KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Somehow, being dressed in full battle gear makes them look stronger, older. And then you remember that a lot of the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are just out of high school, or university.

Some of them still call each other "dude" and like nothing better than a Friday night pub crawl. So why shouldn't they cry and hold each other for comfort when their best friend gets killed?

Still it, was awkward to watch, and not a private, personal moment, but one that was very public. Two young soldiers sitting in front of a TV camera talking about their friend Trooper Darryl Caswell, who was killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb.

"He's been the best friend I've ever had in my life," says Trooper Steve Davidson, who has short brown hair, and without his battle gear, seems too young and too delicate to go to war.

"He was truly an incredible person and it was an absolute honour to have a friend like that."

They are words on the verge of tears, and the more he talks, the more difficult it becomes.

On his right is Cpl. Wade Wick. He's a gunner and was in the same armoured vehicle that hit the roadside bomb. They were on a re-supply mission north of Kandahar City, on a route that some of the soldiers had complained was too treacherous, where it was too easy for the Taliban to plant their bombs. And so it happened.

"He'd do anything for you," says Wick. "He'd just be there. If you needed someone to talk to, he'd be there to listen, or to offer suggestions, to help in any way he could. And he never really asked for anything in return."

These three friends were due to leave Afghanistan and fly home together on July 31, what would have been Caswell's 26th birthday. Instead, Davidson and Wick were both pallbearers at his ramp ceremony on June 13.

"It was only fair," says Wick. "He was my driver. He transported us everywhere, and it's only fair that on his last leg..."

At this point, his shoulders shake a little and the tears can't be held back. Wick drops his head to hide his grief. There's a long silence before he can finish his sentence.

"It's only fair that we get to take him somewhere."

Davidson reaches over and puts his arm around his friend's shoulder. They embrace and softly weep. And they're not tough, battle-trained soldiers anymore, they're just a couple of young Canadian boys who have come to a troubled, broken country and lost a good friend.

Their commander is Lieutenant Colonel Rob Walker and with this latest death, he's lost nine soldiers from his Battle Group. There was no more danger on that road, he says, than anywhere else that his troops are now patrolling.

"Everything we do has risks, and as their commander, it's my job to mitigate that risk."

Walker describes the insurgency as "dynamic." That may be an understatement. There's been a recent upsurge in roadside bombings against Canadian targets; half a dozen in a single day. Military planners always vary the routes and tactics, but there's no way they can guarantee the safety of a convoy.

"The attacks that we're involved with, are of our own making," Walker says. "When we go into a specific area, we expect that we're going to have a 'contact,' have some fighting."

In fact, Caswell's convoy was moving into an area that Canada occupied for a while last year, and has now become a Taliban sanctuary. The colonel says a number of Arab and Chechen fighters have joined the local insurgents. He can't -- or won't -- say how many.

Put that together with the latest assessment from the International Red Cross, and the situation in Afghanistan doesn't look great. That may also be an understatement.

"The humanitarian situation is worse now than it was a year ago," says the Red Cross, referring to a steady deterioration in security, especially in the south.

A single, short sentence is their report says it all: "It is incredibly difficult for ordinary Afghans to lead a normal life."

And that is where Davidson and Wick find themselves this scorching Afghan summer, mourning the death of a friend.

"He'll always be a part of me now," says one. "He was a great man, and being so, made him a great soldier."