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| Corporal Doug Grant, NZSAS |
The NZSAS trooper who died during the insurgent attack in Kabul in Friday was Corporal Doug Grant, NZSAS.
CPL Grant died when he was hit by a bullet fired by an insurgent during the attack.
He was a highly regarded member of his unit who had a long and successful career with the NZ Defence Force. Despite the best efforts of our and coalition medics at the scene and en route to Bagram Air Base hospital he could not be saved.
CPL Grant had served in Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, Royal New Zealand Engineers and the NZSAS. He was 41 years old and had served twice in East Timor, once in the Former Yugoslavia and was on his second tour in Afghanistan. He is married with a 7 year old daughter and 5 year old son.
CPL Grant will be repatriated to NZ via arriving later this week.
The NZDF will make known which parts of the funeral service can be made public and open to the media.
Chief of Defence Force LT GEN Rhys Jones says; “Our thoughts are with his family, members of his unit and friends and colleagues within the NZ Army and NZ Defence Force as a whole. Also killed in the attack was a member of the NZSAS partnering unit in Afghanistan, the Crisis Response Unit, and our thoughts are with his colleagues and loved ones.
“The events of Friday in Kabul reinforce to us all that ours is a dangerous profession, whether on deployment or in training and while we accept these risks the death of a colleague, friend and father is always difficult to take.
“Our presence in Afghanistan will continue, however, so long as the Government asks for our presence. As Chief of Defence Force, I remain proud of the work we do.”