The bodies of three Canadian soldiers killed in a roadside bomb attack are on their way home following an emotional ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield.
Warrant Officer Dennis Raymond Brown, Cpl. Dany Olivier Fortin and Cpl. Kenneth Chad O'Quinn were killed Tuesday after an improvised explosive device detonated near their armoured vehicle.
At the ramp ceremony Wednesday night, more than 2,000 NATO soldiers and some visiting former NHL players stood at attention on the tarmac to pay their respects to the fallen soldiers.
Brown's wife, Mishelle Brown, said Thursday that there was only one word to describe her husband: "perfect."
"My husband meant the world to me and I meant the world to my husband and I know that," Brown told CTV's Canada AM from her home in St. Catharines, Ont.
"He was perfect in every way."
Brown spoke to her husband, a reservist with the Lincoln and Welland Regiment in southern Ontario, for more than an hour on the day he died.
"It wasn't that day that I told him everything, it was every day," she said. "I don't have regrets. I don't have one single regret. I said everything that I ever needed to say to him while he was alive, there's nothing that I missed."
Brown said they had talked extensively together and with their four children about the possibility of him dying.
"I want my husband to be remembered as the gregarious person that he was -- he was an amazing soldier and amazing father," she said.
"...Everybody's life is better because of Dennis Brown."
Brown thanked the Lincoln and Welland Regiment for putting her husband on the plane at the ramp ceremony and for being there to take his body off the plane in Canada.
"He will be so proud," she said.
Fortin served with the 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron from 3-Wing Bagotville while O'Quinn was from CFB Petawawa's 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Headquarters and Signals Squadron.
Fortin, an ardent supporter of the Montreal Canadiens, was known to his fellow soldiers as 'Danny-O.' O'Quinn, known as 'Chad' by his friends, was described as a "proud, dedicated soldier" who had a bright future ahead of him.
Two soldiers were also injured in the incident, which happened northwest of Kandahar City as Canadian Forces personnel conducted security operations in the area.
The three deaths bring Canada's military death toll to 111. A Canadian diplomat and two Canadian aid workers have also been killed over the course of the insurgency.
With files from The Canadian Press
