Morinville residents were in mourning this week after a suicide bomber attacked and killed one of their own in Afghanistan.
Master Cpl. Byron Garth Greff of the 3rd Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry died at about 11:30 a.m., Kandahar time, on Oct. 29. According to media reports, he had been riding an armoured bus in Kabul, Afghanistan, when a car loaded with explosives rammed it. The explosion killed 17 people on the bus, including Greff.
Greff, 28, was a Morinville resident who was stationed at the Edmonton Garrison. This was his second tour in Afghanistan.
Greff was the 158th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan and the first since the end of Canada’s combat mission there this summer.
Family members were at CFB Trenton Tuesday as Greff’s body returned to Canada, said Capt. Christine Salt, spokesperson for 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group at the Edmonton Garrison. No funeral arrangements had been made as of press time.
According to National Defence, Greff was one of about 900 Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan to help train that nation’s troops. He joined the Patricias in 2002.
Media reports say that Greff had been riding in an armoured bus called a Rhino while moving between bases in Kabul. Two heavily armed patrol vehicles escorted the bus. The blast, for which the Taliban have claimed responsibility, killed five NATO soldiers, eight civilian contractors and four Afghans, and injured many others.
In a video statement, Col. Peter Dawe, deputy commander of Canada’s training mission in Afghanistan, described Greff as a “hard-working infantry soldier,” paratrooper and member of the battalion’s recon unit.
“To say that he was highly-respected by his fellow soldiers would be an understatement,” Dawe said.
Originally from the Lacombe region, Greff lived with his wife, son and newborn daughter in Morinville. Dawe described Greff as an extremely fit man who enjoyed hunting and hockey.
In a statement, Greff’s family said that they were surprised when Greff decided to join the military, as they had no history with it in the past.
“Byron, in his younger years, was probably as far from being a military man as one could get,” they said. Greff was also very active.
“He was always good for a joke,” they said, and always open to talk to anyone.
The family stressed the great pride they held in Greff as a father, brother, soldier, uncle, grandson and son.
“There was never any doubt from us when he left on this most recent deployment. He was doing what he wanted to do and he was good at it,” they said.
The family said they would always remember Greff for his strong will, love for his family and “the fact that he was arguably the best dad — ever.”
