Afghanistan 2009

Military probes death of major

Intelligence specialist found dead in her room at Kandahar Airfield within days of arrival

Apr 25, 2009 04:30 AM

Allan Woods
OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA – On Tuesday, Maj. Michelle Mendes told friends she was just getting settled into her new life at Kandahar Airfield, the sprawling military base where she had arrived only days before as part of the most recent Canadian deployment to Afghanistan.

If it was tough to adjust, it may have been due to the rapid pace of change in the days leading up to her six-month mission, according to recent posts on her Facebook page.

Amid shuttling between her job in Ottawa and the home in Kingston she shared with husband, Victor, a soccer coach at the Royal Military College, heading to her family home near Cobourg for Easter, and packing for her second Afghan tour, the 30-year-old was promoted from captain to major. It was another step in what appeared to be a steady rise up the ranks of the Canadian Forces.

There was also a party thrown by 120 friends and family at the Portuguese Hall in Kingston that was partly to celebrate her promotion, partly to say goodbye.

No one anticipated it would be for the last time. Days after arriving in Kandahar, messages of good luck turned into streams of condolences. Mendes was discovered dead on the base about 72 hours after telling friends the adjustment was going well, in part because the Afghan heat hadn't yet flared.

One friend recalled "Mic," as her friends knew her, as "one of the fittest women at (Royal Military College). And, of course, her infectious smile and enthusiasm."

Unlike most of the 117 other Canadians who have died at war half a world away, Mendes's death came not in battle with insurgents or dodging hidden bombs, but in the confines of her sleeping quarters. The cause of death is now being investigated by the military, but it could be months before any more information is made public.

Only a small number of other Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan outside of combat. The gunshot death of Bombardier Jérémie Ouellet in 2008 was a suicide, while there has been no official reason given for the 2007 death of Maj. Raymond Ruckpaul, who was also killed by a bullet wound in his Kabul sleeping quarters.

The military will be looking to determine whether Mendes's death was an accident or suicide, said Alain Pellerin, executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations, who stressed he had no inside information on her death. "It's strange because she went to military college. She had a great career in front of her."

Mendes was an accomplished soldier. She was a scholar of war, earning a master's degree in conflict analysis and resolution at Ottawa's Carleton University in 2003 that she used in her work on counterterrorism as a military intelligence officer. But she was also a thoughtful, churchgoing girl from small-town Ontario.

"One of the things she used to do was she'd bake pies and bring them into the school for students and faculty and sports staff," said Fenn Hampson, director of Carleton's Norman Patterson School of International Affairs. "Everyone around here, I think, is both shocked and saddened by what we've heard. She was a very gifted student and also a very popular one."

Mendes's first tour in Afghanistan was also cut short. She was deployed as an intelligence officer in August 2006 ahead of Operation Medusa, a full-scale clash with the Taliban in Kandahar's Panjwaii district. Military officials said she was injured in an incident they would not disclose and was treated at Landstuhl military hospital in Germany before returning home.

Her mother, Dianne Knight, told the local newspaper shortly after Mendes's deployment that she worried about her daughter heading off to war but believed herself luckier than other military parents.

"I tell myself she's safe because her job is working on a computer," she said of her daughter's role as an intelligence specialist.

Dianne and husband Ron raised Mendes and sister, Melissa, in Grafton, a tiny town east of Cobourg. It is a dot on a map, nestled between the shores of Lake Ontario and the Highway of Heroes that the young soldier's body will travel along when her remains are returned to Canada in a few days time.