OTTAWA — When Nancy Payne's son was killed in Afghanistan in 2006, his superior told the Lansdowne, Ont., mother that her son should never have been there in the first place.

"They knew that they had somebody good. He could have gone a lot, a lot further had he not gone to Afghanistan," Payne recalled.

"Yeah, that's what his boss said: 'I shouldn't have let him go cause he had great potential.'"

Cpl. Randy Joseph Payne was killed in action on April 22, 2006, while serving as a member of the military’s “close protection team” — a unit tasked with safeguarding VIPs, like the prime minister, or chief of defence staff.

Randy had been guarding Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, now retired, at the time he was killed, only three months into his deployment, and two years after he joined the Armed Force

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