Mark Andrew Wilson, the 40 th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002, was repatriated at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in October 2006 in a cold, pounding rain that couldn't have been more appropriate.

A military transport carrying the troop's remains touched down and his flag-draped coffin was hoisted across the tarmac.

Wilson was on a pre-dawn run to pick up other troops in the Panjwaii district west of Kandahar on Saturday when his armoured Nyala vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.

A member of the Royal Canadian Dragoons based out of Petawawa, Ontario, Wilson joined the army late in life but expressed many times that it was the thing he loved to do the most.

Earlier this month however, after two other soldiers from his unit were killed, he expressed mixed emotions over Canada's presence in Afghanistan in letters home.

"He sounded really upset because his friend had been killed," said Wilson's mother, Carolyn. "I think he sounded really, really frightened.

"He said, `I know we're doing a good job, but it's so horrible, we don't know who our enemy is.'"

The 39-year-old leaves behind wife Dawn and sons Josh, 17, and Ben, 11. Wilson also had a tight-knit family that included 35-year-old twin brothers and a 28-year-old sister.