23 November, let us pause to remember these young men from our Generation who answered the Sunset call.
23 Nov 1959: P/7990 Air Corporal Pieter Gerhardus Roos from 1 Air Depot suffered a fatal heart attack at his home in Pretoria. He was 41.
23 Nov 1962: Pioneer Patrick Edwin van Dyk from Defence Headquarters died from carbon monoxide poisoning after gassing himself in his car near the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. He was 58.
23 Nov 1964: P/20019 Petty Officer Edward Waters from SAS President Steyn died after suffering a fatal heart attack and was later buried at sea. He was 34.
23 Nov 1969: 5974 Senior Technician (Armaments) Johan Matheus Jansen van Vuuren, a South African National serving in the Rhodesian Air Force was based at New Sarum. He died in the Salisbury Central Hospital after being critically injured when his private motor vehicle was involved in a head-on collision with another motor vehicle on the ring road at New Sarum. He was 20.
23 Nov 1975: 05483722PE Captain George Frederick Schoeman from 2 Special Service Battalion was the commander of the Armoured Car Squadron attached to Battle Group Foxtrot and was critically wounded on 07 November 1975 during Operation Savannah in Southern Angola 37 km east of Lobito at a T-junction that served the Cities of Lobito, Novo Redondo and Nova Lisboa. Enemy forces had placed mines on the Luanda to Lobito road and the advancing armoured cars had to work around them. Captain Schoeman was one of those walking along the road to spot mines and when he reached the T-junction on the east west road leading to Lobito, an armoured car approached and he had to step off the road onto the soft shoulder to let the vehicle pass. In doing so, he stepped onto a Soviet PMN Black Widow anti-personnel mine. He was flown from Norton de Matos back to Rundu and evacuated to 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria. He sadly succumbed to his wounds on 23 November 1975. He was 31.
23 Nov 1975: 05477377PE Warrant Officer Class II Alwyn Johannes Benson from 4 SAI was Killed in Action during Operation Savannah at Ebo, in Southern Angola while in command of a mortar platoon. During the battle, while engaging the enemy, his mortar position was hit by a Soviet 122mm Katyusha Rocket that killed him instantly. He had been sent to Angola to relieve Staff Sergeant Steenkamp. He was 32.
23 Nov 1975: 67728378PE Captain Johan Wolfgang Holm HC (P) from the Danie Theron Combat School was Killed in Action during Operation Savannah near Ebo in Southern Angola after his Armoured Car Squadron was ambushed by a numerically superior Cuban Force. During the course of the engagement, he was forced to expose himself from the turret to physically assist another armoured car out of the ambush area when a Soviet 122mm Katyusha Rocket exploded behind his Eland 90. He was struck in the head by a large piece of shrapnel that killed him instantly. For his unselfish act in exposing himself from the safety of his turret in the face of heavy enemy fire to save the lives of others, he was posthumously awarded the Honoris Crux. He was 36.
23 Nov 1975: 71475925BC Corporal Jochemus Jacobus Taljaard from 2 Special Service Battalion was Killed in Action during Operation Savannah at Ebo in Southern Angola when he was struck by shrapnel from a 122mm Soviet BM-21 Katyusha Rocket. He was 20.
23 Nov 1975: 71259428BC Trooper Neil Lombard from B Squadron 1 Special Service Battalion was Reported Missing during Ops Savannah at Ebo, in Southern Angola. He was the driver of the armoured car commanded by Lt J du Toit. They were ordered forward toward the bridge over the Massaba River and as the car approached the bridge, it received a direct hit from a Chinese 75mm Recoilless Gun hollow charge anti-tank projectile that killed him instantly. The car was knocked off the road by the force of the explosion and ended up on its side in the river. His body could not be recovered. He was apparently later buried by locals next to the cross roads of two pathways at Ebo. When the remains of the "Ebo Four" were recently repatriated back to the RSA, his actual remains could not be located despite an intensive search of the area. Sand from the site where locals said he was apparently buried, was brought back and interred in the Memorial Niche at the Voortrekker Monument Wall of Remembrance. He has no known grave and remains unaccounted for. He was 20.
23 Nov 1975: 72449325BC Lance Corporal Gerhard Vollgraaff from 2 Special Service Battalion Died of Wounds received in Action during Operation Savannah at the Battle of Ebo. His armoured car was hit in the turret and as he jumped out of the vehicle, an enemy sniper shot him in the stomach. He was evacuated to the Forward Surgical Hospital at Cela where a successful operation was performed. Unfortunately, complications set in and he succumbed to his wounds later during the day. He was 19.
23 Nov 1976: 71275531BA Rifleman Stephanus Johannes Swartz from 6 SAI was killed in a military vehicle accident at Bedford in the Eastern Cape. He was 21.
23 Nov 1978: 77012292PE Corporal Nicolaas Marthinus Dekker from the Ordnance Service Corps killed instantly by shrapnel at Potchefstroom when a G2 140mm Medium Gun High Explosive projectile exploded in the breach during a training exercise. He was 48.
23 Nov 1981: 77157410HK Rifleman R. Mukoya from 202 Battalion SWATF was Killed in Action during a contact with enemy forces. He was 25.
23 Nov 1986: 66213299KV Sergeant Gert Benjamin Labuschagne from the Virginia Commando was found dead during a military training exercise. It appeared that he suffered a fatal heart attack during the night while he was asleep. He was 36.
23 Nov 1993: 67465179PE Warrant Officer Class I Hendrik Christiaan Brits from the Army Catering Corps attached to Northern Cape Command Headquarters died from a suspected pulmonary embolism. He was 41.
23 Nov 1993: Captain Louis Joubert from 1 Squadron was Reported Missing when his Dassault Mirage F1AZ, Serial No.234 was seen to suddenly bank steeply and dive into the sea approximately 80 km South, South West of Cape Point while carrying out a low level maritime air strike. Although the Pilot was seen to successfully eject, it appears that he was unable to jettison his parachute that subsequently dragged him under the water before he could be rescued. He has no known grave and remains unaccounted for. He was 24.
23 Nov 1994: 94997616BU Rifleman Jacob Vusi Mabena attached to the Wallmannsthal Divisional Headquarters died of tuberculosis in the S.A.N.T.A., Hospital in Benoni while on an official leave pass. He was 25.
23 Nov 1996: 95060356PV Lance Corporal Humphrey David Richard Nxumalo from the Technical Service Corps attached to Natal Command Workshops was killed after being shot in the back by persons unknown while acting as a pall bearer at a funeral in Umlazi. He was 32.
23 Nov 1996: 96202726PV Rifleman Thembalethu Alfred Pakade from 1 SAI Died of Wounds after being grievously burned in a phosphor mortar bomb explosion during Exercise Southern Cross. He was admitted to the Kalafong Hospital in critical condition where he succumbed to his injuries later the same day. He was 23.
23 Nov 1999: 90958240PF Corporal Vincent Jacques Vermeulen from Infantry School accidentally drowned while attending the Tracking Course at Potchefstroom. He was 28.
Their names and sacrifices will not be forgotten.