The remains of Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener were returned to Canada Friday evening, in a sombre repatriation ceremony at Ontario's CFB Trenton.

Under darkening skies, the killed UN observer was taken from a Canadian Forces plane by eight pallbearers.

His family, including wife Cynthia and sister Tonya Hess, clutched red and white flowers as a piper played the lament.

Hess-von Kruedener, 43, was killed along with three other observers after Israeli jets bombarded the town of Khiam, near the eastern end of Lebanon's border, on July 25.

Maj. Lindsay Reinelt, a friend of Hess-von Kruedener who knew him by his nickname "Wolf," said he was a dedicated soldier.

Both friends served under the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and acted as UN observers in Congo.

"He was a dynamic, hard-charging, totally committed soldier," he told CTV Newsnet from Kingston, Ont. "He was committed to leadership, committed to his soldiers, and just the kind of guy that soldiers liked to follow and willingly followed."

He added that Hess-von Kruedener was also committed to his family.

"Without a doubt, Wolf gave everything to everything he did, whether it was his dedication to his family, or his job within the army as an infantry officer," said Reinelt.

All the men stationed at the observer post were unarmed, and the attack sparked accusations Israel had deliberately launched a precision-guided missile at the UN observer post.

Israel has apologized for the attack and said it was accidental.

The bodies of three soldiers from Austria, China and Finland were found shortly after the blast, but Hess-von Kruedener, a father of two grown children, remained missing until a body was positively identified days later.

"It was brutal," said Reinelt. "The lack of information initially, the release of information that announced a Canadian was involved, and then there were changes in the information, that four bodies were found and then three bodies found -- it was an incredibly difficult time for the family."

Former UN commander Maj. Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, who served as a peacekeeper in the Balkans during the chaotic early 1990s, said the observers should have been removed from their post when the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah intensified.

"I would have removed them as their commander probably on the first or second day, knowing that the war had started, because they're unarmed observers," MacKenzie told CTV.ca.

"And if the UN had ordered me to keep them there, I would have ordered them out and tendered my resignation -- it's that serious. You don't leave unarmed observers in the middle of a conflict."