Paul Morgan RIP

[Chris Boonzaier]

Ex Legionnaire killed in Algeria at the beginning of the hostage crisis...

2nd from left....

[Paul R]

I am sorry to hear about that. Did you two serve together?

[Chris Boonzaier]

To be honest I dont remember him, but the guy who told me said he was one of the guys we used to hang around with and talk crp on the ship to Saudi.. can't remember everyone I suppose...

[peter monahan]

R.I.P. indeed. doing a job that needed doing. But I suppose that's the epitaph for many a soldier. There's a short poem, by Kipling maybe, called "Mercenary", written 1914-15 which ends 'and saved the [world/nation] for pay'. There are worse professions than mercenary!

[Chris Boonzaier]

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don't know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
And they want the strange and new.
They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
What a deep mark I would make!"
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs
With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones
Who win in the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead,
In the glare of the truth at last.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Paul Moragn