Ian Malone - Military Service

Military Service

Malone was promoted to lance corporal in October 2000 and served on Operation Agricola in Kosovo. He completed a piper's course in April 1999, and was a member of the pipe band. He also served with the Battle Group in Poland, Canada, Oman and Germany.

In November 2002 Lance Corporal Malone was one of a number of British soldiers interviewed on a Radio Telefís Éireann documentary series, True Lives. Regarding his membership of the British Army, he said:

At the end of the day I am just abroad doing a job. People go on about Irishmen dying for freedom and all that. That's a fair one. They did. But they died to give men like me the freedom to choose what to do.

Malone was deployed on Operation Telic in an armoured infantry section with Number 1 Company, Irish Guards, as part of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Battle Group within 7 Armoured Brigade. Lance Corporal Malone was shot in the head by a sniper on 6 April in Iraq during the Irish Guards' advance on the country's second largest city, Basra.

Read more about this topic:  Ian Malone

Famous quotes containing the words military and/or service:

    The transformation of the impossible into reality is always the mark of a demonic will. The only way to recognize a military genius is by the fact that, during the war, he will mock the rules of warfare and will employ creative improvisation instead of tested methods and he will do so at the right moment.
    Stefan Zweig (18811942)

    Our chief want in life, is, someone who shall make us do what we can. This is the service of a friend. With him we are easily great.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)