14 August, let us to remember the following young men from our generation who answered the Sunset call.
14 Aug 1980: Three members from 6 SAI were Killed in Action when their patrol was ambushed by a numerically superior force of SWAPO/PLAN insurgents near Eenhana. The casualties were:
76235068PE Corporal Daniel Johannes Deyzel. He was 20.
76362920BG Lance Corporal Avril Jewaskiewitz. He was 19.
75558049BG Rifleman Christoffel Jacobus Mijburgh. He was 20.
14 Aug 1981: 70459490BT Corporal Cecil Charles McAlister from Regiment Schoonspruit, was Killed in Action during an attack on their TB by SWAPO/PLAN insurgents near Opuwa in the Kaokoveld. He was in the process of getting out of his sleeping bag when a Yugoslavian M-60P1HE High Explosive Anti-Personnel Pencil HEAP STRIM Rifle Grenade exploded right next to him, killing him instantly. He was 27.
14 Aug 1981: 76527688PE Lance Corporal Wynand Spies from 5 Reconnaissance Regiment was Reported Missing in Action during operations in Southern Angola while acting as part of a 3-man rearguard protecting the evacuation of two wounded personnel after an attack. He was shot and presumably killed during this rear-guard action but owing to extremely heavy and concentrated enemy fire, his body could not be recovered. After prolonged political negotiations, his remains were eventually returned to South Africa three years later. He was 20.
14 Aug 1986: 80225667PE Sergeant Johannes Petrus Coetzer from 911 Battalion SWATF was killed in a private motor vehicle accident near Keetmanshoop. He was 22.
Their names and sacrifice have not been forgotten.