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Today my thoughts go back 36 years and the loss of such a young lad. Clifford Loring may well be the youngest fulltime serving soldier to be killed on duty in Ulster, You had to be 18 to be there, Clifford was still 17 when he was posted to our rear party from the School of Artillery, we were already over the water.
His 18th birthday came up, I was never clear if it was on the Friday or Saturday but they put him on the ferry from Liverpool on Friday evening, arriving on Saturday morning he was legally and officially 18. He whent straight to our lads at the bus depot, the Regt was split between several different locations then.
He whent on his first patrol on Sunday, a VCP, Steve sent me the official report and it seemed much as we knew at the time, a sniper fired, hitting the shoulder of the flak jacket worn by the Sgt before hitting Clifford in the head. What it does not say, the Sgt was our oldest member, having done 22 and on extension so Clifford was easily young enough to be his son, he was devastated. Clifford was rushed to hospital and put on life support but to no avail, he never regained conciousness.
I remember clearly a group of us, Roger B. Mick S.wee jock. BFJ, Ringo and a few others sitting around discussing the chain of events and having a beer, as you do. It was 1971 so none of this touchy feely stuff. It was Ringo, not usually the most verbose of men, who put it best when he said he was not sure whether he was shocked at losing one of ours or ashamed because he did not know him . That was the thing, only those on rear party and a few at the bus depot had a chance to meet him, even his own squad had only met him the day before he was shot.
He was no more than a day or two past his 18th and he was gone,without us getting the chance to know him, no happy memories or funny stories to remember him by, it seemed especially cruel.
so Clifford was gone, but not forgotten.
His 18th birthday came up, I was never clear if it was on the Friday or Saturday but they put him on the ferry from Liverpool on Friday evening, arriving on Saturday morning he was legally and officially 18. He whent straight to our lads at the bus depot, the Regt was split between several different locations then.
He whent on his first patrol on Sunday, a VCP, Steve sent me the official report and it seemed much as we knew at the time, a sniper fired, hitting the shoulder of the flak jacket worn by the Sgt before hitting Clifford in the head. What it does not say, the Sgt was our oldest member, having done 22 and on extension so Clifford was easily young enough to be his son, he was devastated. Clifford was rushed to hospital and put on life support but to no avail, he never regained conciousness.
I remember clearly a group of us, Roger B. Mick S.wee jock. BFJ, Ringo and a few others sitting around discussing the chain of events and having a beer, as you do. It was 1971 so none of this touchy feely stuff. It was Ringo, not usually the most verbose of men, who put it best when he said he was not sure whether he was shocked at losing one of ours or ashamed because he did not know him . That was the thing, only those on rear party and a few at the bus depot had a chance to meet him, even his own squad had only met him the day before he was shot.
He was no more than a day or two past his 18th and he was gone,without us getting the chance to know him, no happy memories or funny stories to remember him by, it seemed especially cruel.
so Clifford was gone, but not forgotten.
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