Post by marchesarosa on Dec 17, 2009 23:20:15 GMT
Just heard this on the Look North News tonight, 17th December 2009
A SOLDIER from Morley has been killed in a suicide bomb blast in Afghanistan.
Former Morley High School pupil Lance Cpl David Kirkness, of the 3rd Battalion The Rifles, died near Sangin, in Afghanistan's Helmand province, on Tuesday afternoon.
The father-of-one had celebrated his 24th birthday just days before.
He was killed alongside another soldier in an improvised explosive device blast while on a security patrol.
They were on foot at the time of the explosion, in which two Afghan National Army soldiers were also killed.
Morley Observer and Advertiser
www.morleyobserver.co.uk/news/MORLEY-SOLDIER-KILLED-IN-AFGHANISTAN.5917039.jp
Thing is, my path crossed this young man’s about five weeks ago.
I was in a restaurant near Leeds for Sunday lunch with a friend. At the next table was this incredibly handsome young man with his wife and child. He was wearing a T-shirt, as in the photograph, which revealed an elegant and beautiful tattoo over the entire length of his right arm.
I knew he had to be a soldier mainly because of the very smart short haircut - not a skinhead, just beautifully cut short brown curly hair, and his great physique. In fact, to be quite honest, being an amateur of the young, fit male, I couldn’t keep my eyes from straying to his table throughout the meal.
The tattoo was quite simply superb - an inticate geometric design which artfully incorporated the Nato 4-cornered symbol centred on the elbow. That’s what confirmed to me that he must be a soldier. When we got up to leave I tapped him on the shoulder to say how much I admired his glorious tattoo with its NATO emblem. “Oh it’s just a star”, he said.
I recognised his face when his picture came up on the news tonight and when I saw the tattoo on his arm his identification was confirmed. I don’t know any soldiers but I admire them for their nerve and discipline, camaraderie and bravery. This boy’s death has touched me personally.
