Our Troops - My Thoughts

[Geo the Sarge]

After the funeral and the wake at the Hibs supporters club in Easter Road we went home to grieve and continue with our lives, or so we thought. Over that weekend there had been the Warrington bomb in which the 2 young lads, Johnathan ball (3) and Tim Parry (12) had been murdered. I found this more sickening than the death of my brother. These were innocents; we can accept that the terrorist will have a pop at us soldiers, but innocent civilians?? I believe that one of my favourite songs, Zombie by The Cranberrys was written as a protest to the bombings in Warrington.


Once again the media turn up at the doorstep, “can we have your views on the Warrington bombing?”………GTF the lot of ye. Yes we're appalled by it but no more than any decent citizen. They are merely looking for a reaction, a story to tell. Hoping that the trauma of our recent loss will tilt us into saying something that can sell their papers, not here mate, on yer bike. But they find other ways.

Within a few days various reports started circling in some newspapers, one in particular that doesn’t sell too well in Liverpool. They ran a series of headlines about some so-called “Terminator.” Supposedly an ex American Green Beret and sniper who had carried out the recent spate of single shot killings in the province. They ran an article saying they knew the names of the 5 man team behind these attacks. They printed brief details of each of them, which in reality would describe thousands of people living in areas such as South Armagh and Cullyhanna. I can state for a FACT that the weapon used to kill my brother was a Garand M1 .30 calibre rifle and not the Barratt .50 rifle that they say was used in all these killings.

I still have the paper, haven’t read many papers since. At the end of tonights post is a photo of the front cover of this despicable paper from 29th March, almost 2 weeks after Lawrence’s death. The cover leads with a picture of my brother, one of the last taken. The story they ran was vile it turned my stomach. The headline is Heads you Win, Tails I Die. It goes on to tell a tale that 24 hours before he was killed Lawrence and another soldier had tossed a coin to see who would go on a St Patrick’s Day patrol. According to The Shit, they had been told that one could go home but that one had to stay to go on this patrol, that the other lad had said that Lawrence should go home as he had a family but that my brother insisted that they toss for it. What a lot of Bollox!! And here’s why:

If you’ve been reading carefully you will remember that I had met my brother in the dining room on the morning of the attack. As explained, they were a group who, at a moments notice, would be deployed to react to any currently perceived threat and that they had only flew in the night before, they did not know 24 hours beforehand that they were going on this patrol.

Secondly, you know pretty well in advance your date for returning. It’s a logistical nightmare moving a Regiment of some 650 men plus attachments into an operational area. We generally knew by the halfway stage of the tour when our individual return dates would be, we arranged our rest and recuperation (R’N’R) dates around this and usually set up our “Chuff Charts” a calendar which we would use to cross off each day as it passed before we were due to leave the province.

Lastly, the picture shown has a caption that this photo was taken as Lawrence prepared for this final patrol, again utter nonsense. It was taken by a photographer of the Scotsman newspaper just before Christmas. A couple of reporters had visited us at that time to do a story on how the troops coped over the Christmas period whilst on operations.

[Colchester Kev]

Very moving stuff Geo ... I cannot put into words quite how much I admire your strength in sharing this, I for one am hooked on this thread and I hope you have the strength and resolve to continue this thread with your stories for a long time.


I hope you dont mind, but I googled your Brother Lawrence, and I came up with this extract from a book which states he was shot by the sniper rifle "Barrett Light 50" , Just goes to show how reported incidents are never to be taken as fact.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=azR_Rav_OMYC&pg=PA184&lpg=PA184&dq=Lawrence+Dickson&source=web&ots=AELGqytgyd&sig=BE_3NfZauEvuuFXwwv48t1EtYAw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result#PPA184,M2

[Geo the Sarge]

Thanks Kev,

I was obviously privvy to the reports and findings on the death of m brother. Interestingly enough I hold a letter of condolence form the wife of Constable Reid one of the RUC constables who had been shot a few weeks earlier.

We received many letters of condolence from people we never knew, especially from the Province and both sides of the divide.

geo.

[Geo the Sarge]

The main pieces in the Scotsman were very well written. I have a copy of The Scotsman of 19th March; in it is a piece written by a journalist for The Scotsman called Severin Carrell who was on this visit. It’s pretty ironic that the main interview was with my brother. A very well written piece with a good honest description of my brother to finish. It is too long a piece for me to type in here and past editions for The Scotsman online don’t seem to start till circa 1994, I’m sure if any of you are interested you may find a copy in a library. The reporter took time to visit me and presented me with some of the pictures they had taken, probably the last pictures taken of him, I shared them with my family.  I share the one I kept with you also. The toy he is holding is a furry Santa. The lad sitting on the bed to the left with the stupid grin was one of my brother’s best mates, Dean Gowans. Dean was the first man to get to Lawrence after he was shot. Lawrence uttered his last words to Dean, a message for his wife. Dean passed this message on in private and never told anyone else what was said. Dean left the Army shortly after on medical grounds, he was a broken man and was treated for mental health problems. I see him often and he is better but will never be the same. I can only guess the torture this lad goes through. Dean is another I owe a great debt.

Geo.

[Geo the Sarge]

RIP Bro.

[jizzemm]

RIP Bro.

Only just had a chance to read this thread, but very moving stuff...

it must take some courage to write it down, but please make sure you continue, because I will be making a point of looking out for it and reading it..

Dafydd

[Geo the Sarge]

Thanks to Jane for this link. It's always good to get stuff to authenticate your stories.

This guy tells a portion on my story better than I did.

Thanks Jane.

Geo.

http://www.hibeesbounce.com/forum/angels-high-above/71991-lawrence-dickson.html

[Sheriff Fatman]

Geo

Very brave and honest writing.  Thank you for sharing.

Sheriff

[cdw1111]

Beautifully written Geo,thank you for sharing.

[steeveg]

it must of been hard to write this geo , thanks for sharing

[amcgrath1uk]

Geo

Very brave and honest writing.  Thank you for sharing.

Sheriff

+1

[Snatiramas]

Geo your views on newspapers in this country really are spot on. They say they are reporting the news but in honesty they are not. They are always pressurising for a story that they can spin in the most exaggerated way which normally means negatively............They are only doing their jobs. I think not.

It is powerful stuff sir

[boldie]

Geo your views on newspapers in this country really are spot on. They say they are reporting the news but in honesty they are not. They are always pressurising for a story that they can spin in the most exaggerated way which normally means negatively............They are only doing their jobs. I think not.

It is powerful stuff sir

+1 Some amazing posts there Geo

[tikay]

Geo - thank you. So sad, so moving, so beautifully written.

Daily we hear & read of a Soldier being killed at some hotspot, while on duty. We rarely "think behind" that headline.

[LLevan]

Just to echo the sentiments of everyone else who's commented on this thread, a beautifully written thread which has definetely made many of think about the suffering to the families of the lost ones of our boys who have over the years been killed in action. Like TK said theres always a family behind the headline and alas once it was your family.

RIP Lawrence Dickson.