MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Veteran's visit coverage by UK Media

Headlines: Prince Andrew honours Falklands dead (BBC); Prince honours Argentinian dead (Express); Falkland veterans slay ghosts, not foes (Times)

Prince Andrew honours Falklands dead - BBC

The Duke of York has returned to the Falkland Islands where he served as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot during the conflict 20 years ago. Prince Andrew will become the first senior British figure to honour Argentinian war dead. During his four-day trip he will lay a wreath at a cemetery in Darwin where more than 200 Argentinian soldiers are buried and visit Goose Green, site of one of the fiercest battles of the 1982 war. "I'm going back to remember the sacrifice that was made not only by ourselves and our servicemen but by all those who died," he said. The Duke will also take the salute on Remembrance Sunday, honouring British war dead, at the Falklands Cross of Sacrifice in the capital Stanley. The 42-year-old, who left the Royal Navy last year as a commander, is joining hundreds of other ex-servicemen who fought to liberate the Falklands from Argentinian occupation.

Source: UK Media Gesture of reconciliation As a sub-lieutenant in 1982, Andrew flew on anti-submarine missions, casualty evacuations and acted as a decoy for Exocet missiles launched by Argentinian aircraft against British ships. He returned to serve in the Falklands in 1985. In 1994 he visited Argentina in a gesture of reconciliation. He acted as host to Argentina's President Carlos Menem when he came to Britain in 1998. He flew from Chile to RAF Mount Pleasant for the events on Friday. Before leaving the South American mainland, he visited Chile's Escuela naval school and called on the Chilean navy's commander in chief, Admiral Miguel Vergara

Prince honours Argentinian dead - Express

The Duke of York is paying his respects at the graves of Argentinian soldiers who died in the Falklands War. Twenty years after the South Atlantic conflict, which claimed almost 1,000 lives, Andrew is the first senior British figure to honour fallen Argentinian troops in a further gesture of reconciliation. He is to lay a wreath at Darwin cemetery on the remote and windswept Falkland Islands, 400 miles off the South American mainland, where more than 200 Argentinian soldiers are buried. But first the Duke has honoured the British war dead at a service in Stanley, the islands' capital, at the 1982 Liberation Monument. With him were some of the 200 Falklands veterans making a pilgrimage to the South Atlantic during the 20th anniversary year of the conflict. Most of the veterans are returning for the first time. They include representatives of all three services, the Merchant Navy and family members of men who were killed. Later the Duke, 42, was visiting nearby Goose Green, scene of one of the fiercest battles of the 1982 war and where Falklands hero Lieutenant Colonel H Jones won a posthumous Victoria Cross. "I'm going back to remember the sacrifice that was made not only by ourselves and our servicemen but by all those who died," said the Duke. As a young sub-lieutenant in the 1982 war, Andrew flew on anti-submarine missions, casualty evacuations and perilously skimmed above the waves as a decoy for deadly Exocet missiles launched by Argentinian aircraft against British ships. He returned to serve in the Falklands in 1985 and in 1994 visited Argentina in a gesture of reconciliation as well as acting as host to Argentina's president Carlos Menem when he travelled to Britain in 1998.

Falkland veterans slay ghosts, not foes - The Times

Nearly 200 British servicemen have stormed the Falkland Islands to relive their battles of 20 years ago. But these men are veterans now and they have come to slay ghosts, not Argentinians. This weekend they will form part of the Remembrance Sunday commemorations on the islands they liberated two decades ago, and for whose actions the 2,300 residents remain grateful. In the coming days they will revisit sites of triumph, heroism and disaster, from Ajax Bay to Goose Green, Mount Longdon to Wireless Ridge. It was Margaret Thatcher's war, and the baroness was at Gatwick earlier this week to wave them off on a 21-hour flight in the cramped conditions of a chartered holiday jet. She told them that, 20 years ago, they had achieved the impossible. They did it again, arriving in a grey Port Stanley dawn remarkably cheerful and almost sober. But the motives for the first large-scale pilgrimage by veterans to the battlefield are not entirely selfless. Some are amputees, many are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and some are the relatives of the dead. They are accompanied by Morgan O'Connell, a former army psychiatrist and himself a Falklands veteran, who will monitor the presumed benefits of returning to scenes of trauma. Leading the pilgrimage is Dr Rick Jolly, president of the South Atlantic Medal Association, formed five years ago to unite the Falklands veterans. He is a former Navy surgeon who operated on British and Argentine casualties. "Some men can move on; others cannot, and need to exorcise the ghosts of their own wounds, or of lost comrades," he said. All the ex-servicemen are being accommodated free of charge in islanders' homes. Most have paid £800 each for the week-long trip, while some who have fallen on hard times have been paid for by army charities. The Ministry of Defence declined to subsidise the visit, leaving that to national newspaper readers, but it has waived airport fees for the pilgrims' chartered Boeing 757 at Mount Pleasant Airport. Many were out yesterday, reminiscing and recalling almost every foxhole, every shot and every casualty. Former members of 2 Para, many still wearing their treasured berets, laid a wreath at their regiment's memorial above Goose Green, site of the turning point of the conflict when Paras swooped on the settlement, freed the 120 residents and forced the surrenders of 1,000 Argentinian troops. In the biting wind, Keith Burton, a veteran of the Paras' rivals, the Royal Marines, played the haunting bagpipe lament The Flowers of the Forest as veterans stood in silence, their heads bowed. Mark Sleap was a 20-year-old private in the Paras who took part in the assault. He looked towards the whitewashed hamlet shining in the clear air down a hillside bright with yellow spring gorse. "We did an assault over this ridge; it was all burning and the Argies were throwing everything at us. When we got down into the village, I remember seeing ?H' Jones in his body bag; his left hand was hanging out with his Rolex watch still on his wrist." Down a nearby hillside is a cairn marking the spot where Colonel Jones fell in an assault that won him his posthumous VC. Bill Belcher decided not to walk down to it; his legs are not too good. Mr Belcher, a former Royal Marines sergeant, was the crewman of a Scout helicopter sent into the thick of the action to rescue Colonel Jones, badly wounded but believed to be still alive. They were flying 20ft above the ground when an Argentinian Pucara fighter emerged from low cloud and attacked them. The first shot shattered Mr Belcher's left ankle, the second almost took off his right leg, which had to be amputated above the knee. By the time Colonel Jones was found by other rescuers, he was dead. "This is my third time back," said Mr Belcher, now a civil servant in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. He was accompanied by Sarah Constance, sister of his helicopter pilot, who was killed instantly in the attack. The Duke of York, himself a veteran of the conflict, will lead British commemorations in the islands, laying wreaths at the Liberation Monument on the Port Stanley seafront, at the British War Cemetery at San Carlos, where 15 of the 258 British dead lie, and at the Argentine war cemetery established by the British in a remote location. Although visiting British politicians have laid wreaths at the Argentine cemetery, today will be the first time that a member of the Royal Family has done so. He has the backing of islanders and of Sir Rex Hunt, governor of the islands at the time of the invasion, now 76 and living in retirement in Berkshire. "I fully approve of the gesture; it shows we have as much respect for the dead of the other side as we have for our own," Sir Rex said. Although there will be no Argentine representation at island ceremonies this weekend, one former enemy soldier is expected to attend tomorrow's ceremony at the Cenotaph in London, invited by a member of The Parachute Regiment who fought him. The Prince of Wales has added his support to the pilgrimage. In a message to the association, he says the war "will no doubt be remembered as one of the greatest triumphs over adversity that Her Majesty's Forces ever achieved".