned fire. It's 2:30 a.m. right now. The convoy has just come under attack and insurgents are to the left less than one hundred meters away. With insurgents advancing to a school less than five m eters away our rear gunner, a medic, joins the fight. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We are in contact near the school that's where all we're firing when we were back there further. CHAO: Night turns into day and the clashes continue. It was on this very battleground 30 years ago that the Soviets suffered their final defeat. A fact not lost on Canadians as they advance into a maze of mud wall compounds. They're met with fierce resist ance. MASTER CORPORAL JASON BOYES (Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry): There is multiple compounds going into each other. They also have holes going through them. They're almost like fox holes or spider holes so they can move through the compounds thr ough the vineyards, so it's like a complex urban environment almost. CHAO: In the complex environment two soldiers are reported injured. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We took a major hit from (inaudible) 1-1-9-2-4 over. CHAO: One suffering from a gunshot wound is rushed away by armoured ambulance. The other, Private Josh Purc, chooses to stay, suffering a fractured ankle. PRIVATE JOSH PURC (Injured Soldier): Well I can still walk. There is guys in here in worse condition. CHAO: Canadian commanders call in American air support. This is a 500 pound JDAM bomb. Some Taliban fighters are killed, six others, including two commanders, are caught. Day two, and more air power. Still, one Canadian soldier, Corporal Tony *Boneca*, is s hot and killed, but soldiers marshal on. WARRANT OFFICER DARREN HESSELL (Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry): This is the job we get paid for. We train for it. It's like being on a hockey team, you wouldn't want to sit on the bench the whole time so when you get the order to go, you go. CHAO: Day three, more sweeps. But this time soldiers encounter only blood stains from the wounded, and five bloody pairs of shoes on the very spot where one bomb was dropped. Despite insurgents in apparent retreat, Canadian commanders say victory is still very far away. LIEUTENANT COLONEL IAN HOPE (Canadian Battlegroup Commander): When the people in this district, in this province dismiss the Taliban as an option, then you will see success. CHAO: Troops know that day is still far in the future. This is their third battle here in five months, and Canadian soldiers are told to expect many more. Physically and emotionally drained, we're told by the military that many of these soldiers will only have one night's rest before having to go out on mission once again. In the meantime, the British have asked for 200 more special forces soldiers to come to Afghanistan as reinforcements. A clear sign that the insurgency is only growing in strength. Lloy d. ROBERTSON: And, Steve, as a reporter, you got about as close to the actual combat as anyone has ever been. So give us your impression of what it was like from the inside? CHAO: Well we went out with soldiers in hopes of getting a clear picture of the challenges they were facing, and we got a healthy dose. My cameraman and I literally had rocket propelled grenades fly by us and land just a few feet away. At the same time, e verywhere we went there was constant gun fire and we could also feel the concussion of the bombs dropping from the massive air strikes called in by the Canadians. Beyond the Taliban threat, we also had to battle the 60 degree Celsius heat and at the same time try to sleep in our flak jackets in the mud and the dirt and try to battle also the sand flies. In the words of one infantryman, welcome to their reality. ROBERTSON: Reality is the fog of war. Thank you Steve. © 2006 CTV Television Inc. All Rights Reserved. Length: 832 words ===================================================================== Reporter describes attack on soldiers CTV News and Current Affairs Sun 09 Jul 2006 Time: 23:00:00 ET Network: CTV SANDIE RINALDO: And CTV's Steve Chao was travelling with Canadian troops when Corporal Anthony *Boneca* was killed. He joins us on the line from Pashmul, just west of Kandahar. Steve, you were close by when the Canadian soldiers were ambushed. What di d you see? What did you hear? STEVE CHAO (Reporter): We heard gunfire and that immediately signalled to us that there was an ambush, because this patrol was trying to root out insurgents that were hiding in these mud wall compounds. Soon after that we heard on the military com system that a soldier had been shot. A medical airlift was called, Blackhawk helicopters came down to pick up Corporal *Boneca*, but we soon learned also that Corporal *Boneca* had died. RINALDO: Steve, Pashmul is an area is known as ambush alley. Russians were defeated there. Americans suffered casualties. What are the Canadians saying about the road ahead? CHAO: This has been a point of frustration for the Canadians. Canadians have been here many times before in the past few months. They have had some victories in pushing out the Taliban, but they've found that soon after more fighters come in and once agai n they hold the area. So a lot of soldiers are telling us that they feel that their battle here is somewhat futile and they really wonder whether, if fact, they can actually achieve victory here. RINALDO: CTV's Steve Chao who is embedded with Canadian troops in Afghanistan. © 2006 CTV Television Inc. All Rights Reserved. Length: 246 words ===================================================================== Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan CTV News and Current Affairs Sun 09 Jul 2006 Time: 23:00:00 ET Network: CTV SANDIE RINALDO: As Tom Kennedy mentioned earlier, soccer can sometimes bring enemies together even if it's just long enough to watch a match. But there was no such pause in the violence today in Afghanistan. A Canadian soldier, Corporal Anthony Bone ca, was killed in a fierce fire fight with Afghan insurgents. It happened near the village of Pashmul, west of Kandahar City. Two other Canadians were also wounded. As CTV's Rosemary Thompson reports, *Boneca* died shortly before completing his tour of duty . ROSEMARY THOMPSON (Reporter): Fresh out of high school, 21 year old Corporal Anthony *Boneca* joined the army reserve four years ago. The artillery soldier was deployed twice to Afghanistan, first to Kabul, then six months ago to Kandahar. BRIGADIER GENERAL DAVID FRASER (Canadian Commander): He was doing outstanding work out there. We really do have to admire his professionalism and his heroic efforts to help out people less fortunate than ours. THOMPSON: The commander claimed his death won’t affect troop morale. But in his hometown of Thunder Bay his favourite uncle saw a shift in *Boneca*’s normally sunny disposition. WILLIAM BABE (Uncle): Anthony, he was very enthusiastic and exuberant and thoughtful, sensitive, kind, brave. THOMPSON: But recently *Boneca*’s frequent phone calls from Kandahar were different. The enthusiasm was gone. BABE: He phoned me and said it's not like it is on TV, Uncle Bill, and I wouldn’t do it again. He was demoralized I think. THOMPSON: His uncle tried to reassure him. BABE: He sounded down the last couple of calls. We were very worried about him. And now, of course... THOMPSON: An only child, now his family braces for a tragic homecoming. This on the same weekend that four other Canadian soldiers were injured. After declaring victory in this village a month ago, it appears the Taliban is back with a vengeance. SUNIL RAM (Security and Defence Analyst): It is highly probable that Canadian troops are going to get killed or wounded simply because the Taliban tactics now are very, very aggressive and it's become very apparent that the Taliban are willing to fight to the death. THOMPSON: In a written statement, the Prime Minister offered his condolences to the *Boneca* family, praising the young man's self-sacrifice. *Boneca* was scheduled to be home in three weeks. Rosemary Thompson, CTV News, Ottawa. © 2006 CTV Television Inc. All Rights Reserved. Length: 387 words U.S. bombs kill at least 40 Taliban Sudbury Star (ON) Tue 11 Jul 2006 Page: B8 Section: World Byline: Source: CP A U.S. warplane dropped four 225-kilogram bombs on a militant hideout in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing more than 40 suspected Taliban fighters, officials said as Britain announced it is sending more troops to the region. One Afghan soldier was killed and three soldiers in the U.S.-led coalition were wounded during the battle at the Taliban base in Uruzgan, after heavy clashes in a neighbouring province over the weekend left 20 militants and a Canadian soldier dead. It was the latest fighting in a coalition offensive after Taliban militants launched a wave of suicide attacks, bombings and brazen assaults on security forces in the hardline Islamic militia's southern heartland. More than 700 people, mostly militants, have died in the violence since mid-May, according to Afghan and coalition casualty figures tallied by The Associated Press. Cpl. Anthony *Boneca*, 21, was killed Sunday during a firefight west of Kandahar City. Two other Canadian soldiers were wounded in the battle. *Boneca*, a reservist with the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay, Ont., was the 17th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan. British Defence Secretary Des Browne said 900 British soldiers would be sent to help deal with stronger than expected resistance in southern Helmand province, a hub of the Afghan opium trade. Some 200 would deploy in the next few weeks and all 900 by October, he said. Britain, which has lost six servicemen in combat over the past month, already has 3,300 soldiers in Helmand. © 2006 Osprey Media Group Inc. All rights reserved. Edition: Length: 245 words Illustration: ===================================================================== Afghan-Fatality Broadcast News Tue 11 Jul 2006 Section: General and national news TORONTO -- The repatriation ceremony for reservist Corporal Anthony *Boneca* may be open to the media. Earlier this year, the Conservative government was criticized for barring the media when the bodies of four soldiers were returned from Afghanistan. Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor says the decision on whether reporters and cameras will be let in this time will rest with *Boneca*'s family. *Boneca* died Sunday in a firefight west of Kandahar City. A military spokesman says a repatriation ceremony is scheduled for tomorrow, most likely at C-F-B Trenton in eastern Ontario. *Boneca*'s friends and family have said he was ill-trained for the combat role that claimed his life, and misled about Canada's role in Afghanistan. But O'Connor says reservists get the same training and equipment as regular soldiers. He says he would be surprised if people are misled about the hazards of the Afghan mission. (CP) mcw Length: 146 words ===================================================================== ===================================================================== Afghan-Fatality-Families Broadcast News Mon 10 Jul 2006 Section: General and national news INDEX: Defence, Media WINNIPEG -- Reporters and television cameras may be allowed inside Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ontario for the arrival of the body of Corporal Anthony *Boneca*. Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor says the decision will rest with *Boneca*'s immediate family, and he has not yet heard what they want. Earlier this year, the federal government started banning reporters from the repatriation ceremonies. But some families of soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan lambasted the decision. *Boneca*'s body was loaded onto a plane in Afghanistan today during a sombre and almost silent ramp ceremony. Hundreds of Canadian, American, British, Romanian, French and Dutch troops lined the runway. (BN) stl Length: 110 words ===================================================================== ===================================================================== Afghan-Fatality-Disillusioned-Update (minister reaction) Broadcast News Mon 10 Jul 2006 Section: General and national news THUNDER BAY, Ontario -- The latest Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan, Corporal Anthony *Boneca*, was apparently disillusioned and desperate to leave the war-torn country. *Boneca*'s girlfriend's father, Larry DeCourte, says the military didn't provide proper training. He says *Boneca* was so desperate to leave Afghanistan, he considered telling an army priest he was suicidal so he could be discharged. Defence Minister Goron O'Connor says reservists who go to Afghanistan get the same training as other military personnel. O'Connor also says any soldier who doesn't want to go to Afghanistan would not be sent. But he says once people are in the region, they cannot pick and choose what they do. *Boneca*, a reservist from Thunder Bay, Ontario, died Sunday following a firefight west of Kandahar City. (BN) stl Length: 128 words ===================================================================== ===================================================================== Reservist was disillusioned with military: family CBC.CA News Tue 11 Jul 2006 Section: Canada Time: Mon July 10 11:21:20 2006 EDT Network: CBC A Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan was disillusioned with the military and considered pretending he was suicidal to get out, family and friends said on the weekend. Cpl. Anthony *Boneca*, a 21-year-old reservist from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay, Ont., was killed Sunday morning as international and Afghan soldiers moved into a region west of Kandahar City. William Babe said his nephew was disillusioned with the military and that he planned to leave and go back to school this fall. *Boneca* was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan and serving with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. Babe said he was due home at the end of this month. In recent phone calls, Babe said, *Boneca* sounded depressed. "He said, 'Uncle Bill, it's not like it was on TV' and 'I would never do this again,' " Babe said. "I don't think he believed totally in what he was doing because I think he saw things he didn't expect to see and didn't want to see and probably did things he didn't want to do." Babe said his nephew's death is a horrible waste, and added that he would like to see Canada pull its forces out of Afghanistan. Girlfriend's father says soldier talked with priest The father of *Boneca*'s girlfriend said *Boneca* wanted out of the military so badly that he even considered pretending to be suicidal, and asked an army priest if talk of suicide would get him discharged. Larry DeCorte, whose 19-year-old daughter Megan was set to be engaged to *Boneca*, said the young soldier hated being in Afghanistan and felt he had been misled by the military. "All that went on and the treatment they were getting by the Canadian army and by the people over there, wasn't what he bargained for," DeCorte said. "They'd go out on tours ... they'd be out for 22 days [with] not enough rations, not enough water. "The people of Canada have to realize this kind of stuff, that they've been treated like that." DeCorte also called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to pull Canadian troops out of Afghanistan. 'Everybody has to take equal risks' But Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said Monday that he "would be surprised if people are misled" about the hazards of the Afghan mission." "Everybody has to take equal risks," O'Connor told a news conference in Winnipeg. "Once you're in and committed, you don't get a choice about what you do and don't do. This is the military." O'Connor said that any reservist who "didn't want to go to Afghanistan wouldn't be sent." But he said that once they are deployed, they are not sent home without good reason. He added that despite *Boneca*'s death, morale remains high. "Morale of the troops in Afghanistan is literally fantastic, as it is back here in Canada." © 2006 CBC. All Rights Reserved. Length: 474 words ===================================================================== Canadian soldier's body coming home CBC.CA News Tue 11 Jul 2006 Section: World Time: Mon July 10 00:25:54 2006 EDT Network: CBC A thousand coalition soldiers stood at attention on the tarmac at Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan Monday morning as the flag-draped casket of Cpl. Anthony *Boneca* was gently loaded on to a plane for his last trip home. Canadian, American, British, Romanian, French and Dutch soldiers were sombre and silent as they watched the ceremony marking the departure of *Boneca*, a 21-year-old reservist from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay, Ont. He was killed on Sunday morning as international and Afghan soldiers moved into a region west of Kandahar City, which has been a hotbed of Taliban activity over the past few months. Top general vows to push on Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, Canada's top soldier in Afghanistan, called *Boneca*'s death a "tragic loss," extending his sympathy to the soldier's family and friends. "I think the one thing we've got to understand is that he was doing outstanding work out there," Fraser said. "We really do have to admire his professionalism and his heroic efforts to help out people who are less fortunate." But Fraser said *Boneca*'s death would not stop Canada's 2,300 soldiers from continuing their mission in Afghanistan. They're part of the U.S.-led international forces that have been trying to stabilize the country since the Taliban government was ousted after the al-Qaeda attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. "We're going to carry on operations as they are going on right now," Fraser said. "We're not going to pull back. We're going to push through for as long as it takes." Prime minister offers condolences Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement sending condolences to *Boneca*'s family, friends and comrades. "On behalf of Canadians, I praise Corporal *Boneca*'s courage and self-sacrifice and I take comfort knowing that his memory will live on in the spirit of fellow Canadian Forces soldiers serving around the world, and in the hearts of his countrymen who pray for their safe return." *Boneca* was due home within month *Boneca*'s uncle, William Babe, said his nephew was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan and serving with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. "He spent his last tour in Kabul, and this year, when the war escalated, he went to Kandahar with the Princess Pats," Babe told CBC News from Thunder Bay. "He was due home at the end of this month." *Boneca* was 17th Canadian soldier to be killed in Afghanistan since the first battle group was sent to the country in February 2002. A Canadian diplomat was also killed. © 2006 CBC. All Rights Reserved. Length: 421 words ===================================================================== Canadian