Cpl. Keith Morley eulogy

Winnipeg soldier 'very confident'

Sep. 29, 2006. 01:13 PM

Long before Afghanistan, this soldier from Winnipeg -- who first began dreaming about a life in the military when he was in junior high -- trained for a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. And a small recollection from a fellow grunt at the time speaks volumes about the kind of rifleman Morley was. "I served with Keith in Bosnia on Roto 8. He was in my section," said his former comrade. "He was a great guy. I remember standing in a freezing trench with him during work-up training before we deployed to Bosnia, and asking him why he was in the infantry... he simply replied "Because I like this stuff."

Mother of soldier killed in Afghanistan says he believed in helping people

WINNIPEG (CP) — A Canadian soldier who was killed in Afghanistan was remembered today as a man who was proud to serve in Afghanistan and believed he was helping people there.

Della Morley told reporters in Winnipeg that her 30-year-old son, Cpl. Keith Morley, had wanted to be a soldier ever since he was a teenager. He served two tours in Bosnia before joining the Canadian mission in Afghanistan.

“He served his country with pride and certainty that missions there and Afghanistan would better the lives of people in those troubled nations,” she said.

Morley was one of four soldiers killed Sept. 18 when a suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked Canadian troops who were on foot patrol. His family asked that his Friday afternoon funeral remain private.

Funerals were also being held Friday for two of his colleagues from the 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Shilo, Man: Pte. David Byers in Espinosa, Ont., and Cpl. Shane Keating in Saskatoon.

Also killed in the same incident was Cpl. Glen Arnold, a medic based in Petawawa, Ont. The four are among 36 Canadian soldiers who have died in Afghanistan since 2002.

Morley’s sister, Shannon, said her brother felt good about the mission in Afghanistan, and his death has not changed the family’s support for it.

“He really educated himself about everything he did,” she said. “He did so much research on everything that he did. He was very confident, and he felt that he was going over there for a lot of good reasons.”