For the second time in four days, the grieving families of dead soldiers gathered on the rain-drenched tarmac at CFB Trenton to repatriate two more Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
The bodies of Master Cpl. Allan Stewart, 30, and Trooper Patrick Pentland, 23, both of the Royal Canadian Dragoons based at CFB Petawawa, Ont., touched down in a military aircraft around 6:30pm on Sunday accompanied by several comrades in military fatigues.
Sixteen solemn pallbearers carried the two flag-draped caskets to waiting hearses as the families watched.
The two New Brunswick natives were killed when their Coyote armoured reconnaissance vehicle struck a roadside bomb not far from where a similar device injured another soldier.
Stewart and Pentland were apparently helping the other vehicle when the bomb went off. The attack also injured three other soldiers.
Their deaths came the same day the bodies of six other soldiers, killed in another roadside bomb three days earlier, were returned home to Canada.
As day turned to dusk under rainy and overcast skies, relatives, including several children who carried single roses, stood in the entrance of the airport hangar, while more than 100 military personal braved the pouring rain to pay their respects.
"They never get any easier," said CFB Trenton spokesman Capt. Ian Stock, who has assisted with some three-quarters of the repatriation ceremonies at the base since the start of the Afghan mission.
"They're very sad events, but also it's an opportunity for us to grieve as a group within the military community and with the family."
"It seems like every time we're here, the weather is miserable. It's almost like a reflection of how a lot of us feel."
Stock said while he didn't know Stewart or Pentland personally, he did serve with Pentland's father Jim in Germany in the late 1980s.
In total, 53 Canadian soldiers have been killed since the Afghan mission began in 2002.
Stewart, described by colleagues as a "likable, good-natured" family man, was on his second tour in Afghanistan. He previously served in 2003 following a stint in Bosnia two years earlier.
His wife Christa and two daughters, aged 12 and nine, live in Pembroke, Ont.
Pentland, remembered by relatives as a "proud, professional soldier," followed in the footsteps of his father and proudly wore his dad's cap badge while serving with the Dragoons.
Pentland was born on the Canadian military base in Lahr, Germany, and returned with his family to Gagetown, N.B., as a young boy.
Eight Canadian soldiers were killed last week in Afghanistan, the bloodiest week of battle for Canadians since the Korean War.