killed in firefight 'a hero' St. Catharines Standard (ON) Mon 10 Jul 2006 Page: B5 Section: Spectrum Byline: Source: CP A Canadian soldier was killed and two others were wounded Sunday in a brutal firefight as coalition troops called in air strikes and heavy artillery to blast Taliban strongholds west of Kandahar City. Cpl. Anthony Joseph *Boneca*, 21, a reservist from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay died Sunday morning, the 17th Canadian soldier to be killed in Afghanistan, military officials said. *Boneca*, fighting as part of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry battle group, was killed as troops mounted aggressive patrols near the village of Pashmol, an area that has been a hotbed of Taliban activity over the past few months. "There has been lots of contact. But unfortunately we have suffered the tragic loss of Cpl. *Boneca*," said Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, the Canadian commander on the multinational brigade in Kandahar. "We really do have to admire his professionalism and his heroic efforts to help out people less fortunate than ours. Our hearts and prayers go out to his family and friends." A member of the slain soldier's family contacted at his parent's house in Thunder Bay said *Boneca* had been in the reserves for about four years, having joined immediately after high school. His death came three weeks before he was to return to Canada. He wasn't married but had a "very lovely girlfriend" whom he had been seeing for well over a year, said Elizabeth Babe, 63, an aunt. *Boneca*, who started out in the militia, had previously done tours that included guard duty in the United Arab Emirates that included a couple of trips to Kabul before he arrived in southern Afghanistan in February, she said. "He was always interested in the army," Babe added. "He just came home from one tour, worked a bit around, and signed up for the second tour. "He's just the most wonderful boy. Very loyal, very strong, very intelligent, and thrilled to be part of the services. A real angel of a person." Statements of condolence were immediately issued by Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "Our prayers are with the loved ones of Cpl. *Boneca* in these difficult times and we stand proudly as a nation knowing that his sacrifice was not in vain; that he laid down his life for the safety of citizens in both Canada and Afghanistan," Harper said. Jean said *Boneca*'s death "serves as a further reminder of the dangers faced by our Canadian Forces every day in Afghanistan and also of the steadfastness of our members who each day try to make that country a better place to live. "Today, we honour his memory as a hero who fought for what he believed in," she said. A few hours after *Boneca* was hit, two other Canadian soldiers were wounded in action in the battle. Both were flown by helicopter to hospital at the international coalition base. Their injuries were described as non-life threatening. Two other Canadians were wounded Saturday, one seriously, in a firefight in the same general area. None of their names have been released. Troops of the battle group and the Afghan National Army slowly combed through the region of mud-hut villages and lush fields of grapes, marijuana and other crops in search of the insurgents. Infantry and armoured vehicles soon made contact with the Taliban, sparking the firefight. Eventually the coalition called in air strikes and artillery support. U.S. Apache assault helicopters buzzed over the area like angry dragonflies, smashing targets. A-10 Warthog jets roared in dropping bombs. A battery of Canadian heavy guns pounded the insurgents with shells. Word of *Boneca*'s death spread quickly among the troops back at the international coalition base. Master Cpl. Will Emsle, a fellow reservist who trained with *Boneca*, said the reality of losing his friend hadn't completely sunk in yet. "I was surprised. I was really shocked," said Emsle, who is from Calgary. "He was a real joker. He loved to joke around. He was a good guy." No soldier ever imagines they will get hurt, let alone die, he said. "You just don't think about it to be honest with you. You can't think about it. But it is in the back of your mind when you go out there. It is just the line of work we do and these are the risks." That ongoing threat of danger was driven home Sunday evening when the coalition base was hit by a 107-millimetre rocket that lightly wounded two coalition soldiers. A Canadian flag was lowered to half-mast at a small memorial that commemorates soldiers who have died in Afghanistan. The Pashmol area has been a major gathering point for Taliban, who have been ambushing convoys and attacking Afghan National Police outposts. Canadian troops have defeated the insurgents in every major engagement in the region since May. But when coalition activity subsides, the Taliban regroup and become more active again. Fraser said *Boneca*'s death will not have any impact on the joint Canadian-Afghan operation to sweep the region of Taliban. "We are going to carry on operations as they are," the general said. "We are not pulling back at all, we are leaning into this. We are going to push right through for as long as it takes." Coalition troops were to assemble for a ceremony this morning at Kandahar airfield to pay tribute to *Boneca*, the 17th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan. © 2006 Osprey Media Group Inc. All rights reserved. Edition: Length: 896 words Illustration: Cpl. Anthony *Boneca* is seen with his parents Shirley, left, and Tony in a December, 2004 family photo. *Boneca*, 21, a reservist from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment in Thunder Bay, died of injuries received in a firefight west of Kandahar City on Saturday, three weeks before he was to return to Canada. ===================================================================== Afghan mission worth the risk Owen Sound Sun Times (ON) Tue 11 Jul 2006 Page: A4 Section: Editorial Byline: Source: Monday the family, friends and countrymen of Cpl. Anthony Joseph *Boneca* learned of his death in a firefight west of Kandahar city in Afghanistan. Cpl. *Boneca* is the 17th soldier killed since the onset of the Afghan mission in 2002, and the 18th Canadian. Diplomat Glyn Berry was slain by a roadside bomb in Kandahar in January. Today, as has happened following each of those earlier deaths, this country is collectively grieving. And many Canadians are no doubt asking themselves: Is the Afghan mission worth the cost? Is it succeeding or foundering? If it is foundering, is it worth even one more Canadian life? In a democracy, questions such as these are inevitable, and healthy. They require answers. Here's our answer: Canadian soldiers went to Afghanistan for all the right reasons - defence of hearth, homeland and the values we all hold dear. Whatever doubts the Canadian public may have about the Afghan mission, they are not shared by the vast majority of soldiers. As long as our men and women in uniform, who are among the best- trained, best-equipped in the world for the purposes of this mission, are solidly supportive of the effort, so must we be. They're there on the ground, after all. They're smart people and all volunteers. We should honour their sacrifice. We should also respect their judgment. The House of Commons is not in session. But if it were, opposition MPs would almost certainly be standing in the House of Commons this afternoon to criticize the federal government's handling of the Afghan file. New Democrats, while always careful to couch their rhetoric in patriotism, would suggest that the Afghan venture is a misguided exercise in American imperialism. We should be there as peacekeepers only, they would say - blithely ignoring that there's no peace to keep in Afghanistan and never was. The Liberals, who committed Canada to Afghanistan and launched the current military effort last year, might bray that the mission profile has changed: They never intended for our troops to go into combat. They thought we were there as nation builders only. This is, to put it more politely than some MPs deserve, balderdash. At best, it's political gamesmanship. At worst, it's a bald-faced lie. Opposition Leader Bill Graham, in his former role as defence minister, warned Canadians a year ago that this mission would be dangerous and bloody. So did Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier. Canada's military mission in Afghanistan is of great national and international import. But it's also a local issue. Indeed, as local issues go, few are more important than this. Fourteen of our neighbours - reservists with the Grey and Simcoe Foresters - will soon be headed to Afghanistan to join the 2,300 Canadian soldiers already there. Four of these reservists are Grey- Bruce residents. One part-time soldier from this area is already serving at the Kandahar Air Field, the main coalition base. We honour their patriotism, courage and idealism. We'll have full reports on their mission in Wednesday's newspaper. Today, please take a few moments to honour the memory of Cpl. *Boneca*. Think of the more than 2,000 fine young Canadians - fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers - who fight on where he fell. Hold them in your thoughts. Wish them well. © 2006 Osprey Media Group Inc. All rights reserved. Edition: Length: 546 words Illustration: ===================================================================== Reservists treated like regular soldiers: Defence minister Niagara Falls Review (ON) Tue 11 Jul 2006 Page: A7 Section: Canada Byline: Chinta Puxley Source: Angry accusations reservist Cpl. Anthony *Boneca* was "misled" by the military about Canada's role in Afghanistan and ill-trained for the combat role that claimed his life were brushed aside Monday by the Conservative government. Family and friends of the 21-year-old soldier, who died Sunday in a firefight west of Kandahar City, said *Boneca* was so desperate to return home he contemplated telling an army priest he was suicidal in the hopes of being discharged. "He expected to be on patrol, not fighting a war for someone else, " said Larry DeCourte, father of *Boneca*'s girlfriend Megan. *Boneca*, a reservist with the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay, whose tour of duty was to end in three weeks, didn't have the proper training to engage the enemy, added DeCourte. While Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said he wouldn't contest what *Boneca* told his friends and family, he added he "would be surprised if people are misled" about the hazards of the Afghan mission. "Once you're in and committed, you don't get a choice about what you do and don't do. This is the military," O'Connor told a news conference in Winnipeg. As for the claim *Boneca* would have been ill-prepared to face the enemy, O'Connor noted reservists - who make up 10 and 15 per cent of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan - are treated as regular soldiers. Lt.