3 British Soldiers Killed

[babydave]

from yahoo.co.uk:

Tony Blair has paid tribute to the Black Watch after three of its soldiers were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq - Sergeant Stuart Gray, 31, Private Paul Lowe, 19, and Private Scott McArdle, 22.All three were from Fife in Scotland.

They were manning a vehicle checkpoint east of the River Euphrates when the bomber struck. He drove his car at them as they came under mortar fire.

The checkpoint was just a few miles from rebel stronghold towns that have been dubbed the Triangle of Death.

The car bomb also claimed the life of an Iraqi interpreter and injured eight other soldiers. They were evacuated by helicopter and are said to be making a "good recovery".

Mr Blair said: "I would like to express my deep sympathy and condolences to the families of those soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq yesterday."

He said he also wanted to express his "pride and gratitude to the Black Watch for the extraordinary and heroic job" they were doing.Standing alongside Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, Mr Blair said that securing peace in the country was "absolutely crucial" for the stability of the Middle East.

The Prime Minister was speaking in Brussels where Mr Allawi is to meet European Union leaders.

Mr Allawi said: "We thank the UK for the continual support that we are getting. We pay our condolences to the three brave British soldiers who died."

The dead soldiers' commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel James Cowan vowed to continue patrolling high risk areas.

"The whole of the Black Watch is saddened by this loss," he said.

"But while we feel this blow most keenly we are the Black Watch and we will not be deterred from seeing our task through to a successful conclusion."

Theyve come under daily attack since being there despite portraying the friendly image, shows the kind of low life scum theyre up against.

[Dan]

RIP

[tyovan4]

Private Scott McArdle

It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence has to confirm that Private Scott William McArdle of the 1st Battalion The Black Watch was killed by a suicide car-bomb attack on a vehicle check-point in Iraq on 4 November 2004. Aged 22, he was single and came from Glenrothes. Scott McArdle had served in the Army six years.

The media are requested to respect his family's privacy at this very difficult time.

Sergeant Stuart Gray

It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence has to confirm that Sergeant Stuart Robert Tennant Gray of the 1st Battalion The Black Watch was killed by a suicide car-bomb attack on a vehicle check-point in Iraq on 4 November 2004. Aged 31, he was married with two children, and came from Dunfermline, Fife. Sergeant Gray had served twelve years in the Army. He was educated at Pitcorthie Primary School and Woodmill High School.

The following statement was issued by the family on behalf of Mrs Mary Gray, Sergeant Gray's mother:

"She is obviously deeply shocked by the news of the death of her son, yet that sadness is tinged with her pride in a much loved son who was a member of his local Regiment. He was an experienced and professional soldier, a loving husband, father, son and brother, and a proud member of the Black Watch. Her thoughts are also with the families of Privates Lowe and McArdle, and the other Black Watch soldiers injured in the same incident; as well as her daughter-in-law, Wendy, her family, and two gorgeous grand-children: Kirstin aged twelve, and Darren, ten."

The media are requested to respect his family's privacy at this very difficult time.

Private Paul Lowe

It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence has to confirm that Private Paul Aitken Lowe of the 1st Battalion The Black Watch was killed by a suicide car-bomb attack on a vehicle check-point in Iraq on 4 November 2004. Aged 19, he was single and came from Fife. He had been in the Army three years.

The media are requested to respect his family's privacy at this very difficult time.

[Rocky]

Fife is where I live, Scott McArdle lived in the same town as me, sort of brings it home, and this isn't even the first loss the town's suffered - like so many other towns.

My thoughts are with their families.

[tyovan4]

I've seen the smiling

Of fortune beguiling,

I've tasted her pleasures,

And felt her decay;

Sweet is her blessing,

And kind her caressing,

But now they are fled

And fled far away.

I've seen the forest

Adorned the foremost,

Wi' flowers o' the fairest

Baith pleasant and gay,

Sae bonnie was their blooming,

Their scent the air perfuming,

But now they are withered away.

I've seen the morning,

With gold hills adorning,

And loud tempests storming,

Before parting day,

I've seen Tweed's silver streams,

Glitt'ring in the sunny beams,

Grow drumlie and dark,

As they roll'd on their way;

O fickle fortune!

Why this cruel sportin?

Oh! Why thus perplex

Us poor sons of a day?

Thy frown canna fear me,

Thy smile canno cheer me,

Since the flowers o' the forest

Are a' wede away.

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

Scotland mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables at home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond Scotland's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

[tyovan4]

An article I saw today on The Scotsman:

'We will miss them all as brothers in arms

GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN

DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT

SHE stood there, sobbing uncontrollably, the ten red roses she had brought with her to the gates of the Black Watch barracks lying at her feet, a 12-year-old girl who had lost her father in a far away war, consumed with grief.

"To Dad," the card on the flowers said. "Love you and miss you, love Kirstin.’’

Kirstin Gray’s father, Sergeant Stuart Gray, was dead, and she was inconsolable. She tried to read the other tributes that were already starting to arrive, but it was too much for her. Friends put their arms around her, and led her gently back to the car in which she had arrived.

