Erin Melvin Doyle was born March 20, 1976, in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, and grew up in Kamloops, British Columbia, where he attended Kamloops Secondary School before studying heavy mechanics at the University College of the Cariboo. Erin joined the Rocky Mountain Rangers, a Canadian Army Reserve unit in Kamloops, where he met his future wife. Married in 1997, he enlisted in Vancouver, British Columbia, on May 21, 1998. Erin served with the Canadian Armed Forces and later as a Master Corporal with the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. After serving in Bosnia in 2000 and Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2004, Erin returned to Afghanistan in 2008 with the Canadian contingent of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). On August 11, 2008, Master Corporal Erin Melvin Doyle died during an attack by Taliban insurgents while defending his combat outpost in the Panjwayi District of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Erin was honoured with a military funeral service and is commemorated at St. Emile Cemetery in Legal, Alberta, and on the Kamloops Cenotaph in British Columbia. Youngest son of Melvin and Kathleen Doyle; stepson of Bob Mitchell and Barb Loucks; brother of Sean; stepbrother of Keari; husband of Corporal Nicole Josephine Doyle of Legal; and father of Zarine Joan Tygra Krawchuk of Legal, he was 32 years old. Erin received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal for community service in 2002. Decorations and medals: Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal; General Campaign Star with International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Bar; Sacrifice Medal (Posthumous).

“Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson