The Canadian UN observer killed in Lebanon last month was remembered as a larger-than-life hero who was fiercely loyal to his principles during a sombre military memorial service on Thursday.

Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener 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.

"There is so much that I love about Paeta. And I use the present tense because his spirit and his soul is so fierce and so strong that even if he is longer in his body we know that his spirit is still with us," his grief-stricken sister Tonya Hess said at the Princess of Wales' Own Regiment Armoury in Kingston, Ont. on Thursday.

Hess described her brother as a larger-than-life hero who she believed was invincible.

"Even though I knew the job that he was doing I never would have imagined that he could have died," she said in her tearful eulogy.

She thanked the military "family'' for doing what she referred to as "putting their lives on the line all the time.''

Hess-von Kruedener's daughter Kirsten remembered her father as a gentle soul and a protective parent in a poem that she wrote called "The Tiger."

"I feel that my dad's intensity and spirit has always been embodied by the tiger," she said.

Maj.-Gen. Stuart Beare, the commander of training staff across the country, said the loss of "Wolf'' -- as he was known by his friends -- is a blow to the military family.

"We lost one of our own. We lost a brother,'' Beare said. "Ultimately in our business, his loss affects those of us who continue to serve ... but at the same time, the example he's left us inspires us to carry on.''

Hess-von Kruedener's casket was carried into the armoury by eight uniformed pallbearers, as about 500 people looked on, including his parents Shirlee and Gerry Hess.

At the end of the ceremony, the pallbearers folded the flag that had draped over the fallen UN observer's casket, while a trumpeter played Taps. Once the casket was carried into a waiting limousine, the Hess-von Kruedener received a 21-gun salute.

A member of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry for 20 years, Hess-von Kruedener was the only Canadian serving as a United Nations Military Observer in Lebanon.

The 43-year-old, who had three months remaining on his one-year mission, was stationed at a UN outpost in southern Lebanon, about 10 kilometres from where the Syrian, Lebanese and Israeli borders meet.

The attack sparked accusations Israel had deliberately launched a precision-guided missile at the UN observer post.

Israel has since 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.

In an e-mail written to CTV.ca one week before the bomb hit the UN outpost, Hess-von Kruedener described the battle between Hezbollah and Israeli troops as very high and continuous," with short breaks in between.

"What I can tell you is this: we have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both artillery and aerial bombing," he wrote.

"The closest artillery has landed within 2 metres of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 metres from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but has rather been due to tactical necessity."

On Thursday, his friends remembered him as a good-humoured soldier, and shared jokes and stories about the man they called Wolf.

Capt. Gerhart Hildebrandt, who served with Hess-von Kruedener in Cyprus, was quoted by The Canadian Press as saying his friend always wanted to look cool.

He said one of Hess von-Kruedener's mottoes was to always look good, never get lost and "if you get lost, always look good," he said to laughter.

An interment ceremony will take place at the Woodland Cemetery in Burlington, Ont. on August 11, 2006 at 2 p.m.