-Col. Chris Lemay, who trained the task force that included *Boneca*, said troops and reservists receive highly specific training as part of a seven-level program conducted over several months. "We always train for the worst-case scenario," said Lemay, noting the troops take part in live-fire and roadside bomb exercises. O'Connor stressed any reservist who "didn't want to go to Afghanistan wouldn't be sent," but once deployed, they are not sent home without good reason. DeCourte, in a telephone interview from Thunder Bay, accused the military of "glorifying" the mission and said *Boneca* had recently become "disillusioned" with Canada's role in the conflict. He said it was *Boneca*'s second tour in Afghanistan, but the mission was very different from his last - guarding a post in Kabul. DeCourte said *Boneca* - who he described as a "fantastic person," and a "proud" reservist and Canadian - recently became more and more desperate to leave. "He wanted to get on with his life," said DeCourte, who added his daughter had been given a promise ring by *Boneca*. DeCourte said *Boneca*'s death should serve as a warning to anyone contemplating serving in Afghanistan. "They've got to know they may not come home." Hundreds of Canadian, American, British, Romanian, French and Dutch troops watched quietly Monday at the main coalition base in Kandahar as *Boneca*'s body was loaded onto an aircraft. A repatriation ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, most likely at CFB Trenton, said military spokeswoman Lt. Morgan Bailey. Funeral arrangements had not yet been made. © 2006 Osprey Media Group Inc. All rights reserved. Edition: Length: 479 words Illustration: Comrades of Cpl. Anthony *Boneca* carry his flag-draped casket toward an aircraft during a ramp ceremony at the coalition base at Kandahar. *Boneca* was killed in action Sunday during a firefight in Afghanistan. ===================================================================== Soldier slain in Afghanistan remembered as 'angel' Niagara Falls Review (ON) Mon 10 Jul 2006 Page: A6 Section: Canada Byline: Source: CP A Canadian killed in Afghanistan is remembered by family and friends as a outgoing, intelligent soldier who loved his girlfriend and was devoted to his work in the military. Cpl. Anthony *Boneca*, 21, a reservist from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment in Thunder Bay, died of injuries received in a firefight west of Kandahar City Saturday, three weeks before he was to return to Canada. A family member, contacted at his parents' home in Thunder Bay Sunday, said *Boneca* started in the militia and had been in the reserves for about four years, signing up immediately after high school. He wasn't married but had a "very lovely girlfriend" whom he had been seeing for well over a year, said Elizabeth Babe, 63, an aunt. *Boneca* had previously done tours that included guard duty in the United Arab Emirates and Kabul before arriving in southern Afghanistan in February, his aunt said. "He was always interested in the army," Babe added. "He just came home from one tour, worked a bit around and signed up for the second tour. "He's just the most wonderful boy. Very loyal, very strong, very intelligent, and thrilled to be part of the services. A real angel of a person." Ryan and Ian Benninghaus grew up five doors down from *Boneca* in Thunder Bay and said they couldn't have had a better neighbour. "Everybody loved that guy," said Ian, 27. "The neighbourhood is very close and everybody knew about his involvement with the military. Everybody supported him." The Benninghaus brothers got together Sunday to watch the World Cup final - partly to take their minds off of their friend's death and partly out of respect for *Boneca*, an avid soccer fan. Ian remembered *Boneca* as a friendly teenager who would kick a soccer ball around the street by himself almost every night. As a five year old, *Boneca* would bike to the Benninghaus' house almost every day to visit the family's Persian cat, the brothers said. Ryan, 25, said *Boneca* told him he was looking forward to coming home during an online chat a few weeks ago. *Boneca* had been able to enjoy a brief break from his harsh duties in Afghanistan - he and his girlfriend recently travelled to Italy and Greece on a two-week leave, Ryan said. He sent an e-mail to friends last week, saying the pair had the time of their lives on the trip. "Wish I didn't have to go back to work. It's so hot here now you can barely handle it," he wrote. "I know you're all watching the news and know what's going on here, but don't worry, I'll be OK." Coalition troops will pay tribute to *Boneca*, the 17th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan, this morning. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean issued statements Sunday expressing their condolences to the family. © 2006 Osprey Media Group Inc. All rights reserved. Edition: Length: 477 words Illustration: ===================================================================== Battles won, but victory elusive Kingston Whig-Standard (ON) Tue 11 Jul 2006 Page: 9 Section: National/World Byline: John Cotter Source: The Canadian Press Drained and exhausted, Canadian soldiers tried to recover yesterday from a series of fierce battles with the Taliban, as they solemnly bid goodbye to a fallen comrade and their commander cautioned against claiming any victory. The flag-draped remains of Cpl. Anthony *Boneca*, 21, the youngest Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan, were slowly carried by pallbearers across the tarmac at Kandahar airfield to a CC-130 Hercules transport for his final flight home. There was no military band or bagpiper at the ramp ceremony. The only sounds were the drone of helicopters and the sobs of a wounded soldier in a wheelchair. The firefight in which *Boneca* was killed was one of 23 small, separate engagements that Canadian troops fought over the weekend in the Zharei district west of Kandahar City. Supported by coalition assault helicopters, ground attack jets and heavy guns, the running battle pitted most of the Princess Patricia's battle group against a force of 60 to 70 lightly armed insurgents, some of whom were no more than boys. While the Canadians won each battle, killing about 20 Taliban fighters, Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, the battle group commander, refused to call it a victory. "There is no military victory in this kind of environment," Hope said during a news conference at a forward patrol base. Nearby as he spoke, his gaunt, exhausted soldiers collapsed into sleep beside their battered vehicles in 55-degree C heat. "A military victory is impossible. When the people of this district and this province have confidence in their army, in their police and in their government, and dismiss the Taliban as an option, then we will have success. We are not there yet. We will get there." During the running battles, Canadian and Afghan National Army troops advanced through mud-hut villages and lush farms until they made contact with the insurgents, sometimes being caught in ambushes. It was during a house clearing operation that *Boneca* was shot just above the breastplate of his body armour. Infantry and armoured vehicles then brought their superior firepower to bear, pinning the insurgents in place. Air strikes and heavy artillery support were then called in. Troops followed up, checking the mud houses and farms. Some of the Taliban were found in tunnel complexes dug beneath some of the buildings. Maj. Nick Grimshaw, commander of B Company, said his troops have fought in 16 separate engagements since coming to Afghanistan, many of them within a few kilometres of Zharei District. While they have won them all, he couldn't say if the area remains pacified. "It is too early to tell," the 35-year-old major from Kingston said. "The area that we were in was pacified, but it is hard to say. We will see in the days and weeks to come." Fierce Taliban attacks have prompted Britain to announce it will reinforce its 3,300-troop brigade in nearby Helmand Province with 900 more soldiers.Page © 2006 Osprey Media Group Inc. All rights reserved. Edition: Length: 481 words