26 February, let us pause to remember these young men from our Generation who answered the Sunset call.
26 Feb 1976: 67234162BT Corporal Jan Andries Swanepoel from 8 Signal Regiment was accidentally killed when his Unimog vehicle overturned at Chitado in Southern Angola. He was 25.
26 Feb 1980: 68265701BT Rifleman Jakobus Andries Petrus Bosman from the Witwatersrand Rifles was Killed in Action during a contact with SWAPO/PLAN insurgents in Northern Owamboland. He was 27.
26 Feb 1983: 73363319PE Sergeant Daniel Gordon Rheeder from Air Force Base Ysterplaat was critically injured in a private motor vehicle accident on 25 February 1983 in Prince Albert Street, Cape Town. He was admitted to the Tygerberg Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries on 26 February 1983. He was 26.
26 Feb 1984: 80331531BG Private Adrian Bruce Berend from the Intelligence School in Kimberley was killed in a private motor vehicle accident while on a weekend pass. He was 19.
26 Feb 1992: 79493680PE Lieutenant Commander Robert Desmond Kohne from SAS Drakensberg was killed in an accident aboard the ship while it was berthed in Cape Town. Around lunch break, the ship’s crew was alerted by a really loud bang that caused a light shudder in the ship. The Duty Sentry immediately announced over the main broadcast system that a "Pallet trolley" had fallen down the lift shaft so the Mechanical Rate together with the Officer of the Day, immediately went to the bottom of the lift shaft via the stairwell to investigate. They found that it was not a pallet trolley but in fact the ships 2-ton forklift that had fallen down the lift shaft together with Lt Cdr Kohne who was still in the driver's cage. He was immediately extricated from the wreckage in critical condition and given emergency CPR and first aid until the Paramedics and the Ambulance arrived. Despite all their efforts however, he was declared dead at the scene. He was 29.
26 Feb 1993: 92066364PV Lance Corporal Terry Tobego Montsho from 3 SAI was accidentally drowned in the Umkomaas River when he slipped off a rock and fell into the water while he was trying to cross the River near Highflats. He was 24.
Their names and sacrifices will not be forgotten.