Friends remember Falklands

Eon Matthews, 43, of Westdown Road, Seaford, was among members of the South Atlantic Medal Association at the Cenotaph, on Sunday, while his old Tideway School pal Kevin MacDonald, 42, of Denton Road, Newhaven, embarked on a pilgrimage to the Falklands.

It was 20 years ago this year that the British fleet sailed to the South Atlantic after the Falklands was invaded by Argentinean troops.

Eon was on HMS Glamorgan and Kevin on its sister ship, HMS Antrim. Both were leading seamen in charge of radar.

Eon said: 'Kevin and I have known each other since 1969 when we went to Tideway School, we then joined Newhaven Sea Cadets and then the Royal Navy in the same year.'

During their time at sea they would swap copies of the Sussex Express to keep up to date with the news back home.

In 1982 the pair were on Naval exercises in Gibraltar when the call came for their ships to change course. Allowed just one call Eon phoned his wife but was not permitted to say where they were going or when they would be back.

The job of their warships, County Class destroyers, was to protect aircraft carriers and bombard enemy strongholds on shore.

But tragedy struck on June 12 when an Exocet missile was fired at Eon's ship, killing 13 crew.

He said: 'There was fire, floods, broken water mains and loss of power and light.'

The missile destroyed a Wessex helicopter on deck and continued on through to the ship's galley. Fortunately the ship's armoury was not hit. 'If it had exploded in the magazine I would not be here talking today,' said Eon.

He and other crew donned special fire fighting suits and battled the blaze for nearly 16 hours.

Eon said the crew worked like a finely honed machine. 'Everybody knew what to do, you knew that you could rely on every other member of the ship, it was the best teamwork I have ever been involved with.'

As the ship was stabilised the dead were counted and buried at sea.

The memory was still painful, said Eon. 'Now I hate the sound of the Last Post, it was something I heard when I was in the sea cadets and both my parents were in the Second World War so I knew what it meant, but know it brings back the memory of the lad playing the Last Post on the flight deck.'

He had been back to the Falklands and found it has helped him come to terms with what he experienced. Kevin had not returned until now.

Eon said: 'It helped me get rid of my old ghosts and Kevin wanted to do the same.'

Both now work together as security guards at Gatwick.