Rest in peace private...

Hundreds of mourners have paid their last respects to a teenage soldier who died on a live firing exercise in Canada.

The teenager, who served with 1st Battalion The Highlanders, was trying to clear a stoppage in his machine gun when it went off and killed him.

A loss to more than the army and his family...a loss to the entire country...rest in peace Private Dale Cowie...

I think I speak for all british ATS members when I say our sympathies to his family and friends..

news.bbc.co.uk...

In the US we would play Taps. I am not sure if the tradition is the same in the UK:

Day is done ...
Gone the sun ...
From the lakes ...
From the hills ...
From the sky ...
All is well ...
Safely rest ...
God is nigh...

Fading light ...
Dims the sight ...
And a star ...
Gems the sky...
Gleaming bright ...
From afar...
Drawing nigh ...
Falls the night ..

Thanks and praise ...
For our days ...
Neath the sun ...
Neath the stars ...
Neath the sky ...
As we go ...
This we know ...
God is nigh ...

In the UK we play "Flowers of the Forest"....

I've heard the lilting, at the yowe-milking,
Lasses a-lilting before dawn o' day;
But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning;
"The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away".

As buchts, in the morning, nae blythe lads are scorning;
The lasses are lonely and dowie and wae.
Nae daffin', nae gabbin', but sighing and sobbing,
Ilk ane lifts her leglen, and hies her away.

In hairst, at the shearing, nae youths now are jeering,
The Bandsters are lyart, and runkled and grey.
At fair or at preaching, nae wooing, nae fleeching,
The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.

At e'en, in the gloaming, nae swankies are roaming,
'Bout stacks wi' the lasses at bogle to play.
But ilk ane sits drearie, lamenting her dearie,
The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.

Dule and wae for the order sent our lads to the Border;
The English, for ance, by guile wan the day:
The Flowers of the Forest, that foucht aye the foremost,
The prime o' our land are cauld in the clay.

We'll hae nae mair lilting, at the yowe-milking,
Women and bairns are dowie and wae.
Sighing and moaning, on ilka green loaning,
The Flowers of the forest are all wede away

But I found another site with this on it...very good IMO..

Why do you still march old man, With medals on your chest?
Why do you still grieve old man, For those friends you laid to rest?
Why do your eyes gleam old man, When you hear those bugles blow?
Tell me why you cry old man, For those days so long ago?

I'll tell you why I march young man, With medals on my chest.
I'll tell you why I grieve young man, For those I laid to rest.
Through misty fields of gossamer silk Come visions of distant times.
When boys of tender age Marched forth to distant climes.

We buried them in a blanket shroud, Their young flesh scorched and blackened.
A communal grave, newly gouged, In blood-stained gorse and bracken.
And you ask why I march young man? I march to remind you all,
That but for those apple-blossom youths You'd never have known freedom at all

Being one of those old marching men so aptly described above, I say that one loss like that affects us all, no matter when we marched or fought, no matter where...

My hats off and a salute of respect to absent comrades and their families.

mayhap that someday young people won't march off to die, old people won't stay home and cry, and Amazing Grace on the bagpipes will have a lighter meaning.

Thank you for that sigung86,

Nice to hear such things from an "old marching man" , I'm sure you aint that old mate..

The thing that is annoying is the lack of intrest of this thread....I mean there are plenty threads about death and destruction , why is no one careing about the death of a soldier?

Death of a (Soldier? ) Truly Mt heart Acks first because there is a word translated into EVERY human toung theres has ever been and probly ever will be (Soldier) . the word its self means death to someone on one side or the other .
Will there ever come a day when the ONLY way the human race will learn about soldiers is in a history book? I truly think befor that happens we will no longer be.
I cry for the woman ,children ,fathers , who die in the name of soldier .
i cry that the soldier father ,son , Dies ,I ask to what end? We are good they are evil? a flawed belife to say the least.
We busly are eather making war or prepairing for the inevable war to come.
Millions die of starvation when theres no reasion they should starve . thousands are killed ever year by cars when one less drink would have kept it from happing. thousands are kill in the Ubren wars nebier killing nebier . Every year millions die NEEDLESSLY through human made violance of on form or another that could have easly been prevented through a kind word ,a compermise , One less drink.
And we call our selfs HUMAN wich ironcikly means Hu main (kind) caring)
we say were intellegent above just a ordianary animal . And prove over and over just how unintellegant we are be killing our selfs over trivia ,poluting the very planet we need to live on up to the point in will become unliveable for us and turn around and say My isent this such a fine life and everthing is going GREAT.
Morn a soldier ? Morn the human animal who busily destroys him self .
god knows i wish we wernt intellegent as we call our selfs .
earth was a much cleaner ,Quiter , less bloodly place befor we found our so call intellegence.
If In could pick any point in moderen history to go back to there would be no place better .

Interesting POV.
I take it you are on the side that says that violence is in built?