prepared to fight

I've just watched an incredibly honest and thoroughly moving documentary telling the story of the Falklands Conflict from 40 years ago in the soldiers' own words.

Chilling stuff.

And it brought back a number of very vivid memories.

If you don't know, the war between the UK and Argentina happened after the former occupied the Falkland Islands - a British Sovereign Territory in the South Atlantic just off the coast of South America.

A task force was dispatched to liberate the islanders and regain control from the fascist controlled Argentine military junta under General Galtieri.  It took about 4 weeks and the loss of around 250 British servicemen and over 650 Argentinian fighters.

One of the memories it brought back was of a conversation a friend and I had in my parents' living room.  We'd both just turned 18 and were having something I'd cooked (my parents had gone to live in a caravan in Port Eynon!!) to eat after school, and between mouthfuls of some sort of curry were pondering the possibility of actually being conscripted into the forces should the conflict go on for any length of time.

We were both terrified but also in agreement that we would do our duty and go.

My dad fought in World War 2 - he went to Burma to fight the Japanese occupiers there - and one of his hopes for me was that I never saw or encountered what he did during his military service.  He used to wake up screaming some nights when his dreams took him back to the jungles of Burma.  It was clear he suffered with PTSD but, hey...

Fortunately the Argentine forces surrendered and there was no requirement for anyone to be called up and go through what my dad did.  

And I never did have to go to war.

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