Just found out a mate I went to school with was killed in Afghanistan over Christmas

cheets64

cheets64

cheets64

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Shocked and heartbroken, not seen him since I left school but he was one of the people you always remembered and he was a good friend, I was in a lot of the same classes as him and his dream was to join the Marines I think his father was in the Marines and he had a bad knee and had a lot of surgery on it and got himself fit and passed all the tests to get into the Marines.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/wor...led-Afghanistan-named-Corporal-Liam-Elms.html

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/D...ons/CorporalLiamElmsRmKilledInAfghanistan.htm

My heart goes out to his family and his fiancee, you really don't think about life until something like this happens.

What would be the best way to get in touch with his family or find an address to send a card, should I contact the MoD?
 
It is a shame, makes it that more poignant if you knew the person, however well.

It's always sad to hear of things like this, even when people go to war and you expect to hear bad news it is still a very shocking thing to hear, I think it is made more so as we often hear of individuals dying in Iraq and afghanistan rather than a figure or a death count - a name is given rather than a number.

As to getting in touch with the family, I would try the MoD - they could at least point you in the right direction, I hope you can find the address.

Rich

EDIT

Do you know if the family still live in the same area as when you and he grew up? Some directory snooping may help.

/EDIT
 
I'm not sure what'd be the best way to get in contact, however I was just reading about this before I came to this thread and it seems like he was a top bloke.

RIP Elmsy.
 
I know the area where he lives and went to his house once but that was over 9 years ago so I have forgot.

Just hit me so hard, I don't know why, maybe its because he was a good friend in high school.
 
Yup, we non service folk just want to pull them out but they are doing the duty for Queen and country and they will stay there for how long it takes.

Its almost suicidal for those guys to go on patrol.

Its no different from WW1 to Vietnam.
 
cheets64 said:
Its no different from WW1 to Vietnam.
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It's very different, our politicians aren't simply throwing men at positions while using next to no tactics. It is of course extremely dangerous and there are indeed moments where it's almost certain that there will be casualties, but nothing on the scale we saw in WW1.
 
Contact his family via school who will route contact as they need to.

Being from a fairly military school, I've seen 5 of my year (just over 80) die before the age of 35 now (I'm 36). 1 in the Navy, peace time, 1 non forces, 1 in Iraq and 2 in Afghanistan.

Another mate has just come back from a 4 month tour in Basra.

A nasty nasty business, but as others have said, bears absolutely zero comparison with WW1 where over 10,000 were lost in a single day - day after day. If 50 were lost in a week now it would bring a major policy change.

Whilst it is the job they're paid to do, 5% of their working life is suddenly unblelievably dangerous. Don't gloss it up with the Queen and country crap - that is just spin. To them, they are doing a mission they have been told to do and trained to execute. And they do it very well.
 
Zefan said:
It's very different, our politicians aren't simply throwing men at positions while using next to no tactics. It is of course extremely dangerous and there are indeed moments where it's almost certain that there will be casualties, but nothing on the scale we saw in WW1.
Click to expand...

In terms of being there, WW1 was just throw as many men you can at the situation, Afghan and Iraq is a situation we should never have stepped foot in, we had terrorism long before 9/11 and every week we are in the land of these people they will fight and breed more terrorists.

Vietnam war was another pointless war, 9 years and failed so many men lost for nothing, the British army have always been at the forfront of saving and helping people in need but why not go into Zimbabwe and help the 1000s of people.

I am not taking anything from the service men but the generals and people in power need to take a step back and that Afghan and Iraq was a failure.
 
cheets64 said:
What is the info on Afghanistan?
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It's anyone's guess really, personally I think it'll stretch out over a very long period. The resources that free up from pulling out of Iraq will be put to use there instead, which may speed things up considerably - especially if our allies do the same.

At the end of the day though it's difficult to know if it'll ever work, you can't take control of all those mountains...
 
Strife212 said:
Afghanistan was a fair war but it seems we literally went to Iraq for no reason whatsoever to me.
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I don't know exactly but it's certainly upset peace in the middle east in the past, something that we don't like because they all stop producing oil because they're too busy fighting. A peaceful middle east is very much in our interests.

ticktock said:
Pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Let them get on with it.
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Pulling out of Afghanistan now would be complete idiocy.
 
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