She and her mother Wendy and her ten-year-old brother Darren had learned the news only a few hours earlier; the worst fears of two other families were confirmed at about the same time.

Together, apart, they grieved for the men who had gone. Private Paul Lowe, aged 19. Private Scott McArdle, 22. Sergeant Stuart Gray, 31. They died instantly, the army said, cut down by the suicide bomb that also claimed the life of their interpreter. The man had been due to marry a few hours later and had put off the wedding to move up to Baghdad with the regiment. His name was not released, to save his family further trouble.

In Iraq, at the regiment’s temporary new base south of Baghdad, their commanding officer, Lt Col James Cowan, extended his sympathies to the families of the men who had died. "We will miss them all, as brothers in arms," he said. For a close-knit family such as the Black Watch, it was a painful blow. "These soldiers were our friends."

But there was steel in his words. "While we feel this blow most keenly we are the Black Watch," he said, "and we will not be deterred from seeing our task through to a successful conclusion."

Outside the barracks in Wiltshire, and at the regimental headquarters in Perth, more people came to lay their tributes and to pay their respects. They laid flowers, thistles, and even a Rangers’ scarf.

Like many of their friends in the regiment, the three dead soldiers came from Fife. Paul Lowe was from Kelty: a drummer in the regiment’s pipe band, he was single, and had been in the army three years.

Scott McArdle, a member of the elite reconnaissance team, from Glenrothes, had four years’ service.

Last night, it emerged the soldier’s fiancée, Sarah McLaren, is expecting the couple’s baby in two months’ time.

Stuart Gray was from Dunfermline. The eldest of the three, he attended Pitcorthie Primary School and Woodmill High School before joining the army 12 years ago and rising to the rank of sergeant in the mortar platoon.

His mother, Mary Gray, was too upset to talk in public about his death, but she allowed the army to put out a statement on her behalf.

"She is obviously deeply shocked by the news of the death of her son," it said, "yet that sadness is tinged with her pride in a much-loved son who was a member of his local regiment.

"He was an experienced and professional soldier, a loving husband, father, son and brother, and a proud member of the Black Watch."

Her thoughts, it said, were with his young family and with the families of the other soldiers who were killed and injured in the attack.

Craig Lowe, the 18-year-old brother of Paul Lowe, said they had last spoken only on Sunday. His brother had promised to be careful, he said.

"When he found out he was being moved, he just phoned us up and said: ‘I know I’m going to a dangerous place, I’ll just have to take more care. That’s my job - I’ve just got to get on with it’," he said.

"He was just saying he was missing us all, that he couldn’t wait to come home to see us and hoped he would be home for Christmas," he said. Craig is also a soldier in the Black Watch: it was his brother who had inspired him to join up, though he was no fan of this war.

"What he lived for was his job in the army," he said.

"But he said he didn’t think he should be there because the regiment has already done their time over there, the first time, so he didn’t think they should be back.

"But he just took it on the chin and went back and got on with his job."

The McArdles were, in the main, too upset to talk. "The whole family is in pieces," said his cousin Michelle McArdle. "He liked going out with his friends, he was a popular guy. I think he always wanted to go into the army."

The bodies will be flown home next week. At the Black Watch headquarters, Captain Bob Reid summed up how all who knew them felt: "We are left saddened by the news that we have lost three friends," he said.

Flowers and a farewell note left by 12-year-old Kirstin Gray whose father, Sergeant Stuart Gray of the Black Watch, was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?...&20041106060034

[Zebb]

Breaks my Heart....

[KRP 56]

RIP*My prayers are sent to all troops involved in this conflict.May peace prevail.

Edited November 6, 2004 by KRP 56

[squad_e]

RIP.. i saw it on the news on t.v

Edited November 6, 2004 by GooseBumps

[goosegreen]

We in Coventry had two casualtys in the first gulf war but that was different,it wasn't guerilla war.

I hope everyone realises how many personnel are dying over there and appreciate it

[Rocky]

I have been contacted by Martin McArdle, uncle of PTE Scott McArdle. Sadly the forums were offline with a technical fault when he visited, but he e-mailed me and asked me to pass this message on to everyone who posted their condolences in this and other threads..

Thanks for all the kind thoughts.

from all the McArdle family.

[tyovan4]

Tell them it is the least we could do.

[A brave soldier's uncle]

Rocky

I liked your video clipping and i have saved it. I will let my sister(Scotts mum) see it when i think it would be appropiate and she has fully grieved.Once again to all members i appreciate your kind words and keep up the great work.

Martin McArdle

[T_1]

Our thoughts are with those at rest, and those still in harms way.

God Bless

[Rocky]

Let's pray come Christmas we are all welcoming the Black Watch home, as promised.

[tyovan4]

Let's pray come Christmas we are all welcoming the Black Watch home, as promised.

←

Let us pray come Christmas we are all welcoming back all of the Black Watch boys who are still over there with no more casualties.

[Spear]

Ne Obliviscaris