Family members of five fallen soldiers arrived at Kandahar Air Field aboard a C-130 Hercules transport plane on Saturday to tour the Canadian base in southern Afghanistan and mark Remembrance Day.

Gaetan Dallaire, whose son Kevin died a year ago, chats with a soldier upon arrival at Kandahar Air Field Saturday.
(Bill Graveland/Canadian Press)

They came to remember Pte. Kevin Dallaire of Calgary, Cpl. Matthew Dinning of Richmond Hill, Ont., Cpl. Christopher Reid of Truro, N.S., Cpl. Jason Warren of Montreal and Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard of Bathurst, N.B.

The eight Canadians wore helmets and flak jackets as they chatted with soldiers on a tour led by Commodore Paul Maddison, who said the families wanted to see the country where their loved ones served and died.

"These folks are seven parents of four of the fallen and one widow of one of the fallen who asked Gen. [Rick] Hillier if they could come here to Kandahar, perhaps in and around Remembrance Day, to be close to where their sons and their husband last lived," Maddison said.

The families of the fallen soldiers also stopped by a memorial bearing the names of the 71 Canadians who have lost their lives since the combat mission against Taliban fighters began in 2002. 

A ceremony at the memorial will be held on Sunday to mark Remembrance Day.

Maddison said the plan to bring the group to Afghanistan had been in the works for a few months at the request of Hillier, Canada's Chief of Defence Staff.

"They've known for a while they were coming here. I think now that they're here this is just a very personal, deep moment for them to finally arrive here," he told CBC News.

The five soldiers were all killed last year.

Pte. Dallaire, 22, and Cpl. Reid, 34, both died when their Light Armoured Vehicle struck a roadside bomb. In a separate incident, the same kind of explosion killed Cpl. Dinning, 23, and four Canadian soldiers travelling in a G-wagon. Cpl. Warren, 29, and another soldier were killed when their Bison was struck by a suicide bomber.

Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard, 46, whose widow is visiting the base, died when a suicide bomber drove his vehicle into a Canadian military convoy.

Remembrance Day traditionally marks the end of the First World War in 1918, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

But it now stands for the more than 100,000 dead of all of Canada's wars, including the one being fought in Afghanistan.

With files from the Canadian Press