Illustration: ===================================================================== Soldier killed in firefight Kingston Whig-Standard (ON) Mon 10 Jul 2006 Page: 9 Section: National/World Byline: Matthew Fisher Source: CanWest News Service A firefight in the postcard beautiful but treacherous orchards and vineyards that intersect Panjwei and Zharei districts claimed a young Canadian soldier's life just after dawn yesterday. A Taliban gunman shot Cpl. Anthony *Boneca* from the roof of a mud- baked compound used to dry grapes, hitting him just above his bulletproof vest. The 21-year-old infantryman from Thunder Bay, described as "good natured," was trying to enter the honeycomb structure. After *Boneca*'s death, U.S. aircraft - including a remotely controlled Predator, Apache AH-64 attack helicopters and A-10 Warthogs - fired Hellfire missiles and dropped other ordnance on the compound. The insect-like Apaches buzzed the battlefield for about 45 minutes, repeatedly strafing Taliban positions at extremely low altitude. Howitzers of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery also hit the area with 155-mm shells as coalition forces fought a ferocious battle over several kilometres of irrigated terrain near the Arghandab River. *Boneca* was the 17th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002 and the 13th since Canada switched its attention in February from relatively benign Kabul to the violent Taliban heartland in and around Kandahar City. The last Canadian to be killed in Afghanistan was Capt. Nichola Goddard. A forward artillery observer, she died in a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade attack, on May 17 in Panjwei, a few kilometres from where *Boneca* died yesterday. Family members of the fallen reservist gathered yesterday in Thunder Bay. *Boneca*'s uncle, William Babe, said in a television interview they are devastated. "I have so many memories - hundreds of memories - he was just a wonderful boy and a fine young man. Very strong, very honest, really helpful and considerate. I can't say enough good things about him." *Boneca* had been due home in about three weeks from his second tour in Afghanistan. Babe said his nephew had vowed not to return to Afghanistan, telling his family he was looking forward to his homecoming. *Boneca* wasn't married but had a girlfriend whom he had been seeing for more than a year. He had previously done tours that included guard duty in the United Arab Emirates. Yesterday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement, sending his condolences to the soldier's family, friends and comrades. "Our prayers are with the loved ones of Cpl. *Boneca* in these difficult times and we stand proudly as a nation knowing that his sacrifice was not in vain; that he laid down his life for the safety of citizens in both Canada and Afghanistan,' Harper said. Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, the Canadian commander of the multinational brigade responsible for southern Afghanistan, expressed deep regret at the "tragic loss" of *Boneca*'s life in the village of Pashmol. The corporal was "doing great work out there," the general said, adding that he was "a team member" and that there is no difference in Afghanistan between Canadian reservists, regular force members and civilians. *Boneca* joined Thunder Bay's Lake Superior Scottish Regiment out of high school four years ago. The third reservist to die in Afghanistan this year, the corporal was killed in the middle of a furious exchange between the Taliban - who have been holed up in the area for weeks - and Canadian infantry attacking on foot and mounted in LAV III light-armoured vehicles that fired deadly 25-mm cannons. The current mission is considered so important that soldiers from all three of the Patricias' infantry companies joined the fight. Their plan, to sweep through farms where the Taliban are believed to be hiding, has stirred up a hornet's nest. All the companies have reported multiple contacts with the enemy over the past 48 hours and many Taliban dead and wounded. About four hours after *Boneca* fell, and at exactly the same spot, two other Canadian soldiers were wounded. Both wounded men were sent by U.S. army medevac helicopter to the Canadian combat hospital at the Kandahar Airfield. One has already been released and the other is in good condition. Defeating the Taliban in Panjwei/Zharei has been seen for some time by coalition commanders as crucial to securing peace in Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, which is 30 kilometres to the east. The Taliban fired another rocket - the 28th in four months - at Kandahar Airfield last night. The rocket slightly injured two coalition soldiers. A Canadian soldier who was seriously wounded in fighting Saturday was flown yesterday aboard a special U.S. air force ambulance to a U.S. combat hospital in Germany. When he is well enough, he will be flown to Canada. © 2006 Osprey Media Group Inc. All rights reserved. Edition: Length: 747 words Illustration: Cpl. Anthony *Boneca* was killed in battle in Afghanistan yesterday. The 21-year-old was to come home in three weeks. ===================================================================== [In the day or so since his death, *Boneca*'s family has spoken about his recent unhappiness in Afghanistan. They say he was feeling disillusioned about his role there and unprepared] CBC News and Current Affairs Mon 10 Jul 2006 Time: 22:00 EDT Network: CBC Television - The National IAN HANOMANSING (HOST): In the day or so since his death, *Boneca*'s family has spoken about his recent unhappiness in Afghanistan. They say he was feeling disillusioned about his role there and unprepared for what he called heavy duty. So what does being a reservist in the Canadian Forces involve? What are the expectations? Crystal Goomansingh has that. CRYSTAL GOOMANSINGH (REPORTER): Tricia Laramee tries to keep busy in her Winnipeg store. Her partner, corporal Brad Shillington, is an infantryman, a reservist serving in Afghanistan. TRICIA LARAMEE (CORPORAL BRAD SHILLINGTON'S PARTNER): When the call came, I think Brad just decided himself that it was the right thing to do. He talks a lot about the Afghanistan people not having what we have. CRYSTAL GOOMANSINGH (REPORTER): Shillington served with corporal Anthony *Boneca*. Like them, more than 200 of the Canadian soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan are reservists, part-time soldiers who volunteered for the mission. TRICIA LARAMEE (CORPORAL BRAD SHILLINGTON'S PARTNER): I've always thought that it took more bravery to do something that you weren't made to do than something that someone forced you to. CRYSTAL GOOMANSINGH (REPORTER): That's little comfort to *Boneca*'s girlfriend, Megan Decorte. MEGAN DECORTE (CORPORAL ANTHONY *BONECA*'S GIRLFRIEND): He finally answered my questions, and he told me he was so scared, and he didn't want to go back. CRYSTAL GOOMANSINGH (REPORTER): The 21-year-old's family says when he called home, he would talk about not being prepared for the mission. WILLIAM BABE (CORPORAL ANTHONY *BONECA*'S UNCLE): He would say things like, "I don't know if we all know what we're doing." GORDON O'CONNOR (MINISTER OF NATIONAL DEFENCE): Where they are needed in the most efficient way possible... CRYSTAL GOOMANSINGH (REPORTER): During a visit to an air force base in Winnipeg, Canada's Defence Minister acknowledged the family's loss, but defended the training reservists receive. GORDON O'CONNOR (MINISTER OF NATIONAL DEFENCE): There's not any difference between a person in the reserves and the regulars once they get trained for the operations. They're getting the same training as anybody else. CRYSTAL GOOMANSINGH (REPORTER): And O'Connor adds no one is forced to go on a mission. GORDON O'CONNOR (MINISTER OF NATIONAL DEFENCE): If someone, a reservist didn't want to go to Afghanistan, you know, they didn't literally want, they wouldn't be sent. And if there are regular soldiers who didn't want to go, they wouldn't be sent either. CRYSTAL GOOMANSINGH (REPORTER): Despite *Boneca*'s death, O'Connor says morale remains high in Afghanistan, as does public support in Canada for the mission. CHUCK CADICK (CAPTAIN; CANADIAN FORCES RETRUITEMENT CENTRE): The recruiting is up right now in this area, approximately 250 percent. Oh, it's just going through the roof. CRYSTAL GOOMANSINGH (REPORTER): *Boneca*'s family will be at C.F.B. Trenton when his body arrives home. The Defence Minister says it will be up to the soldier's family to decide if the repatriation ceremony will be open to the media. Crystal Goomansingh, CBC News, Winnipeg. ONSCREEN: Afghanistan: Britain is sending nearly 900 more soldiers to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. That includes 450 reservists. © 2006 CBC. All Rights Reserved. Length: 505 words ===================================================================== [- Another Canadian body flying home from Afghanistan. An up-close video of the battle that claimed that soldier's life. JASON BOYES (MASTER CORPORAL, CANADIAN FORCES): The rounds were] CBC News and Current Affairs Mon 10 Jul 2006 Time: 22:00 EDT Network: CBC Television - The National IAN HANOMANSING (HOST): - Another Canadian body flying home from Afghanistan. An up-close video of the battle that claimed that soldier's life. JASON BOYES (MASTER CORPORAL, CANADIAN FORCES): The rounds were skipping everywhere. IAN HANOMANSING (HOST): A report from Kandahar. - Good evening. Peter is away this week. We begin tonight with dramatic new pictures and firsthand accounts of a weekend battle in Afghanistan that claimed a