Serving members of the South African Air Force (SAAF), veterans and family members have paid tribute to the bravery and sacrifice of their loved ones and colleagues at the annual memorial service at Bays Hill outside Pretoria.
Speaking after the memorial service, National President of the SAAF Association (SAAFA), retired Colonel Mike Louw, said initially because of vandalism to electrical circuitry and desecration to some of empty niches in the wall of remembrance in November last year, there were concerns that the Bays Hill memorial would not be ready in time and that an alternative venue would be a hangar at what was formerly known as Swartkop Air Force Base, now Air Force Mobile Deployment Wing.
However, because of the efforts of the Air Force and the Chief of the Air Force, even though they had to use generators to supply electricity, he said they were fortunately able to use the site which is sacred for the SAAF in terms of memory and heritage. The eternal flame for the unknown airman is situated there.
Dirk Louw, the President of the Korean War Veterans Association of South Africa, not only laid a wreath on behalf of the SAAF members who served in Korea between 1950 and 1953, he also paid a personal tribute to his sister-in-law who died in an aircraft crash on the Border in 1980.
He also remembered a close friend and compatriot, former Chief of the SA Air Force (SAAF), Lieutenant General Denis Earp, who passed away five years ago on this day. General Earp had laid a wreath at the Air Force Memorial before attending the annual Smuts Memorial Service at Smuts House in Irene before he was taken ill.
He had served in Korea with two Squadron, flying F-51 Mustangs before being taken prisoner by the North Koreans and held as a prisoner of war for 23 months.
Remembering the late general, Dirk Louw said: “You will see today I laid a sheaf (of flowers). General Earp always said if you lay fresh flowers on a memorial, you remember so much more of us. General Earp also asked me to lay a wreath in memory of his son (a helicopter pilot who was killed during the Border War in 1982) if he is not there anymore.”
Paying his tribute to the sacrifice of SAAF members in conflicts ranging from World War ll to more recently the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Chief of the SAAF, Lieutenant General Wiseman Mbambo, laid the first wreath. Wreaths were also laid by the defence attaches of Brazil and the US as well as the South African Legion of Military Veterans.
SAAF Chaplain, Colonel Thibedi Ndala, highlighted the importance of a service to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice, saying: “This is who soldiers are and what they live and die for…People who understand what faith is, are soldiers. They may not talk about it, but they live it out. It was not about themselves; it was about us sitting here today. They knew that freedom is not free. They died because of their hope for a better tomorrow. That is why we celebrate and commemorate them.”
