Veteran Heads For Reunion

A FALKLANDS veteran from Wick is travelling out to the islands as part of the 20th anniversary of the end of the war.

Kevin Fenton, 44, of Clun Road, Wick, is making the trip to the Falklands on Wednesday along with 200 other veterans.

Kevin served as a medic on HMS Galahad during the war and when the ship was hit by a bomb he had to help save his comrades.

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He was a Class One medic, a rank which took him two-and-a-half years to attain.

Kevin said: "Sometimes I was a nurse out on the front line and sometimes I even had to act as a doctor when none was available. I would diagnose people and give them injections and drugs."

Twenty years on, he is now ready to return to the site of his ship's bombing. He said: "I have mixed emotions about going. I suppose it's about getting rid of old ghosts. We lost three medics in the bomb, two of them were my friends."

Kevin says somewhere there is now a new ship called Galahad, which he would like to see. He said: "It would be nice to see a new model and the improvements that have been made."

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The veterans are staying with local families on the islands and will be making trips to where they served. Talking about the trip, Kevin said: "There will be a remembrance parade on November 10 and we will also be visiting the areas of the islands that are significant to us."

When Kevin, who is originally from the north, was training in England, he went aboard HMS Antelope, which he later saw blown up in the Falklands when an unexploded bomb was found on the ship and could not be defused.

When he returned home to Stockton-on-Tees, he was rewarded with a medallion which gave him the Freedom of Stockton, the same title the HMS Antelope had been given.

The trip lasts for nine days, which includes travelling, and the 200-strong party will be spending about a week in the Falklands.

For pictures of HMS Galahad, see the Gazette, October 31.