Kevin was a very, very quiet individual. With his brother, he'd be really riled up. With me, he'd be very quiet," Dallaire said Friday, describing his 22-year-old eldest son as an introverted man with a quiet nature.

Kevin Dallaire had just started his last year of high school at Ecole Ste-Marguerite Bourgeoys in Calgary when 9/11 erupted. He was a shy, good-natured teenager, yet every now and then he'd light up the stage in school variety shows, break dancing for the audience.

"He was a really quiet kid, but he was heavy into the break dancing scene," says his uncle Serge Francoeur.

Off stage, Dallaire was so modest and reserved that when he joined the army, his mates called him the "Silent Frenchman."

Although his parents, Diane and Gaetan, came originally from northeast Ontario, Dallaire spent most of his life with his brother Mikael on the airbase at Cold Lake, where his dad was an air force electronic technician.

The family had moved to Calgary when Gaetan retired from the Forces and, after finishing high school, Dallaire enlisted in the army with the Princess Patricia's.

He joined the military hoping "to see the world," his father said. "The only thing that he'd seen was here, Alberta, for all his life."

Afghanistan was his first chance at a foreign mission.

His last words to his mom and dad, when he called them from Kandahar the Sunday before he died, were that he couldn't wait to come back to Canada and enjoy a cold beer.

Diane Dallaire, mother of Pte. Kevin Dallaire, places her head on the gravestone of Capt. Nichola Goddard who was also killed in Afghanistan while serving in the same combat unit as her son.(CP / Fred Chartrand)