Yellow ribbons fluttered and Canadian flags flew as more than 200 people gathered for the military funeral of Trooper Darryl Caswell. The ceremony was held Wednesday afternoon at Trinity United Church in Bowmanville, Ont.

Caswell, 25, was killed June 11 while riding in the lead vehicle of a patrol convoy that hit a roadside bomb about 40 kilometres north of Kandahar. He was the 57th Canadian killed in Afghanistan

A member of the Royal Canadian Dragoons of Petawawa, Ont., Caswell was to finish his tour in July.

Born in Bowmanville, Caswell grew up in Clarington, Ont., where he lived with his father and stepmother. After high school, Caswell enrolled in the Police Foundations program at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Peterborough, Ont., before joining the military in 2004.

Caswell, called Kaz by his friends, has been remembered through groups on the social networking internet site Facebook. On the discussion boards, they speak of a brave soldier who truly believed in the mission in Afghanistan and a dear friend.

Caswell will be interred Thursday at Beechwood Military Cemetery in Ottawa.

Just hours before Wednesday's funeral, news came that three Canadian soldiers who had been killed by a road side bomb just west of Kandahar, pushing the death toll for Canadian troops in Afghanistan to 60.