'Murdered' diggers mourned at ceremony

5 Sep 2012, 4:43 pm   -   Source: AAP
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The head of the army says it doesn't get any easier to bring fallen soldiers home from Afghanistan, particularly when they have been murdered.

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In a hangar at an RAAF base just outside Brisbane three caskets sat side by side, each draped with an Australian flag.

Inside each lay a fallen warrior who died while serving his country.

They were killed not in the heat of battle, but in cold blood, as they relaxed with their mates after a day under the sweltering Afghan sun.

Lance Corporal Stjepan "Rick" Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate were brought home to the RAAF Base at Amberley, west of Brisbane, to be farewelled by family and colleagues at a ramp ceremony on Wednesday.

The trio, who all served with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) Task Group, were murdered by a rogue Afghan soldier at a base in Oruzgan province last week.

Chief of Army, Lieutenant General David Morrison, said the way they died made their deaths even harder to deal with.

"Let's not gloss over this in any way, shape or form," Lieut-Gen Morrison told reporters before the ceremony.

"What happened to the three soldiers ... was murder.

"Murder when they were defenceless at the end of a long day of training with the Afghan National Army, which is an absolute requirement if Afghanistan is to be given the type of security we all want it to have."

During the ceremony, family, friends and fellow soldiers did not dwell on how the men died, but remembered how they lived.

The soldiers' commanding officers took turns to remember their men, affectionately referred to as "Milo", "Marto" and "Poatey", not only as colleagues but as brothers.

They were described as soldiers who not only believed in what they were doing, but were hardworking, well liked and embodying the sense of larrikinism for which Australian soldiers are renowned.

Sapper Martin's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Foura of 2nd Combat Engineering Regiment (2CER), summed up the feelings of many mourners.

"Sapper James Thomas Martin, the sapper, the son, the brother, the grandson, the man: we will remember you," he promised.

Family members took time to say goodbye to their loved ones in private before the official ceremony began.

The caskets were brought into the hangar under a guard of honour, to the beat of a single drum and a mournful skirl of bagpipes.

Lance Corporal Mervyn McDonald and Private Nathanael Galagher, who died in a separate incident, were honoured on Wednesday in a private ramp ceremony at Sydney's RAAF Base Richmond.

The soldiers from the 2nd Commando Regiment were serving with the Special Operations Task Group when their helicopter crashed in Helmand province last Thursday.

The ceremony was closed to protect the identities of SAS members.

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Your Comments

black or white

zac - from nerang 4211 qld, 9 months ago

in first place i don't want to talk about the fallen diggers but i like to give my condolences to the family and i feel bad about it. black or white, i don't understand that if the us army australia & allies are there and they have so much technology and helicopters fighting jets etc and the taliban only carry machine guns and swords like a primitive tribe army and is been too long and wasting millions of dollars,they could ended all in 5 days the allies,or other option to withdraw all for ever

Murder, not "Murder"

lance - from ballarat, 9 months ago

Why is "Murdered" is italic. This suggests the editor is trying to convince us it wasnt really murder. The soldiers themselves can obviously see the difference.

"Murdered" diggers

oncewas - from bribie island, 9 months ago

What a shame that the head of the army can differentiate between murdered and killed. Wherein is the difference when you are waging a war in a foreign land?

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