Darrell Jason Priede

Son of Roxanne Marie Priede (2012 National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother) of Grand Forks, British Columbia. Brother of Denise Priede. Husband of Angela Dawn Priede.

Master Corporal Darrell Jason Priede, a military image technician serving with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Regional Command (South) headquartered at Kandahar Airfield, was killed when the Chinook helicopter he was a passenger in crashed in Kajaki, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on May 30, 2007.

Darrell was born in 1977 in Burlington, Ontario. Two years later, the Priede family moved to Greenwood and later Grand Forks, British Columbia, where he graduated from the Grand Forks Secondary School. In 1996, he joined the Canadian Armed Forces where he served as a gunner in the Royal Canadian Artillery and two tours in Bosnia. After his second tour, he transferred to the Air Force where he served as a photographer. He was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan during Operation Athena a military offensive against the Taliban. He had been serving in Afghanistan a little more than one month before the helicopter crash.

Master Corporal Priede is survived by his wife, Angela Dawn (Mitchell) Priede, with whom he had just marked his four-year anniversary (May 14, 2003) before his passing. He was 30 years old and the 56th Canadian soldier to be killed in Afghanistan.

In honour of Master Corporal Priede, the Canadian Armed Forces have instituted the Master Corporal Darrell J. Priede Top Candidate Award for the seven-week Army News Course which began in the fall of 2007.