OPINION: A salute of thanks to a hero (From Bournemouth Echo)

OPINION: A salute of thanks to a hero

8:00am Thursday 20th November 2008

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IN Monday’s Echo I wrote about the antics of drivers on the Wessex Way. As I wrote it, something was niggling me. But I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.

In Tuesday’s Echo, I offered my opinion, for what it is worth, regarding the issue of extending the ban on dogs on beaches. But that same something kept chipping away at the back of my mind.

Then I remembered. I had seen a late-night TV programme on Saturday that was extraordinarily poignant. It was a series of interviews with the families of servicemen who had died in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it brought home to me the huge sacrifices families have made on our behalf.

The men featured on the programme who had died were so young and full of hope and vigour that it seemed hard to believe they were no longer with us. And their families, of course, were utterly distraught. How could they not be?

For the rest of us, the shock of a death of a soldier we do not know jolts us whenever we hear about it. But our lives move on.

Life doesn’t move on for the victims who made such a sacrifice. Those young men and women did what our country asked of them. And paid a tragic price.

Oh and what was niggling me earlier this week about writing about Wessex Way drivers and dogs on beaches?

I had thought those subjects important to focus on at the time. And all the while the family, fiancee and friends of a Royal Marine from Bournemouth were grieving.

Neil Dunstan died last week, alongside a fellow soldier, in southern Afghanistan.

That was the one news story that really mattered.

And I would like to say thanks to Neil for giving so much.

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