Rifles remember their fallen (From Bournemouth Echo)

Rifles remember their fallen

8:00am Wednesday 28th July 2010 in

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Tattooed on Rifleman Mark Anthony Roberts’ forearm are the words: “Only the fallen have seen the end of war”.

It is a quote likely to have been in the thoughts of many among the 350 men from 4 Rifles as a stone memorial was recently unveiled to their colleagues. The soldiers and the families of those killed in action were there for one thing – remembrance.

The battalion, based at Bulford, Salisbury Plain, has lost 15 men in action and accidents in the three years since it was formed.

“I think of the good times, because if you keep all the bad times in your mind, you’re going to be stuck in a rut,” said Rifleman Mark Hoyle, 19, from Broadstone in Poole, who spent six months in Afghanistan, the conflict which claimed the lives of six of the men.

“At events like this you definitely feel it, like when they were shouting out the names of the people who are dead and seeing the families.”

He enjoyed his responsibility as a machine gunner but added: “Every day, guaranteed, you’d get shots fired. There would be times where you’ve seen someone being shot, you’d have to go out and deal with the situation to make things better.”

Since returning he said some people do not understand what the soldiers have been through.

“It’s quite frustrating when people just give you the eye. You might meet a friend of a friend and when they hear what you do they look you up and down and say, ‘you haven’t done much out there’, or ‘what’s the point’.

“But I just want to help my regiment and serve my queen and country and all that stuff.”

He served at the same base as Verwood’s Rifleman Phil Allen, killed in November.

The Rifles are the successors to the Devon and Dorsets and 4 Rifles is a popular posting for county men because it is relatively close to home.

The service left several families in tears and finished with a moving rendition of I Know the Lord Will Make a Way For Me, by the battalion’s Fijian choir.

Rifleman Joshua Lambert, 19, from Portland, missed the Afghanistan tour through a knee injury. Names of two of his best friends are on the monument.

He said: “You never forget, but it goes to the back of your head. Every time you have one of these services it brings it home to you again.”

Colour Serjeant Tim Lush, 38, from Dorchester, said the memorial shows the level of commitment the regiment has made to the security situation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Five of the men died in Iraq, including the former commanding officer of Rifleman Roberts, 21, from Charminster, Bournemouth.

He said: “Those sorts of people are massive in the battalion. Although they are work colleagues or the boss, they are also mates. You share your life with them, all your little problems, “You think about the times you put the world to rights, and to be honest it’s quite emotional.”

Do people talk much about the men who have died?

“It’s not something that comes up a lot. A lot of people don’t talk about it, especially when we’re out there, because of the amount of services that were going on – there were like one or two each week.

“The easiest way to cope I feel it just to get on with the job.”

He added: “A normal 21-year-old shouldn’t know 15 or so people who have died, it’s quite a lot to take in, especially when a lot of them you do know quite closely.”

He was working on the rear supply chain in Afghanistan and found it much easier than the 2007 deployment to Iraq where they were mortared up to 80 times day.

“Iraq was a bit of a nightmare, really. It’s not really the sort of thing you want to be thinking about when you go home, it does play on your mind.”

The quote on Rifleman Roberts’ arm has increased in popularity among soldiers following its use in the film, Black Hawk Down, where it is attributed to Plato (however it may actually originate with a later philosopher, Spanish pacifist George Santayana).

The men still serving with 4 Rifles haven’t seen the end of war. They are expected to return to Afghanistan as a complete battalion in 2013.