|
ACTS OF REMEMBRANCE & LAYING OF
WREATHS AT HABBANIYA TOOK PLACE
IN NOVEMBER 2005 AND 2006 |
|
The first Act of Remembrance and wreath laying for 47 years since the RAF
were forced to leave in 1959 took place in the cemetery in November 2005 and this event was repeated on the 11th November 2006. |
|
Your Hon Sec was in contact with Capt Jutta Cortes
USAF at Habbaniya in October 2005 and asked her whether she would lay a wreath on Remembrance Sunday. She considered it her service duty to commemorate the dead in a fellow Air Force cemetery with proper ceremony and dignity. As a result she carried out, at personal danger from incoming insurgent mortars and grenades, the clearing of rubbish, undergrowth and fallen trees from the heavily vandalised and neglected cemetery. Poppy wreaths from our Association and the Kings Own Royal Regiment were sent out to Capt Cortes together with the order of service and bugle calls for a British Act of Remembrance. |
|
Vandalism, rubbish and general dereliction in October 2005
|
|
Jutta Cortes wields a chainsaw on a fallen (RAF!) Eucalyptus
|
|
Burning off the undergrowth. Photos - Jutta Cortes
|
|
The Chaplain conducted the Act of Remembrance and 2 minutes silence were observed. W reaths
from the RAF Habbaniya Association and the Kings Own Royal Regiment were laid at the Cross of Sacrifice and Capt Jutta Cortes laid bougainvilea flowers at the memorial to the RAF Iraq Levies. These flowers were collected from plants still growing from RAF days at Habbaniya. A 21 round salute was then fired in honour of those lying in the cemetery. |
|
The Act of Remembrance in November 2005
|
|
The Chaplain and personnel salute during 2 minutes silence
|
|
Capt Jutta Cortes in the centre of the wreath laying party
|
|
The 21 round salute is fired in salute of those lying in the cemetery
|
|
THE REMEMBRANCE PAGE
|