November 28th, 35 years ago today, Paul 'Jacko' Jackson lost his life doing his duty.
I do not want to go into the politics of those responsible, I want to remember Paul as the friendly, smiling,willing bloke that he was, always ready for a bit of banter, teasing me about the posting date that had not come through for me to go to BAOR on the posting he had fixed for me. Even on the morning of the day he went out with the bomb squad he had said " If you keep asking me, I won't tell you untill the last minute." I told him that the beers were on me as soon as my date came through so he had better sort it. He said " In that case, it better be soon "
We never spoke again.
To me, he is still that smiling 21 year old that I knew.
I do not want to go into the politics of those responsible, I want to remember Paul as the friendly, smiling,willing bloke that he was, always ready for a bit of banter, teasing me about the posting date that had not come through for me to go to BAOR on the posting he had fixed for me. Even on the morning of the day he went out with the bomb squad he had said " If you keep asking me, I won't tell you untill the last minute." I told him that the beers were on me as soon as my date came through so he had better sort it. He said " In that case, it better be soon "
We never spoke again.
To me, he is still that smiling 21 year old that I knew.
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