I am reading news articles on Corporal Boneca, the latest Canadian to be killed in Afghanistan. This one hit close to home because he's from my home town, Thunder Bay. He was a reservist who volunteered to go to Afghanistan for a second time.
I was on shift when Cpl Boneca died. I knew all the details, and didn't plan on reading what the media had to say. I wasn't even going to post about it. There are too many people losing their lives in the Middle East. But, I was chatting with my mom and she mentioned that the media is saying he wanted out of Afghanistan.
So I googled, and what I found is really sad. The media is saying he hated it over there and was considering lying to a padre about being suicidal so that he would be discharged.
The father of his girlfriend is saying that he wasn't trained properly and wasn't prepared for what he was up against. That really pissed me off. He was a reservist with 4 years in (that explains why I don't know him; I left T Bay almost 5 years ago). Our military is given the same training standards across the board whether you are a full-time reservist, a part-time reservist, or a member of the regular force. With 4 years in, you can bet that most of those 4 years were spent on courses and doing drills and exercises. Having been overseas myself, I know that you have to go through a month of mission training before you are deployed. My mission training was detailed. They had experts come in and give classes on the cultures we would meet overseas. They even went into the types of dangerous bugs and animals we might encounter. Oh there was more than that, including mine training, weapons training (on weapons we'd come across, not ones we'd use), etc.
With Cpl Boneca being a reservist, that means he ASKED to go. We get missions offered to us, but unless you request it (put paperwork in to your boss), you aren't going anywhere. They said that this was his second time in Afghanistan. I know that we have upped our role over there, and we are more active than before, but he should have had SOME idea of what he was volunteering for. If he had seen the news at any point since his return from his first mission, he would've known that things are more intense. Given that he was an infantry soldier, he knew what his role would be, and that it was a dangerous one.
I am pissed because the girlfriend's father really shouldn't be saying such bullshit unless he attended training with Cpl Boneca and knows for a a fact that he wasn't trained properly. I am pissed because the girlfriend's father is trying to portray Cpl Boneca as a naive young man. I am upset that the media is making Cpl Boneca look unprofessional when he should be honoured for giving his life for his country.
I don't doubt that Cpl Boneca was depressed and wanted to go home. My mission wasn't nearly as dangerous as his, and I was depressed as hell. Every time I called home I'd say "I cannot wait until I go home. Only xx days left." There is nothing wrong with being miserable when you are so far from home, eating strange foods, being thrown in with different cultures, and being separated from your loved ones. And maybe after a few months Cpl Boneca doubted his purpose in Afghanistan, that's ok too. I don't think he was naive and misled or under trained like they are trying to make everyone believe.
Cpl Boneca should be honoured for the job he did on his mission. Saying anything else about him is disrespectful.
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