Fatfox9's Blog

Just felt like remembering my fallen Brothers again – they deserve it – RIP Brave Ones

A week before the ink would dry
in some cold London room
we went in hard through Mozambique
to deal our final wound

The clouds were thick the mission clear
the bridges marked for flame
to choke the lines to stall the guns
to kill the serpent’s name

Twelve Pumas thumped through grey and green
a heartbeat in the sky
while boots and rifles filled the holds
and none of us asked why

Among them flew old 164
a spare pulled into line
replacing Cheetah lost at Barragem
just yesterday in fire and time

Then from the trees a single man
with hate behind his eye
raised an RPG and loosed the shot
that tore through flesh and sky

She buckled fast she fell like stone
no time to scream or pray
just impact silence Mozambique
and seventeen gone that day

No rescue reached them in the smoke
no angels caught their fall
but somewhere God stood still and watched
and took them one and all

They never made it home to rest
no flags no folded grace
just comrades later tracking back
to find the crash site place

And there they left a cross of wood
a marker in the sand
for men who fought like lions
and died in foreign land

So read these names and know them well
they gave their final breath
in service silence and in flame
they met an honored death

Roll of Honour – Puma 164

124307 Trooper Jacobus Briel
1 Commando Rhodesian Light Infantry

781343 Second Lieutenant Bruce Burns
Rhodesian Corps of Engineers

730092 Trooper Aiden Colman
1 Commando Rhodesian Light Infantry

123929 Trooper Jeremy Crow
1 Commando Rhodesian Light Infantry

780949 Captain Johannes du Plooy
1 Commando Rhodesian Light Infantry

79641 Corporal LeRoy Duberly
Rhodesian Corps of Engineers

119928 Trooper Brian Enslin
1 Commando Rhodesian Light Infantry

64081 Lance Corporal Peter Fox
Rhodesian Corps of Engineers

729689 Corporal Gordon Fry
1 Commando Rhodesian Light Infantry

94444 Sergeant Michael Jones
Rhodesian Corps of Engineers

729937 Trooper Stephen King
1 Commando Rhodesian Light Infantry

123027 Trooper Colin Neasham
1 Commando Rhodesian Light Infantry

730099 Trooper David Prosser
1 Commando Rhodesian Light Infantry

781013 Captain Charles Small
Rhodesian Corps of Engineers

74299181 Lieutenant Nigel Osborne
19 Squadron South African Air Force

66252610PE Sergeant Dirk Retief
19 Squadron South African Air Force

70388152PK Captain Paul Velleman
19 Squadron South African Air Force 

With special acknowledgement to Beaver Shaw……..Rhodesian Air Force…….legendary door gunner, author and poet