Gone but not forgotten today is Corporal Ainsworth Dyer, his three colleagues, and the thousands of other brave men who gave their lives for our freedoms.

This April will mark 19 years since Toronto’s own Cpl. Dyer, and three others, were taken away from us due to ‘friendly fire’ by a U.S. flight crew in Afghanistan.

Popularly known as “Ains” by his family and friends, Dyer, was born in Montreal but grew up in Regent Park, where was raised by his strict Jamaican grandmother, who instilled in him his culture and a strong sense of right and wrong.

He was a long way from home in a foreign land, when he, and three other Canadian soldiers, were killed on April 17, 2002 by a U.S. bomb fired by anonymous pilots from high above.

The tragedy, which is referred to as The Tarnak Farm Incident, injured eight other soldiers from the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (BPPCLI). The men never had a chance as a U.S. F-16 fighter jet piloted by an Air National Guard dropped a laser-guided bomb as they were conducting a night-firing exercise.

The deaths of the soldiers were Canada’s first during the war in Afghanistan and the first in a combat zone since the Korean War. The senseless killings sparked a period of national grief and sorrow from people across the country.

Cpl. Dyer, who was a proud member of the 3rd Battalion was buried with full military honours in the Necropolis Cemetery in Cabbagetown, where his grieving parents, in a touching and emotional moment, released a box of doves. He was only 24.

‘Ains’ was the proud son of the late Paul and Agatha Dyer. He knew at the age of six, as a boy growing up in downtown Toronto that he wanted to serve his country as a soldier.

As others joined hockey or soccer, he enrolled with the 48th Highlanders of Canada in 1996 as an Infantryman and was later transferred to the Regular Force in 1997. After completing Infantry Battle School, he was posted to Princess Patricia’s in 1998, where he served as a Rifleman in Operation Palladium; a peacekeeping mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2000.

A great athlete, Dyer was also a paratrooper who took part in a strenuous Mountain Man military fitness competition, which involved a canoe portage, a 31.6-km footrace and a 10-km river paddle.

“The guy kept it real; there was nothing fake about this guy at all,” recalled Daryl Bonar, a former soldier who served with Dyer and the three others killed. “He never had a bad thing to say about anybody.”

Bonar said Dyer once completed an arduous military Mountain Man race with a broken foot.

“The race involved a long run with a heavy pack sack, portaging a canoe and a final sprint,” he reflected. “He was so determined to finish that he crawled across the finish line.”

After service in Bosnia, the deeply-religious Dyer, and his mates, were deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Before shipping out, ‘Ains’ had fallen in love and proposed marriage on bended knees to his Edmonton sweetheart, who promptly accepted. However, he never did return home alive.

A plaque bearing the names of Dyer, Sgt. Marc Léger, Pte. Richard Green and Pte. Nathan Smith was placed in a memorial at the Canadian headquarters at Kandahar Airfield. In February 2003, Dyer was commemorated on the Rakkasan Memorial Wall at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Family members are proud that one of the 117,000 trees being planted as part of the Highway of Heroes Living Tribute will represent the sacrifice that Cpl. Dyer made to serve and protect Canada.

The Ainsworth Dyer Memorial Bridge in Edmonton and a laneway in the Cabbagetown area of Toronto have been named after the courageous corporal.