User:Eino81/George Miok

George "Gyuri" Miok (18 May 1981 - 30 December 2009) was a sergeant with 41 CER of the Canadian Forces. He was killed in service in Afghanistan in 2009 when the infantry fighting vehicle which he was commanding drove over an improvised explosive device. He was awarded the Sacrifice Medal (posthumously), Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal, NATO Medal for Former Yugoslavia, General Campaign Star (ISAF) and South-West Asia Service Medal. He was also a junior high school teacher in Edmonton, Alberta.

Early life
George (or György) was born into a Canadian Hungarian family in Edmonton, his father was Illés Miok (from Senta, Voivodina), his mother was Anna Miok (born Anna Gróf, from Magyarpolány), he had three brothers, Michael, John and László. He was not married and did not have children.

He was a teacher, he studied at the University of Alberta. In 2008-2009 he taught religion, math, gym and health to the grade 7 students in the St. Cecilia's Junior High School in Edmonton.

He was a member of the Edmonton Hungarian community and also spoke Hungarian. Because of his Hungarian origins, his death received attention in the Hungarian media.

Military career
Miok joined the army at 17 years old. In 2002 he went to Bosnia serving in SFOR. He went to Afghanistan for the first time in 2005, he was a section second in command in Kandahar. For the second time he went to Afghanistan in 2009. He was the member of the 41 Combat Engineer Regiment and he was serving the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team. He was the Infantry Section Commander within the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team. In 2009 he and three other Canadian soldiers died, when their armoured vehicle hit an improvised explosive device four kilometres south of Kandahar City. He was the 135th Canadian soldier who has died in Afghanistan.

He was buried on 9 January 2010 in Edmonton. His family established the George Miok Memorial Scholarship Fund in Miok's memory.