Falklands War
On 9 June 1982, he was with other members of his regiment on RFA Sir Galahad in Bluff Cove, just off the Falkland Islands, when it was bombed and set on fire by enemy Skyhawk fighters. The ship was carrying ammunition including phosphoric bombs and thousands of gallons of diesel and petrol. Twenty-two out of his platoon of thirty men were killed; altogether the Welsh Guards lost forty-eight men and ninety-seven were injured.
Weston survived with 49% burns and 12% cuts, following which his face was barely recognisable:
| “ | My first encounter with a really low point was when they wheeled me into the transit hospital at RAF Lyneham and I passed my mother in the corridor and she said to my gran, "Oh mam, look at that poor boy" and I cried out "Mam, it's me!" And as she recognised my voice her face turned to stone. | ” |
|
—Simon Weston, |
||
Read more about this topic: Simon Weston
Famous quotes containing the words falklands and/or war:
“If we were doing this in the Falklands they would love it. It’s part of our heritage. The British have always been fighting wars.”
—British soccer fan. quoted in Independent (London, Dec. 23, 1988)
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)