Tri Services Australian Military

Another Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan RIP Digger

 25th August 2010

 The Australian Defence Force has confirmed an Australian soldier has been killed in action in Afghanistan.

Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said the Lance Corporal was killed in an intense firefight with the Taliban.

He was 28 years old and married, with a young family.

Defence Minister John Faulkner says the soldier is the fourth member of Brisbane-based 6 RAR group lost in a matter of weeks; two were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan last week.

Twenty-one Australian soldiers have now died in Afghanistan since 2001.

 A soldier's poem for the fallen 

The news is spread far and wide
Another comrade has sadly died
A sunset vigil upon the sand
As a soldier leaves this foreign land

We stand alone, and yet as one
In the fading light of a setting sun
We've all gathered to say goodbye
To our fallen comrade who's set to fly

The eulogy's read about their life
Sometimes with words from pals or wife
We all know when the CO's done
What kind of soldier they'd become

The padre then calls us all to pray
The bugler has Last Post to play
The cannon roars and belches flame
We will recall, with pride, their name

A minute's silence stood in place
As tears roll down the hardest face
Deafening silence fills the air
With each of us in personal prayer

Reveille sounds and the parade is done
The hero remembered, forgotten by none
They leave to start the journey back
In a coffin draped in the Southern Cross & Union Jack

By - - Staff Sergeant Andrew McFarlane

poem modified