Canadian soldier's life. Corporal Anthony *Boneca* was a reservist on his second tour of duty in Kandahar. He died Sunday fighting the Taliban in one of 23 separate battles the Canadians fought over the weekend. Tonight, *Boneca*'s body is being flown home. His fellow soldiers are back in the base in Kandahar, this round of fighting finally over. The CBC's Brooks DeCillia is also in Kandahar. Brooks? BROOKS DECILLIA (REPORTER): Ian, it was some of the toughest fighting Canadian soldiers have seen since they arrived here in Afghanistan earlier this year, and tonight, an idea of what they were up against. It was a frenzy of bullets and rocket-propelled grenades and raged for three days, an intense battle in a maze of villages and vineyards just west of Kandahar, a contest between Coalition forces and Taliban insurgents. Warrant officer Darren Hessell was in the thick of it. DARREN HESSELL (WARRANT OFFICER, CANADIAN FORCES): Well, these guys, they're definitely masters of their own... their terrain. The nature of the terrain is very closed in. Their vineyards are like World War I trench systems, and they can move in on us very close and surprise us very quickly. Definitely with their ability to use terrain and hide, it's a force multiplier for them. JASON BOYES (MASTER CORPORAL, CANADIAN FORCES): There's multiple compounds that go into each other. They also have holes going through them. They're almost like foxholes or spider holes so they can move through the compounds from the vineyards. It's like a complex urban environment almost. BROOKS DECILLIA (REPORTER): And while Coalition forces may have outgunned them, the insurgents didn't shy away from the fight. They battled back with R.P.G.'s, or rocket-propelled grenades, and gunfire, even taking the upper hand sometimes and pinning down some Canadians. JASON BOYES (MASTER CORPORAL, CANADIAN FORCES): We didn't realize how bad it was until we started taking very effective fire. The rounds were skipping everywhere. So our next option was to get off that wall before we got quarantined, and somehow, they made it onto the adjacent wall, the rooftop, and they started to advance on us, hitting us with R.P.G.'s, and at that time, there was four of us on the roof. BROOKS DECILLIA (REPORTER): They escaped the insurgents' bullets, but one Canadian soldier didn't. Corporal Anthony *Boneca*, a reservist from Thunder Bay, Ontario. He was just 21 years old. This morning, Canadian and Coalition soldiers stood at attention in solemn tribute to their fallen comrade. It was all too much for this wounded soldier as the flag-draped casket of his platoon buddy was loaded on to the cargo plane before flying back to Canada. Despite the loss, Canadian commanders here are calling this weekend's battle a success. This morning, a poignant reminder of the price with which that success comes with. Ian? IAN HANOMANSING (HOST): Thanks, Brooks. Brooks DeCillia in Kandahar. © 2006 CBC. All Rights Reserved. Length: 546 words ===================================================================== Defence minister has little sympathy for 'misled' soldier Times Colonist (Victoria) Tue 11 Jul 2006 Page: A3 Section: News Byline: Mike De Souza Dateline: OTTAWA Source: CanWest News Service OTTAWA -- Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor had some harsh words and little sympathy on Monday following revelations the latest Canadian casualty in Afghanistan felt "misled" and wanted out of the mission. "You don't opt out once you're in," O'Connor said at a news conference in Winnipeg. "You don't get a choice about what you do or don't do. This is the military." O'Connor said he was surprised by reports Cpl. Anthony *Boneca*, 21, a reservist killed over the weekend in a firefight west of the city of Kandahar, had felt ill-prepared for the mission and was contemplating talk about suicide to get discharged early. "Once they go to operations, everyone is trained at the same standard," said O'Connor. "There's no difference between a reserve soldier and a regular soldier. They take the same tasks, they take the same risks, and if you can imagine whatever the benefits are, they get the same satisfaction." A retired Canadian army commander says the reality and shock of combat can affect anyone facing it in a foreign country for the first time, whether they are a regular or reserve member of the forces. "Let's be very honest. Young Canadians live in a remarkable country with benefits that they don't often fully appreciate," said Mike Jeffery, a retired lieutenant general who is a fellow with the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. "Despite the fact that we try very hard to prepare them culturally and psychologically, just the reality of walking into an environment like Kandahar can be really quite a shock to the system." But Jeffery stressed the military has a rigorous training and screening process designed to ensure soldiers are ready to assume the rank and role they are assigned. Defence experts also say the reservists, who represent about 10 to 15 per cent of the forces on the ground, would not be sent on missions unless they really wanted to go. "They have a very important role because the regular forces are pushed to the extreme, so [the army] needs those [reserve] people," said Charles Belzile, also a retired lieutenant general who co-wrote a recent report on the reserves. "It's unfortunate that some of the casualties have been reservists recently, but I don't think it's an indication of any less training. I think it's an indication that they were in hot spots." Meantime, tributes were pouring in from the friends, colleagues and family of *Boneca*, who was from Thunder Bay. He was only three weeks away from returning to Canada. And those who knew *Boneca* said his complaints about conditions in Afghanistan seemed out of character. Edition: Final Story Type: News Length: 434 words ===================================================================== Some final dispatches... The Leader-Post (Regina) Tue 11 Jul 2006 Page: A1 / Front Section: News Source: The Leader-Post E-mails from Cpl. Anthony *Boneca* before and after he went on leave in May. *Boneca*, 21-year-old reservist with the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay, Ont., was killed Sunday and two other Canadian soldiers wounded in battles with the Taliban west of Kandahar City. He was the 17th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan. Hey Everyone, just thought i'd give you all an update since i have talked to most of you i a while and alot of crap has happened here but so you know i'm OK . my platoon has been gone out of the wire for a long time. our first operation lasted 16 days then we had a 3-day break before going out for what was supposed to be 4 to 7 day op but turned into a 22 day, walk everywhere, climb everything eat nothing but rations and live worse than the locals fun factory. or as we like to call the Kandahar weight loss plan. it's been nothing but fun over here and i can't wait to leave. i'm going on my trip to Italy and Greece soon with my baby Megan. it will be a good and badly needed break. i leave on the 10th of may and come back june 2. then i only have 2 more months of hell before i come home. hope you all e-mail me soon but i might not be able to answer because i'm going back out to live in the sand. Talk to you all soon Tony *Boneca* Hey everyone, I just returned for my amazing trip to italy and greece with megan. i was so relaxing and fun we had the time of our life there. we travel all over italy from venice to naples and saw so much and greece was so relaxing we just sat on the beach all day for like a week. wish i didn't have to go back to work. it so hot here now you can barely handle it. i know you're all watching the news and know whats going on here but don't worry i'll be ok. i hope you're all doing ok. write me and tell me whats new with you. time to go have some fun in sunny craphole afghanistan take care all of you and i'll talk to you soon Tony *Boneca* Edition: Final Story Type: News Length: 390 words ===================================================================== Canada's biggest battle in decades: City soldiers in thick of fighting that leaves 20 Taliban dead, 20 wounded The Edmonton Journal Tue 11 Jul 2006 Page: A1 / Front Section: News Byline: Matthew Fisher Dateline: ZHAREI; PANJWEI, Afghanistan Source: CanWest News service ZHAREI / PANJWEI, Afghanistan - With a heavy contribution by Edmonton-based soldiers, the fiercest fighting by Canadian troops in more than four decades has left at least 20 Taliban dead, 20 seriously wounded and six captured, the Aghan Army says. The Battle of Zharei/Panjwei, which tailed off at dusk Monday, involved virtually all of the city's 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and the big guns of the army field artillery. U.S. forces added fighter jets, attack helicopters and armed airborne drones to the most intense combat by Canadian troops since Cyprus's civil wars of the early 1960s or the Korean War. "This was by far the biggest engagement since we got here. "The intensity level was dialled up to 11 for awhile," said Maj. Nick Grimshaw, commander of Bravo Company, which spent about 15 hours fighting its way out of an ambush early Saturday and battled again with Taliban insurgents on Sunday. "This is my usual area of operations and we are used to the ground to a degree, but the enemy has always been changing tactics. They were very cunning." When interviewed at a forward operating base near the site of the fighting, Grimshaw, 35, said the Patricia's had repeatedly called for air and artillery support because "this is complex terrain that can only (be) dominated if you use a combined arms approach." Among the prisoners seized was a Taliban dubbed "the Man Who Wouldn't Die," because he had eluded multiple attempts by Canadian troops and coalition aircraft to kill him. He was finally captured Monday in a tunnel complex underneath a compound where Cpl. Tony *Boneca* of Thunder Bay, Ont., was shot and killed Sunday. Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, the Patricia's commander, praised *Boneca* -- the 17th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan -- as a volunteer from the reserves who chose to be in Afghanistan because he wanted to help Afghans achieve a better life. "We know it will cost in the lives of our soldiers and we will pay that cost," Hope told a news conference held for Afghan and Canadian journalists at the forward operating base. After about 1,000 Canadian and coalition troops paid their respects at a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield at dawn Monday, a C-130 Hercules carried *Boneca*'s flag-draped casket on the first leg of the long journey back to northwestern Ontario. Three other Patricia's infantrymen were hospitalized with battle wounds. Four other Pats were treated for severe heat stroke after daytime temperatures touched 60 C. "It was really hairy, for sure the heaviest firefights since we've been here," said Master Cpl. Donald Haley of St. Lawrence, N.L., one of several medics who returned fire when his armoured ambulance was ambushed. "Our troops did really well. There would have been a lot more injuries except for our superior training and equipment." The Patricia's "deserve so much more recognition that they are getting," said Master Cpl. Ronald Duchesne, a former artilleryman who captured vivid scenes of the battle in his current post with the military's Combat Camera unit. "I was really impressed with how they handled heat, gunfire and stress without any sleep." SHELLING The Royal Canadian Horse Artillery of Shilo, Man. -- the army's field artillery -- joined the fight by firing 40 rounds of high-explosive, illumination or rocket-propelled shells at places where the Taliban were believed to be hiding. "It got pretty hot and hectic, but so far, so good. We've been very effective," said Sgt. Eldon Seawood of Stephenville, Nfld., who worked with the 155-millimetre howitzers. "With three companies in the fight area, it was very hard to keep track of where everyone was because Zharei/ Panjwei is nothing but compounds where it is so easy to hide behind a wall." The Patricia's medics were busy, too, treating not only with the Canadian wounded but dozens of injured Afghan national army and Afghan national police troops. "At one point, we handled six air medevacs in two hours," said Sgt. Maj. Jim Butters. Capt. Ahmadzia Massoud, commander of the Afghan national police quick reaction force, who worked alongside the Patricia's leadership during the battle, described it as a great success. "The best thing about this was that the Canadians fought by walking alongside the Afghan army and police," Massoud said. "That was wonderful and something that was very positive. "We had lots of gains in this operation and some losses. The Taliban are now out of Pashmol, but the damage they suffered was a lot in human casualties and prisoners and equipment captured." The Canadians had already defeated the Taliban several times in Zharei/Panjwei. But the insurgents kept returning because they needed to control the local poppy crop to sell for heroin in order to buy weapons, Hope said. Meanwhile, it was finally confirmed Monday that Britain plans to send 900 more troops as well as more helicopters to Afghanistan to help 3,300 British troops who have been facing heavy fighting against the Taliban in neighbouring Helmand province. Edition: Early Story Type: News Length: 828 words Illustration: Map: Journal Stock / (See hard copy for graphic.) ===================================================================== 'I can't wait to leave,' reservist tells family in e-mail The Edmonton Journal Tue 11 Jul 2006 Page: A6 Section: News Source: CanWest News Service Here are two unedited e-mails Cpl. Anthony *Boneca* sent to his family and friends before and after he went on leave in May. The 21-year-old reservist with the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay, Ont., was killed Sunday and two other Canadian soldiers were wounded in battles with the Taliban west of Kandahar City. *Boneca* was the 17th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan. hey everyone, just thought i'd give you all an update since i have talked to most of you in a while and alot of crap has happened here but so you know i'm OK. my platoon has been gone out of the wire for a long time. our first operation lasted 16 days then we had a 3-day break before going out for what was supposed to be 4 to 7 day op but turned into a 22 day, walk everywhere, climb everything eat nothing but rations and live worse than the locals fun factory. or as we like to call the Kandahar weight loss plan. it's been nothing but fun over here and i can't wait to leave. i'm going on my trip to Italy and Greece soon with my baby Megan. it will be a good and badly needed break. i leave on the 10th of may and come back june 2. then i only have 2 more months of hell before i come home. hope you all e-mail me soon but i might not be able to answer becuase i'm going back out to live in the sand. talk to you all soon Tony *Boneca* Hey everyone, I just returned for my amazing trip to italy and greece with megan. i was so relaxing and fun we had the time of our life there. we travel all over italy from venice to naples and saw so much and greece was so relaxing we just sat on the beach all day for like a week. wish i didn't have to go back to work. it so hot here now you can barly handle it. i know your all watching the news and are know whats going on here but don't worry i'll be ok. i hope your all doing ok. write me and tell me whats new with you. time to go have some fun in sunny craphole afghanistan take care all of you and i'll talk to you soon tony *boneca* Edition: Final Story Type: News Note: Afghanistan Length: 400 words Illustration: Colour Photo: Supplied / Anthony *Boneca* and his girlfriend Megan DeCorte are seen in this December 2005 family photo. ===================================================================== Soldier not misled Minister; Troops can't pick their missions, O'Connor says *Boneca*'s body to arrive in Canada tomorrow The Toronto Star Tue 11 Jul 2006 Page: A8 Section: News Byline: Bruce Campion-Smith Dateline: OTTAWA Source: Toronto Star Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has responded to a young soldier's concerns that he was "misled" about Canada's Afghan mission with a tough rebuttal of his own "This is the military. "You don't vote in and vote out of operations. You're in it," O'Connor said yesterday. Cpl. Anthony *Boneca*, a 21-year-old reservist, was just three weeks away from returning home to Thunder Bay when he was felled by gunfire as his unit engaged insurgents west of Kandahar Sunday morning. Family and friends have painted *Boneca* as a disillusioned soldier deeply unhappy about this mission. Their comments have highlighted the mounting stresses on Canadian troops caught up in fighting a shadowy enemy in scorching temperatures. "He hated it over there. He was misled as to what was going to be there when he got there, and what he would be doing. He was very mad about it," Larry DeCorte, his girlfriend Megan's father, told the Toronto Star on Sunday. Indeed, *Boneca* was so unhappy with his mission, he had asked an army priest if talk of suicide would get him discharged, DeCorte said. But yesterday O'Connor, a retired general, showed little sympathy. "You don't get a choice in what you do or don't do. This is the military," he said in a remark that sparked laughter and applause during a stop at a military base in Winnipeg. "As an old sergeant said to me years ago when I was a young officer 'You only volunteer once.'" O'Connor said soldiers' morale remains high despite *Boneca*'s death. "Morale of the troops in Afghanistan is literally fantastic, as it is back here in Canada." But in Afghanistan yesterday, a member of *Boneca*'s battle group, Master Cpl. Robert Lander of Burlington, told Canadian Press that, after almost six months there, the troops need a break. "We have done our share," said Lander, due to return to Canada next month. "It is time for the replacements from the Royal Canadian Regiment to come and replace us." In a signal of worsening violence in the war-torn country, the British government yesterday announced that it was deploying 900 additional soldiers to bolster the 3,600 it already has in southern Afghanistan. O'Connor defended the training of reservists and publicly doubted that *Boneca* was "misled" about his mission. "I would be very surprised to find out if a soldier was misled on what operation they're going out on. "These operations are well-planned, orders are given, they're given all the way down the line," he said. While reserve troops are part-time soldiers who typically train nights and weekends, those who volunteer for overseas missions are trained to the same standard as regular forces troops, he said. Defence officials would not comment on *Boneca*'s reported concerns. Nor would they discuss claims by his girlfriend's family that he was sent on patrols without enough food or water, and, in one case, kept in the field with an injured ankle. Retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, formerly