![]() He was a very fine Gurkha soldier tough but compassionate, and always there for others. He had a good heart, and was here to help the Afghan people. It is telling that when we trawled the battalion for photographs of Suraj, the ones that came forward showed him with his arms around groups of grinning local children. Never once did he complain or shy away from his duty, despite the fact that his team had suffered a partial detonation of one device and found several others during their time in Afghanistan. Throughout this tour he led the way through areas of high improvised explosive device risk with fortitude and courage. ![]() Rifleman Suraj Gurung was the vallon man for my tactical headquarters team. Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Strickland, Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, said: His family members are very proud of him. He loved the Army and was very proud to be a Gurkha, and died doing a job he loved. He followed in his forefathers’ footsteps as both his grandfather and father served with the British in India and his father-in-law served in the British Army. He was a very caring son and loving husband. Our family is devastated with the news of Suraj’s death in Afghanistan on 2 October 2010. Only recently married he leaves behind his wife and family in Nepal. As a soldier he excelled in Afghanistan as the point man of every patrol he led his multiple unflinchingly across some of the most daunting and uncertain terrain, day after day, time after time.įor six months he had been finding IEDs and selecting safe routes, keeping those following behind safe. He deployed on Op HERRICK 12 in April 2010 and even from the start of the tour he was always confident and calm under pressure. Rifleman Suraj returned to the United Kingdom in August 2009 and was selected as the lead man in his patrol, known as the vallon man, for the upcoming tour to Afghanistan. This position is normally reserved for a senior Rifleman and as such it was testament to the high regard in which he was held so early on in his career. As a result of his good command of English and his obvious intelligence he was immediately selected to be the platoon radio operator. In October 2008 he completed this training and travelled to Brunei to join 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles. In early January 2008 he made the journey from the tranquil foothills of the Nepalese Himalaya to Catterick in North Yorkshire as a trainee Rifleman ready to begin the arduous months of Gurkha infantry training. He passed the notoriously gruelling process for Gurkha selection into the British Army in December 2007 becoming the first member of his family to achieve this feat. Rifleman Suraj Gurung was 22 years old and born and raised in the hill town of Gorkha in Nepal. He died at the front of his platoon, leading the way as he had done for the previous six months. He was caught in an explosion when a suicide bomber detonated himself and he was killed in action. Rifleman Suraj, serving as part of Combined Force Nahr-e Saraj (South), was killed during a follow-up foot patrol after an attack on his patrol base.
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