EDMONTON -- Family and friends of a soldier killed in Afghanistan are remembering Trooper Michael Yuki Hayakaze as always having a smile on his face
and a pair of in-line skates on his feet.
Hayakaze was killed by a roadside bomb March 2. The 25-year-old, who was brought to Afghanistan after the rest of his regiment to replace a colleague who
had been injured in a similar blast, had only days left in his deployment. He was laid to rest Saturday afternoon at a private ceremony in Edmonton. Members
of his regiment carried his flag-draped coffin into the funeral home. Four people were expected to eulogize the fallen soldier. "Everyone who has met Michael
in person will never forget his bravery along with his encouraging attitude, and the cheerful smile that he always had on his face,'' Hayakaze's family wrote in
an obituary.
The soldier attended school in the city, and in high school he was part of the swimming and water polo teams, according to the obituary. Hayakaze joined
Edmonton's Lord Strathcona's Horse regiment in 2006, and soon began training for deployment to Afghanistan. After stints in Fort Bliss, Texas, Wainwright,
Alta., and Germany, he was ready to drive some of the heavy armoured vehicles used in the war-torn country. Lt.-Col. Pascal Demers, Hayakaze's commanding
officer, has said he remembers the soldier as "a bit quiet and reserved,'' but capable, competent and ready to face challenges in Afghanistan in order to make
a difference.
Trisha Hearn wrote on the Edmonton funeral home's Internet memorial that she will always think of Hayakaze as a "good, true friend'' and will picture him
rolling up the street on his in-line skates. "You would think that he slept with them on, that's how often he wore them,'' wrote Hearn. "Mike was always willing
to help out a friend no matter what -- even something as simple as letting you listen to his MP3 player on the way home from school,'' she wrote.
Hayakaze was the 79th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002.