The bodies of three Canadian soldiers who were killed in a roadside bomb attack earlier this week are back on Canadian soil.
Families shed tears as the flag-drapped coffins of Warrant Officer Dennis Raymond Brown, Cpl. Dany Olivier Fortin and Cpl. Kenneth Chad O'Quinn, who was based out of CFB Petawawa, were unloaded out of a military aircraft at CFB Trenton Friday afternoon.
O'Quinn, who was known as 'Chad', leaves behind his parents, brother and fianc�e Naomi.
Meanwhile, friends in Petawawa remembered O'Quinn as a passionate leader who had a bright future ahead of him.
"He brought a lot of passion and a lot of drive to his trade as a signaler, basically from the day he joined. He had an enormous impact on this unit. He was very well liked and very well respected. Charismatic is a word that I would use and I have heard others use to describe him," said Major Dave Yarker of the Canadian Armed Forces.
"Obviously, his loss is keenest felt by those that knew him, but certainly across the whole unit there's a feeling that we lost a great soldier."
The soldiers were killed Tuesday after an improvised explosive device detonated near their armoured vehicle, northwest of Kandahar City. Two others were injured in the fatal blast.
Since 2002, 111 Canadian soldiers have died while serving in Afghanistan.
