Pax Vobiscum
Sadly,
Today I wish to honour five Australian soldiers who were killed in two separate incidents in Afghanistan in the past 24 hours. This marks one of Australia's darkest days since the Vietnam War. Three were slain in an attack by someone wearing an Afghan army uniform. The soldiers were fired on at close range and, whilst the Australians returned fire, the attacker escaped. The other two were killed in a US Black Hawk crash. The two privates - aged 30 and 23 - died when the International Security Assistance Force helicopter they were travelling in, crashed while landing in a northern province.
These latest deaths bring the number of Australian
soldiers killed in Afghanistan since February 2001 to ...
38
The three men killed in the first incident were all based at Brisbane's Enoggera Barracks. They included a 40-year-old lance corporal posted to the 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment of the Queensland Mounted Infantry. He was on his second tour of Afghanistan and had previously served in Iraq. The second soldier was a 23-year-old private posted to the 6th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment and the third was a 21-year-old sapper posted to the 2nd Combat Engineer Regiment. The latter two were both young men on their first operational deployment. Two other soldiers were also badly injured.
I had not met any of the soldiers who were killed, but I do salute their effort and offer my deepest sympathies to their families and colleagues.
Pax vobiscum!
I'm Clancy Tucker.
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