of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, said reservists like *Boneca* lack the same emotional supports as full-time soldiers who have been together for months, even years. "It's much more difficult for reservists to have the same resilience as the full-time guys because the cohesion of the unit isn't just based on a couple of weeks before you go over," he said. "It's not impossible, but it's more difficult for them to be part of the homogenous section or platoon." MacKenzie also cautioned against "confusing" the usual gripes of soldiers with a serious drop in morale. "You can be really pissed at the mission, or whatever, but your morale is still high. You're with your buddies, you're doing your job, you're very professional, you're gung-ho," he said. *Boneca* began his long trip home yesterday in a sombre airport ceremony in Kandahar as fellow soldiers carried the flag-draped casket onto an aircraft. His body will arrive at the air base in Trenton tomorrow afternoon. Defence officials say his family has asked that media not be allowed to witness the repatriation ceremony. A Canadian Forces official answered all calls to the *Boneca* home yesterday and said the family was requesting privacy. All questions were referred to a public affairs official, who in turn would not comment on how the family is coping. In a decision that provoked anger from Canadians and even families themselves, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government overturned tradition and this year banned media from covering the repatriation of the bodies of Canadian soldiers killed overseas. However, after a bitter backlash - and accusations that the government was trying to hide the human toll of the Afghan conflict - the Conservatives retreated and said they would leave the decision up to the individual families. Newly released documents obtained under the Access to Information Act make it clear that the Tories themselves aren't keen to have the media showing images of Canada's fallen troops returning home in coffins. Defence department emails reveal the Conservatives wanted reporters and camera crews not only barred from Trenton but prevented from witnessing the return of the body altogether. Media were banned from the air base in April for the return of four bodies from Afghanistan but were still able to see the caskets through the fence - apparently in defiance of O'Connor's directives. "Direction from MND's (Minister of National Defence) office to have no media on tarmac was applied to the letter; however, the intent of keeping this event out of the lenses of the media was not met," writes Maj. Guy Turpin in one email. "If the intent of MND is to not have the imagery of the remains of soldiers being off-loaded an aircraft, a change in venue/location would be required." Another email exchange suggests that political interference squelched a media release containing details of the return of Capt. Nichola Goddard's body after she was killed in May. "We have just received direction from higher (that) no (media advisory) is to be issued regarding the return of the remains," Maj. Daryl Morrell, director of army public affairs, writes in an email. The emails also reveal the defence department, with the blessing of O'Connor's office, actively frustrated media efforts to note Goddard was the first female soldier to die in combat. "There has been significant effort to downplay signifying the gender of Capt. Goddard. Everyone in theatre is a soldier," wrote Capt. Vance White, who acts as spokesperson for Gen Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff. The department turned down "dozens" of media requests to profile women in military service to "remove attention/emotion from the gender issue," White writes in one email. © 2006 Torstar Corporation Edition: MET Length: 1099 words Illustration: John Cotter cp Comrades of Cpl. Anthony *Boneca*, left, carry his flag-draped casket toward an aircraft during a ramp ceremony in Kandahar yesterday. *Boneca* was killed during a firefight on Sunday. ===================================================================== What help is available for stressed out soldiers CanWest Global Transcripts Mon 10 Jul 2006 Time: 17:30:00 ET Network: GLOBAL TARA NELSON: *Boneca*'s family says he was devoted to his work in the military, but they also say he had become disillusioned with Canada's mission in Afghanistan and wanted desperately to leave. He even considered stretching the truth about his mental health to get back to Canada. If he had, what help was available for him? Are all the other soldiers stressed out by the ravages of war? Here's Jennifer Tryon. JENNIFER TRYON (Reporter): He was a soldier friends and family said just wanted to come home. WILLIAM BABE (Bonecas Uncle): He phoned me and said it is not like it was on TV, Uncle Bill. He wouldn't do it again. He was demoralized I think. TRYON: Killed in the middle of gunfire with the Taliban, who can blame the 21 year old for wanting to be anywhere else? But soldier stress on military missions is as old as war itself. DAWN BLACK (NDP Defence Critic): After listening to Corporal Bonecas family, and the concerns that Corporal *Boneca* raised, and his family is raising now, I think that we have to, the government has to insure that each of the men and women in the Canadian forces who are going to Afghanistan are prepared for what they will see there. TRYON: Reports say *Boneca* even considered saying he was suicidal so he could be discharged. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: If you start stressing about what we see out there every day, it will just eat you up inside. TRYON: Now dealing with stress is a direct order. Now on the base in Kandahar, foosball tables, organized sports, and luxuries from home are mandatory for good mental health. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Some call us the 14th healthcare system in Canada. It is a full-range of assessment and treatment services. TRYON: Psychiatrist Randy Bottom is also being deployed. His mission, to help soldiers like *Boneca* either deal with the war or send them home. And when they get here the medical services available has improved infinitely since Bosnia. LIEUTENANT COLONEL STEPHANE GRENIER (Canadian Armed Forces health Services): Nowadays, we know a lot more. I think we're starting at the recruit level. When soldiers join the military now they're exposed to reality, which is stress and trauma. They understand that this can be something that injures them the same way projectiles from the Taliban nowadays in Afghanistan. TRYON: The sad reality of Canada's campaign in Afghanistan. In Toronto, this is Global National Jennifer Tryon reporting. Length: 409 words ===================================================================== Body of Canadian Corporal killed in Afghanistan is being sent home CanWest Global Transcripts Mon 10 Jul 2006 Time: 17:30:00 ET Network: GLOBAL TARA NELSON: Hello and thank you for joining us. There was an eerie silence on the tarmac at Kandahar airfield today as the body of a fallen Canadian soldier was loaded on to a plane and sent home. The quiet broken only by the sobs of the fellow soldier wounded in the same Taliban firefight that claimed Corporal Anthony *Boneca*'s life. With more on the troop's loss and todays emotional ceremony, were joined by our Ben O'Hara-Byrne at Kandahar Airport. Ben. BEN O'HARA-BYRNE (Reporter): Tara, this weekend saw Canadian troops involved in the fiercest fighting theyve seen in nearly two months as they helped swooped down on a Taliban stronghold. Now with 20 insurgents killed, military officials are calling the operation a success. But just after sunrise here, a reminder that that success has come at a price. It could be said that Corporal Anthony *Boneca* had a lot of life to look forward to. At just 21, he would have been leaving Kandahar for home in just three weeks. Instead this, his comrades lining the airfield for a silent farewell to the fallen soldier. MASTER CORPORAL ROBERT LANDER (Canadian Forces): When you stop, you get upset. It is just, it just happens to you. There's no way around it. You can't turn your emotions off. We're not machines, we're human beings. O'HARA-BYRNE: This is the first footage showing just how intense this past weekend was for Canadian troops on the front lines here. They, along with Afghan forces, carried out a three-day offensive to route out as many as 100 Taliban gathered in a known insurgent hotbed just west of Kandahar City. It lead to a flurry of firefights as Taliban responded with gunfire and rocket propelled grenades. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We are headed to the school. Were going to send the EMP forward to cover as we move through another blocking position. O'HARA-BYRNE: Tragedy struck early Sunday morning in the form of the Taliban gunmans bullet fired in a dusty maze of mud huts. Corporal Anthony *Boneca* was on patrol, sweeping the area for insurgents, when he was shot in the chest above his armoured plating. The dangers of trying to fight the Taliban at close quarters here, say other soldiers, is clear. WARRANT OFFICER MRACEL SCHUURHUIS (Canadian Forces): They know this place like the back of their hand, so they know where to hide and where they can hide and where they cant hide. O'HARA-BYRNE: Its hoped Afghan security forces will one day be able to handle these kinds of battles on their own. But that is years away. Until then, it is a load that also rests on the shoulders of other soldiers, including Canadas. Despite any progress it helps a