Monday, 14 November 2011

Trooper Josh Hammond

Trooper Joshua Hammond
1990 - 2009


In July 2009 I was driving to work lwhen the radio announced the death of Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe MBE, Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, becoming the most senior officer to be killed in conflict since the Falklands war in 1982. He was travelling in a convoy along the Shamalan Canal, near Lashkar Gah, in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan when an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) exploded under his Viking armoured vehicle. The radio also reported (inaccurately) that a Trooper ‘John’ Hammond also died in the explosion. Later that day when I watched the news the name had changed to Josh Hammond but there were few details of this 18 year old lad from Plymouth.

The news of both deaths saddened me deeply, My own children and a nephew called Josh were almost the same age. I couldn’t stop thinking about his family and girlfrien were feeling out of my mind and I also felt irritated that the radio had at first got Josh’s name wrong. I felt that the death of this young man, with his whole life before him had been eclipsed by the Colonel who died by his side, tragic though that was.

Over the last 25 years I have treated ex-servicemen from almost every major conflict that our armed services have been involved in since WW2. I recalled the veterans of the Falklands and the memories they shared with me of their traumas including the deaths of their comrades, their friends.
I’m not much of a musician but I wrote the following song that night while strumming my guitar.
Every so often I when I can persuade my son (who plays well enough to help cover my basic guitar skills) I play it at an open mic: night. I ask if anyone can remember the name of anyone who died in the Falkland War. Sometimes people give the name of a family member or friend but often they remember the name of Colonel H Jones. I then ask if anyone can remember the name of anyone who died in the Afghanistan War. Many remember Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe and then I play the song.

Each time I play it I think again of Josh, his friends and family and the families of all young men and women lost serving the government’s we elected and who may feel that their loss is not remembered.

Trooper Josh Hammond

Trooper Josh Hammond is late on parade,
On a road down in Helmand there’s been a delay
Our boys in the regiments have been this way before
We lost some back then, now were losing some more

Chorus There’s an army assembled on the North West Frontier
Echoes of empire roll down the years.
Acceptable losses a shilling of pay
a soldiers life was ever this way.

Column inches now fewer as the casualty list grows
and we’re hardened to the cost of the conflict that’s sown.
Trooper Josh Hammond has now joined the list
The caskets been lowered, the colours were dipped

Chorus

Of all of the fallen in that cold islands war
a colonel’s name is remembered, can you name one more?
Khaki falls quietly when it answers the call
but brass makes more noise when it falls.

There’s an army assembled on the North West Frontier
Echoes of empire roll down the years.
Acceptable losses a shilling of pay
a soldiers life was ever this way.

At 18 Josh Hammond slipped from his bonds
to gather with comrades in green fields beyond.
Stepping from childhood into the man
and then lost in the tears of Afghanistan.



Copyright David Raines 2009.

1 comment:

  1. m the step mum of josh hammond and i have after nearly 4 years come upon this and my heart is felt with so much pride that this man has done this for josh I wanna say he is right about his name but one thing he will always be rememberd for when thornloe gets mentioned josh also has to . Thank you I'm going to copy that song and frame it if you Dont mind x

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