TORONTO — Dave Broadfoot is off to entertain the troops.

With his 78th birthday approaching, the veteran comic is going from Air Farce to the real thing, joining a troupe of much younger performers for a show tour of Canadian military sites in Afghanistan.

The tour, code-named Op Athena, is being co-ordinated by the Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency and produced by Pacific Show Productions. It leaves for Kabul on Wednesday, returning Dec. 5.

Joining Broadfoot will be country music star Adam Gregory, Wide Mouth Mason's Shaun Verrault, singer and dancer Jana Jana and the comedy improv group Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Broadfoot, who is accepting no fee, says he will serve as MC and plans to enjoy himself. He's had his needles and is taking malaria pills and feels healthy enough to undertake the journey.

"I have always believed if we expect others to put their lives at risk on our behalf, then we have an obligation as performers to back them up," he says. "It's part of our job."

Sponsored in part by the Royal Canadian Legion, the troupe will perform seven shows for the nearly 2,000 Canadian Forces members deployed in Kabul, Kandahar and other "secret" locations in Afghanistan.

"There are certain places they don't want us to talk about for security purposes," Broadfoot says.

Comic Rick Mercer and a group of musicians will also be off to Kabul next month for a performance at Camp Julien that will be taped for a holiday special, Christmas in Kabul, to air Dec. 21. Broadfoot and Mercer have previously entertained troops in Bosnia.