Col. Geoff Parker, 42, died Tuesday after a car bomb detonated in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Department of National Defence)

More than 1,500 military and civilian personnel have attended a ramp ceremony in Afghanistan for Canadian Col. Geoff Parker, who died in a suicide car bombing in Kabul.

Parker's flag-draped casket was hoisted into the back of a military plane at Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan on Thursday to begin its journey to Canada.

Padre Maj. André Gauthier said a farewell prayer and offered words of comfort to Parker's friends and family.

"Geoff leaves behind his loving wife M.J. and two children," Gauthier said. "We know their extended military family will help them through this difficult time."

Parker, 42, of Oakville, Ont., was the highest-ranking Canadian Forces member to be killed in Afghanistan since the mission started in 2002.

Until last June, he was the commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment stationed at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick.

For the people who knew him in that province, such as George Chisholm, a retired captain, Parker's rise through the ranks was not surprising.

"He was very outgoing, he was very conscientious, an excellent sense of humour, anything you asked him to do he would take on and you knew that he would do a wonderful job. Everybody respected him," Chisholm said.

'He respected people'

As a young person, Parker joined the cadets and received the honour of being top cadet.

Cam Barnes, who was a cadet captain with Parker, said he remembers running into Parker several years later in London, Ont.

"He was a lieutenant at the time and so was I and he still called me sir," Barnes said. "That’s the way Geoff was, he respected people."

Parker was preparing to take over a senior position responsible for development work in Kandahar as part of NATO's counterinsurgency strategy in southern Afghanistan.

The colonel was among 18 people killed in the suicide car bombing in Kabul on Tuesday. Five U.S. soldiers and 12 Afghan civilians also died in the blast.

Parker's death brings to 145 the number of Canadian Forces members to die in the eight-year-old Afghan mission.

With files from The Canadian Press