London—The commander of a British regiment has
become the country’s highest ranking soldier to be killed in action
since 1982’s Falklands War after a roadside bomb attack in
Afghanistan.
Lt. Col. Rupert Thorneloe was killed when a roadside bomb denotated
in Helmand province.
Lt. Col. Rupert Thorneloe was killed along with trooper Joshua
Hammond, 18, on Wednesday as they were traveling along a canal in
Lashkar Gah, in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand Province, the British
Ministry of Defense said.
Thorneloe was a commanding officer who oversaw more than 1,000 men.
He had left the battle group headquarters on a resupply convoy so he
could visit his men, because they were conducting a major operation
in hostile territory, the ministry said.
He and Hammond, a tank driver, were killed despite traveling in an
armored vehicle, the ministry said.
Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth called Thorneloe’s death a “hard
blow” to the army and the military’s operations in Afghanistan.
I knew him myself, as a man of incisive thought, enormous
professionalism and the greatest decency, who could not wait to
leave the high-profile post in the Ministry of Defense where he had
performed so impressively in order to take command of his battalion
on operations,” Ainsworth said in a statement.
He saw it as the best job he would ever do, but I know that his
genuinely exceptional abilities would have ensured him a brilliant
career,” Ainsworth added. “He led his men with energy, care, and
pride — and he died leading his men.”
Thorneloe spent two years at the Ministry of Defense, during which
he was the military assistant to the defense secretary, before he
assumed command of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards last October, the
ministry said.
He leaves behind a wife and two young daughters.
Hammond enlisted in the army when he was 16 and deployed to
Afghanistan a month ago, said Lt. Col. Marcus Simson, his commanding
officer. He was a week away from his 19th birthday, Simson
said.—Online
