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The Falklands War, 25 years on
Posted by Mark 3 Jun 2007
I have never lost a friend in combat, but I know many guys who have. It's very difficult to try and put yourself in their position, it really isn't like losing a friend who died in a car accident for example. It's also hard to imagine what it's like to be in combat, to know how it feels to be walking in the open with bullets flying all around you, or to have the courage to stand up from a place of relative safety into that lethal fire and make your way towards the enemy and close with them, to kill them before they kill you. If you haven't been there, you can't know what it's like.
Five years ago I was fortunate enough to go down south on the Falklands veterans' pilgrimage, marking twenty years after the war. Those on the pilgrimage were veterans and relatives of the fallen, all with their own stories and all with their own personal ghosts to lay to rest. My job was to write a daily blog for the benefit of those left behind in the UK. There will be another pilgrimage later this year, twenty five years after the war and fund-raising is in full swing.
The bond between guys who have been through the rigours of training and serving together is very strong, "Brothers in Arms" is a very apt phrase. Incidentally, Mark Knopfler has re-recorded that song in aid of the pilgrimage, you can buy the CD or download it on-line. That compassion the veterans feel is not limited to those they knew personally, it is shared with all those who died, and for many that includes the Argentine dead. One of the most touching sights I saw on the 2002 pilgrimage was that of dozens of veterans at the Argentine cemetery laying flowers and saying silent prayers for their former enemy. I saw many other moving sights on that trip, such as Paddy Burton playing his bagpipes at a memorial that marked the spot where his friend "Mac" McAndrews died. There was an icy wind blasting off San Carlos Water, I and a few others could only stand it for a couple of minutes, but Paddy played for half an hour, such is love and devotion to a fallen comrade. There was happiness, too, on that trip as guys came to terms with events of 1982.
The best sight for all of us was to see how much the Falkland Islanders had done with their newly-restored freedom. There had been political and economic reforms. The Islands were prosperous, Stanley, the main town, was expanding and there were many new businesses and sources of employment. Remarkably, most young Islanders return home to the Falklands after completing their higher education in England, they all see their future as being in the Falklands.
The only blot on the landscape is that basket-case of a country that is Argentina still lays claim to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, and chunks of Antarctica. They teach their children at school that the Islands belong to them, and every year they go before the UN De-Colonisation Committee and make a case that it should be their colony instead. What else would it be? Argentina insists the Islanders have no rights, and they make life as difficult for the Falklands as they can. The South Atlantic Medal Association, the veterans association, supports the right of self-determination of the Islanders.
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