Edmonton-based soldier's deadly accident

Edmonton-based soldier's deadly accident

By MURRAY BREWSTER, The Canadian Press



KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A Canadian officer who just days ago led his isolated troops and Afghan soldiers out of a fierce Taliban crossfire died Saturday in a strange, tragic accident during a nighttime patrol west of Kandahar.

Capt. Jonathan Snyder, a member of 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry based in Edmonton, fell into a deep unmarked well and likely drowned.

He was on his second tour of Afghanistan and his third overseas deployment.

Snyder, 26, a native of Penticton, B.C., served as a mentor to the fledgling Afghan National Army and during a recent operation managed to guide his combined unit out of a three-sided militant ambush.

“Because of his heroic leadership under intense fire, there are many Canadians and Afghans who are alive to fight tomorrow,” said Maj. Robert Richie, the commander of the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team in Zhari district, where Snyder was based.

He was on foot patrol in a field in Zhari district when he tumbled into an open well that Afghans call a “kariz.”

The wells, which dot the countryside, can be a couple of metres wide at the opening, but are often hard to spot among the tall grass and wheat fields.

They are often unmarked and connect to a maze of underground irrigation ditches used to soothe the parched landscape in river valleys.

Even with night vision gear, which all troops wear, the opening would appear only as shadows.

Thompson estimated the well Snyder was trapped in may have been as deep as 20 metres.
go here for more
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2008/06/08/5813326.html