25 December, let us pause to remember these young men from our Generation who answered the Sunset call.
25 Dec 1959: P/21088 Corporal Marthinus Jeremias Brown from the Infantry School was killed in a private motor vehicle accident. He was 25.
25 Dec 1977: 75362434BC Rifleman Michiel Nicolaas Beukes from 4 SAI Died of Wounds received during a fierce contact with SWAPO/PLAN insurgents between Beacon 9 & 10. The 12-man Patrol had set up an ambush position in the direction from where a SWAPO/PLAN infiltration was expected. At 01h10 on Christmas morning, in conditions of rain and poor visibility, the insurgents attacked the patrol from very close range with assault rifles, machine guns and RPG-Anti-Tank Rockets. Beukes was critically wounded after suffering multiple bullet wounds to the lower part of his body and four others suffered bullet wounds to the legs and feet. The Platoon Sergeant set off a Claymore Directional Fragmentation Mine that faced to the north and the insurgents immediately broke contact and withdrew.
Beukes together with the other wounded members were evacuated to the Trauma Surgical Unit at Grootfontein but he unfortunately succumbed to his wounds while still on the operating table. He was 18.
25 Dec 1979: 76624899PC Private Ronald Atkins from 2 Military Base Management was killed in a military motorcycle accident at Grootfontein. He was 20.
25 Dec 1979: 4449 Flight Lieutenant Andre Johannes Senekal, a South African National flying with 7 Squadron Rhodesian Air Force, was killed while flying Alouette III Helicopter R5879 after he attempted a night take-off from Mount Darwin. Having no horizon, it appears that he suffered vertigo, became disorientated and crashed not long after take-off. He was 23.
25 Dec 1980: 05226304PE Warrant Officer Class II Ethelred Wolsey Frost Botes from the Orange Free State Command Workshop died after suffering a fatal heart attack. He was 44.
25 Dec 1981: 81533572SP Rifleman Funa Dala from 32 Battalion was critically wounded on 14 December 1981 in a landmine explosion on the road between Ongiva and Chiede in Southern Angola. Sadly, he Died of Wounds in Hospital on 25 December 1981. He was 28.
25 Dec 1994: 94659174AY Rifleman Mphati Elliot Goniwe from the Wallmannsthal Assembly Area was killed in a private motor vehicle accident in East London while on official leave. He was 33.
Their names and sacrifices will not be forgotten.