The war in Afghanistan and the stepped-up Canadian offensive against Taliban insurgents came to a sudden end last Saturday for Cpl Francisco Gomez, youngest son of George and Joan Gomez, both originally from Belmont.
Francisco, 44, and Cpl Jason Warren, 29, of Montreal, were killed when a suicide bomber drove a vehicle into a Bison armoured vehicle at the back of a Canadian convoy.The convoy was returning to base at Kandahar Air Field, just five miles away, when the incident occurred, after a two-week mission during which nearly 100 insurgents were killed.
Television station CTV has reported that Canadian military commanders had described the operation as “bittersweet,� with “the deaths of the two soldiers overshadowing one of the most successful missions in Canadian military history.�
George Gomez, 77, who retired in Edmonton after a life in the oil industry, said his son had joined the military after school and loved it.
George and Joan have two other sons, both older than Francisco, both born in T&T. They are Richard, 45, who is in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), based in Halifax, and Robert, 47, employed in the oil industry in Canada, the report said.
Francisco’s mother had a premonition, George explained, when she dreamt, about three weeks ago, that she saw military personnel coming to visit them.
What she saw then became awful reality when, five hours after the suicide bomber struck, military officials arrived at the Gomez’ home, just as Joan had seen.
The bodies of Gomez and Warren were to begin the long journey home on Tuesday, CTV reported.
Francisco was in Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, at the Trenton army base, before being sent to Afghanistan, and had previously been in missions to Somalia, Cyprus, Bosnia and Germany, George said.
There will be a funeral service in Edmonton.
