In the hell-hole that is Afghanistan, Sapper Jacob "Snowy" Moerland, country boy and larrikin, could lift the morale of his digger mates in an instant, a memorial service has heard.
Sapper Moerland, just 21, and Sapper Darren Smith, 26, were farewelled by their 2nd Combat Engineer Regiment at Gallipoli Barracks at Enoggera at 2pm (AEST) on Tuesday.
They died on June 7 when a roadside bomb exploded during a foot patrol in the restive Mirabad Valley, east of Australia's main Afghanistan base at Tarin Kowt.
About 1000 colleagues - in their khaki greens - paid tribute to the diggers in the presence of their grief-stricken partners, Sapper Moerland's fiancee, Kezia Mulcahy, and Sapper Smith's wife, Angela, whose families stayed close by to support them with a hug.
Lance Corporal Nicholas Lines read the eulogy for Sapper Moerland, describing a man who knew how to cause a stir and make everybody laugh.
"Snowy" was a six-foot-tall country boy, with big blue eyes and a shock of white hair.
He stuck out in a crowd, but it was no surprise he took his dedication to camouflage to an extreme.
"To prove his point, he used cam-cream to camouflage his hair for three weeks straight," Lance Corp Lines said.
