Afghanistan felt

My good friend's brother was killed yesterday in Afghanistan. I can't imagine losing a brother and I hurt so bad for her. Suddenly the goings-on in Afghanistan feel much closer to home. I have met Nathan. We fed him supper at Rachel and Tyler's house, watched the Nanton fireworks with him, and talked with him in the Nanton Hotel Bar. A real person, with family who loved him, with friends and acquaintances, with connections and history, is gone. He is not just casualty #71. He is Nathan, a person who felt strongly about bringing peace about in Afghanistan. Here is the CBC article about him:

A Canadian soldier was killed as he repaired a tank during a patrol in Afghanistan's volatile south, the military confirmed Tuesday before word emerged that another Canadian soldier had been wounded in a separate incident.

Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, a 24-year-old reservist with the King’s Own Calgary regiment, was killed Monday in Afghanistan. (DND/Pte. Melissa Spence/Canadian Press)

Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, a 24-year-old reservist from the King's Own Calgary Regiment, was hit by a mortar shell Monday afternoon as he was fixing a track that had fallen off the Leopard tank in the Panjwaii district, about 47 kilometres west of Kandahar City.

Another Canadian soldier was injured in the 4:30 p.m. attack local time, while three others were wounded as they tried to help the injured soldier.

"There are no ways to comfort those who are grieving today except to say Cpl. Hornburg was involved in a mission he believed in," Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, Canada's military commander in Afghanistan, told reporters Tuesday at the Kandahar military base.