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The
war in Iraq has claimed its first South African victim, media
reports said on Sunday.
The Beeld said Sholto Hedenskog, 27, a Royal Marine who was born in
Pretoria, was one of the 12 soldiers who were killed on Friday
morning in a helicopter crash in Kuwait.
A US Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter came down during
deployment operations to the Fao peninsula in southern Iraq. The
crash was believed to be due to a mechanical fault.
Hedenskog's uncle, Bruce Hedenskog, told the Beeld although his
nephew joined the British army in 2000, he was still a South
African citizen.
He said that it had been Hedenskog's dream to be a soldier since he
was 14-years-old. Hedenskog studied at Rhodes University in
Grahamstown where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree.
Hedenskog's family was reportedly informed of his death by the
British High Commission in Pretoria.
The Press Association reported that Hedenskog would have been the
best man at the July wedding of Craig Garnett, 23.
Claire Morley, Garnett's bride-to-be, paid tribute to "Sonic"
Hedenskog, her partner's best friend.
"From what I heard and knew of him he was just a lovely guy and
that's what makes it so sad," she told the news agency.
Garnett, 23, and Hedenskog had been best friends for the past three
years. Both men were deployed to the Gulf on HMS Ark Royal.
Laying a bouquet at the gates of Stonehouse barracks in Britain on
Sunday, she said: "I am doing it on behalf of Sonic because his
family are out in South Africa. Seeing as I knew him and he was my
partner's best friend I wanted to let him know we are thinking
about him." - Sapa
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