One of the few.....

This man stayed behind, while others fled....

"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet not with standing, go out to meet it.”


Thucydides

Those who gave their lives....

Left behind, their radio and lad rover stolen, a team of six Royal Military Policemen perished....



Sgt Simon Hamilton-Jewell, 41:

'Sgt Tim's last words to Mr Baiphy have a vivid ring of desperation. "He asked me for a radio to talk to his superiors," Mr Baiphy said. "He said: 'Our radio has been burned in the Land Rover.'

Corporal Simon Miller, 21:

'Outnumbered by perhaps 1,000 to one, they mounted a desperate last stand in the baking heat. Shattered windows, rooms pockmarked with bullet holes and the pulverised brickwork of the wall surrounding the police station show how fiercely they fought.'

Corporal Russell Aston, 30:

'According to several Iraqi accounts, two of the Britons took cover behind sandbags on the roof of the building. Others manned firing positions in the front rooms.'

Corporal Paul Graham Long, 24:

'Bloodstains on the floor show that one soldier was killed or wounded in the corridor then dragged 10 yards towards the entrance of the building. Every fragment of glass has been blown out of the barred window of one front room.'

Lance-Corporal Benjamin John McGowan Hyde, 23:

'Ten heavy calibre bullet holes scar the wall, perhaps showing where another military policeman died.'

Lance-Corporal Thomas Richard Keys, 20:

'On the other side of a small courtyard, two small rooms have been gutted. More than 24 hours after the fire started, blasts of heat were still overpowering and acrid smoke curled from the doorway to the rooms.'

You know, deep down that you would have run, as fast as you could, away from the gunfire, and you wouldn't have looked back.

You cannot imagine, no, you do not want to imagine what these six brave men were thinking the moment they were taking up their positions, making their rifles ready to fire, you do not want to think about the moment it dawned on them that they were going to die, that they realised that they would have to fight until they could not fight any longer.

You do not want to imagine, because you are not strong enough, not brave enough and not courageous enough, these six men, boldly, intrepidly, stood their ground, held their position, performed their duty and for that we must remember them.

'In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.'

Jose Narosky

Soldiers are not heroes.....

You do not like Facebook, you are not an active member, and you refuse to be so. Recently, while using a relative's Facebook account you stumbled across something, and if you had any feelings at all (which you don't), you would have been angry when you saw it.

The Facebook group called 'Soldiers are not heroes' include this in their 'mantra':

'Putting on a soldiers uniform does not make you a hero. Supporters of the group generally agree that the wars that our armed forces are participating in at the present time and in recent years are unnecessary and unjust. Therefore we don't feel that we should be pressured into offering "support" to people fighting and killing innocent people for causes that we don't believe in.'



You have a response and it comes in the form of a quote:

'It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protestor to burn the flag.'

- Father Dennis Edward O'Brian, USMC