A handsome young hero

I feel a bit like a paisley dress-wearing woman from the 1940s as the thought sighs in my mind: What a handsome young man!

The young man being the 24-year-old reservist from Calgary, Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, who died Monday in a mortar attack as he stepped out of his tank to repair the protective vehicle, his only armour in the dangerous terrain.

The old-fashioned thought leapt into my mind unbidden as I read the story at the beginning of my work shift. I left the thought unspoken; It seemed too silly to say aloud in a newsroom full of hardened journalists.

The picture is stoic: His jaw upturned by resolute lips, even though his chocolate eyes betray warmth.

I wonder if he thought, as the photographer's camera flashed and snapped, 'This could be my legacy.'

Did the Department of National Defence photographer, too, wonder whether this one, this picture would land on the front page of papers across the country?

Does she ever try to guess who will, perhaps late at night long after her camera clicked the soldier's photo into film for eternity?

The DND photos surface each time a soldier is killed -- 71 so far.

And after every death the same string of stories follows, the first "Soldier killed in Afghanistan" with the up-to-date death toll and the basic facts. That's followed by a glimpse into who the soldier was and how he/she believed in the mission, usually headlined "Comrades remember fallen soldier at ramp ceremony."

Then, the final goodbye comes with the repatriation ceremony where family and friends speak about the man/woman they knew.

As a journalist, it is hard sometimes not to bang out a fill-in-the-blanks carbon copy story.

But you must seek out the personal; each soldier deserves it.

So, you try to give a sense of how eyes can be so warm in such a statuesque face, what drove a landscaper to join the army, why when he saw death after death plastered across the papers did he dare leave his family?

And perhaps, if you're successful, a tear will well not only in your own eye, but in those of readers across the country and some will let the sad thought slip into their mind, 'My, what a handsome young man... How sad.'

And it will not be silly.