No return from the breach this time for my friend Jo Woodgate

[Robb]

Robb's note: No, I didn't know him. That's the title of the piece.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/28/lance-corporal-jo-woodgate">No return from the breach this time for my friend Jo Woodgate

Lance Corporal of Horse was killed by grenade in Afghanistan just days before he was due to return to Britain



Two days before his last patrol in Afghanistan, Lance Corporal of Horse Jo Woodgate updated his Facebook status. "Once more into the breach, dear friends," he typed.

It was a fitting sentiment for a man who had fought in both of Britain's recent wars. At just 19 in 2003, he had almost lost his life in Iraq. Yet he went on operational tour in that country once more and had seen combat in Afghanistan twice. In his army career, Woodgate had been unto the breach many times.

As he counted down to the end of his latest six-month stint, the 26-year-old was not to know that in quoting Shakespeare's Henry V he could not have written anything more apposite as an epitaph.

Jo died on that last foot patrol on Friday in Sangin when a grenade exploded after being lobbed over a wall. This time, he didn't come back from the breach....

Excellent piece. We should all be so lucky as to be this well remembered when we pass.

[hlthe2b]

1. More waste..

Intelligent, compassionate, and dedicated (and yes, I must comment, good looking, no matter how superfluous).

[SolidGold]

2. Sad - he lost his life for his principles, but fought for nothing.

Afghanistan is where countries go to lose everything.