When I went to Firmin Field for a third time, I didn't get many shots that would have been so different to those on the previous page here, so I've selected three of the photos I did take.

Monday, 20 August 2012

​

We should never be allowed to start a day with sadness.

My alarm clock is always set to go off at 7:45 a.m., and I'm then up and about at 7:50. However, this morning I was awakened by someone knocking on my door at 7:30 - very unusual for my area of residence. It was Teresa, my home help/caregiver, who visits me on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays. She was visiting all of her clients early today to let us know that she would not be able to service our homes today. One of her nephews had been killed.

We had a quick cuppa together before she went on her way, and she told me that one of the three Kiwi soldiers killed in Afghanistan last night was her nephew, Luke. A terrible tragedy for her whanau. Then she told me who the soldier's mother was, and I realised that she was a friend of mine; she had followed after me as chairperson of the Kawerau branch of the NZ Labour Party.

Later, I found the story on an online version of a local newspaper - the following is an extract

​

​

​

​

​

"The three New Zealand soldiers killed in a bomb attack in the Bamyan Province in Afghanistan have been named.

​

They are; Corporal Luke Tamatea, 31, Lance Corporal Jacinda Baker, 26, and Private Richard Harris, 21.

​

The New Zealand Defence Force reports the three were travelling in convoy in the Bamyan Province when they were killed by an improvised explosive device at about 9.20am (Afghan time).

​

The convoy was travelling north west of Do Abe to the Romero base about 15km by road at the time of the blast.

​

All three, from the 2nd/1st Battalion Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment (2/1 RNZIR) based in Burnham, were deployed with the NZ Provincial Reconstruction Team in April 2012.

​

​CPL Luke Douglas Tamatea joined the NZ Army in February 2000 and was posted to 1st Battalion Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment (1 RNZIR) in Linton. He was deployed to Timor-Leste in 2001, to Solomon Islands in 2003 and to Sumatra to help with the Tsunami in 2005. CPL Tamatea had also previously deployed to Afghanistan in 2007. He was posted to 2/1 RNZIR in 2007.  CPL Tamatea was promoted to LCPL in September 2005 and to CPL in June 2008."

​

The loss of these three soldiers brings the total number of Kiwi personnel lost in Afghanistan to ten, and questions are being raised as to whether our military personnel in Afghanistan should be brought home sooner than the planned date in April, 2013.

​

I'm adamant that we should never have sent soldiers to Afghanistan in the first place, and now I want to see the surviving ones brought home a.s.a.p.

​

CPL Luke Douglas Tamatea