KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—Lt. Matthew Hoare won’t soon forget the battlefield lessons he learned from Sgt. Martin Goudreault.
“The guidance that he gave me personally is something that I will always carry with me,” Hoare said of Goudreault, who on Sunday became the latest Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan when he was killed by the blast of a makeshift bomb.
“It’s a loss I think we’re all going to feel.”
Goudreault, a member of 1 Combat Engineer Regiment, based in Edmonton, was looking for a stockpile of insurgent weapons when the blast occurred shortly after dawn Sunday near the village of Nakhonay, in the perilous Panjwaii district west of Kandahar city.
The 35-year-old sergeant was more aware than most of the dangers inherent in leading such a patrol — he was on his third tour of duty in Afghanistan and fifth deployment overseas.
But those who knew him say he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“Sgt. Goudreault died (doing) what he loved doing best: leading his section from the front,” Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance, the commander of Task Force Kandahar, told a news conference Monday at Kandahar Airfield.
“If your way of life was in peril, you would want someone like Sgt. Martin Goudreault to show up and offer to help.”
“Insurgents hide their weapons and IEDs amongst the civilian population and soldiers like Martin, both Canadian and Afghan, are working each and every day to find and eliminate these weapons caches,” Vance said.
A native of Sudbury, Ont., and known as “Marty” to his friends, Goudreault was a 15-year veteran of the Canadian Forces who was serving with the 1st Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment when he died.
“Recognized early in his career for his leadership, Sgt. Goudreault was a model soldier, someone the soldiers in his section could look up to and emulate,” Vance said. “His subordinates and superiors alike will remember him as a tireless leader who was passionate about his work.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed his condolences to Goudreault’s family and friends and paid tribute to his efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan.
“The lives of the Afghan people are better due to the efforts of Canadians like Sgt. Goudreault, who provide security and stability,” Harper said in a statement.
“These are the cornerstones that will allow the country to rebuild and grow into the future.”
Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean said she was profoundly saddened by the news.
“Yet again, we have received a cruel reminder of the dangers that daily confront our troops deployed to this troubled area of the world,” she said in a statement.
“We admire them all the more as their sense of duty compels them to answer their country’s call with valour, determination and incredible generosity.”
Goudreault’s death brings to 147 the number of Canadian military personnel who have been killed as part of the mission in Afghanistan since it began in 2002. Two civilians — diplomat Glyn Berry and journalist Michelle Lang — have also died.
News of the death was sinking in on a day that proved particularly difficult for the NATO contingent in Afghanistan, known formally as the International Security Assistance Force.
Five American soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, an attack that came on the heels of two other U.S. fatalities — both in the volatile south, one the result of a bombing, the other small arms fire.
Three other NATO soldiers from other countries were also killed in attacks Monday, bringing the day’s death toll for the alliance to 10. No further details on any of the attacks were released.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul also said an American contractor was killed in a suicide attack against a police training centre in Kandahar.
Sunday’s death came less than two weeks after Trooper Larry Rudd of Brantford, Ont., was killed by an IED, also in the Panjwaii district.
Known as the birthplace of the Taliban, the region has been a bloody battleground for Canadian troops since they arrived in Kandahar province in strength four years ago.
Dozens of Canadians have been injured or killed in the restive region, and while villages and towns have been repeatedly cleared, the Taliban has quietly reasserted itself in parts of the area.
IEDs have been the single biggest cause of death among Canadian troops in Afghanistan.
Seven out of nine Canadian deaths this year were the result of an IED blast. In all, 88 of the 147 Canadian fatalities in the eight-year-old Afghan mission came about from IEDs — roadside bombs or some other type of explosive, according to the Department of Defence.
In recent weeks, insurgents have launched a series of attacks in an effort to shake confidence among Afghans in their local government.
On Monday, President Hamid Karzai’s office defended his decision to remove two of the country’s top security officials, saying they had to be held to account for a recent lapse after an attack last week at a national peace conference in Kabul.
The resignations of the interior minister and intelligence chief come as Afghanistan struggles to combat a stubborn insurgency, particularly in the south.
Be the first to comment