A group of Canadian soldiers made it home just in time for Christmas Friday, returning to a tearful but happy reunion with their families after seven months in Afghanistan.
The last 50 combat troops from CFB Petawawa arrived in the early morning hours after 36 hours of flights and bus rides that took them from the Middle East to the sprawling eastern Ontario base, two hours drive northwest of Ottawa.
Families and loved ones were waiting for hours to greet the returning soldiers, anxious that bad weather and air travel delays in Europe would force them to miss Christmas. Many hadn't seen their loved ones for seven and a half months.
Cpl. Andy Brown, 23, made his way to his family's home in Whitby, where restless relatives had gathered.
"We're really very luck and we have so much to be thankful for," said Marie Huxter, Brown's aunt. "All those other poor families whose sons and daughters died or are so injured and their lives are changed forever."
Elsewhere, Michelle Posthumus and her son Spencer said the last few days were the hardest.
"Everybody prayed and he made it home for Christmas," she said tearfully, watching as her husband Cpl. Steven Posthumus filed off the bus with the other returning soldiers. "And is it the best Christmas ever? It is. It is to have him here."
Spencer said the long wait was worth it in the end. "I've been up like the whole night waiting for him. I'm just really excited, glad he's home. Great relief," he said. "It's way better than anything material."
These were the last combat soldiers from Petawawa to return from Afghanistan and their commander said he was glad to be able to get the bulk of his soldiers home in time for Christmas.
But Col. Wayne Eyre, commander of 2nd Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, was quick to add that there are another 150 support troops from Petawawa still in Afghanistan and said it was important that "our thoughts and prayers" are with them over the holidays.
A total of 1,800 troops from CFB Petawawa took part in this rotation, the second-last Canadian combat tour in Afghanistan.
The soldiers of Task Force 1-10 have now been replaced by soldiers from CFB Valcartier, Que., who will spend the next nine months in Afghanistan as the final Canadian battle group in the restive southern half of the country.
After August, 2011, Canada's role will move from fighting Taliban insurgents to training the Afghan National Army to do the fighting.
Some 40 soldiers from the base have perished over the years while serving in Afghanistan, a war that has taken a total of 154 Canadian lives.
Meanwhile, in Kandahar troops from different countries and faiths gathered at the main coalition base Friday for a special, multi-denominational mass.
They sang Christmas carols under a dull red setting Afghan sun, aided by a small orchestra competing against a backdrop of fighter jets and helicopters roaring overhead.
Other members of the new rotation of soldiers were hard at work in southern Afghanistan Friday, pushing deep into Taliban territory as part of an operation to rout the insurgents from an area they use to stage their attacks.
The coalition said the Canadian, U.S. and Afghan forces faced little resistance from the enemy during the three-day mission, called Operation Khenkakak after a village in the area, southwest of Kandahar city.
No one fired on the Canadians and no one found any improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, said Maj. Luc Aubin, a senior operations officer with Canada's mentoring team. He added the Americans did encounter some of the makeshift bombs.
Aubin said the mission was a success in that it was primarily planned and carried out by Afghan commanders on the ground.
Two Afghan battalions, called kandaks, were inserted into the eastern and western flanks of the village of Khenkakak, supported by engineers, and swept through to clear another village on the opposite banks of the Tarnak river.
Canadian and American forces provided backup, and Canadian army trainers accompanied the Afghan soldiers during the operation.
Aubin called the operation a "measured success." Instead of top Afghan army commanders just giving orders, he said, troops on the ground took their own initiative.
"This is a first in terms of having a commander in one brigade enable his subordinate commanders to do just that, come up with a tactical solution to a situation that's developing on the ground," Aubin said. "He basically gave them the problem to fix, which is a huge mind shift for ANA guys."
With a report from CTV Toronto's Sneha Kulkarni and files from CTV Ottawa's John Hua
