Family and friends were reflecting on that tough demeanor Friday, just a day after getting news that the 35-year-old father of two died in a vicious rocket attack near Kandahar that killed two other Canadian soldiers.

"From here, we support 'em and no regrets in general," Clayton Ingram, the soldier's older brother, said from the family home where relatives were gathering.

"That's the life he chose, he was good at it, he enjoyed it. He did what we asked him as a country to do."

A family friend who has known Ingram since he was a young boy said he was so keen on being a soldier that when he joined the military he told them they could "sign me up for life."

"He was a military man through and through," Allister Hann said from Burgeo, adding that the earlier firefight didn't seem to rattle him.

"He was still gung ho in carrying out the mission . . . he was ready to go right back again to the front line."