The Taliban resistance mill continues to grind the new and the old Americans who went to kill and destroy but ended up in bodybags. First seargent Cristomo was the oldest US soldier killed on 22.08.09.
By Matthew Hickley
Last updated at 8:38 AM on 22nd August 2009
The son of an SAS hero who helped end the Iranian Embassy siege has been killed in Afghanistan.
John McAleese, 59, was seen by millions on live TV in 1980 as his squad blew out windows and charged inside to rescue hostages from fanatical gunmen.
He went on to co-present a TV series about the Special Air Service.
paul mcaleese
'A huge rucksack full of talents': Paul McAleese, the son of an SAS hero, was killed by a Taliban bomb on Thursday while trying to help a wounded comrade
Last night, he was devastated by the news that his son Paul, 29, of the 2nd Battalion The Rifles, was killed by a Taliban bomb near the town of Sangin on Thursday while trying to help a wounded comrade.
A second soldier, Private Jonathon Young, 18, of 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, also died in the blast, shortly after polling stations opened for the Afghan presidential elections.
Paul McAleese was a Serjeant - the regiment's traditional spelling - who had hoped to follow his father into the SAS. He was a trained sniper who had also fought in Iraq.
Paul McAleese the son of legendary SAS Serjeant John MacAleese with his wife Joanne
Joyous occasion: Paul and Joanne on their wedding day
Paul McAleese the son of legendary SAS Serjeant John MacAleese with his wife Joanne
Family man: Paul with his wife, the mother of his four-month-old son Charlie
Sjt McAleese leaves a widow, Jo, and a four-month-old son, Charlie, who was born a week before his deployment to Afghanistan.
Jo said: 'Mac, my husband, my best friend, my hero. You were an amazing Daddy to Charlie and the best husband I could have ever asked for.
'We will love you and miss you for ever. We will always be so proud of what you achieved in your life and I am so, so proud to be your wife.'
He was born in Hereford on October 18, 1979 and began his Army training in March 1997.
SAS Iranian Embassy siege
Iconic: John McAleese led the SAS raid which ended the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980
Lieutenant Colonel Rob Thomson MBE, Commanding Officer 2 Rifles Battle Group, said: 'He had a huge rucksack full of talents - everyone looked up to him and wanted to be in his team. Militarily, there was nothing that he wasn't good at.'
He added: 'Here in Afghanistan he has fought in Kajaki and in Sangin and died as a Platoon Serjeant, the job of all jobs, on election day, helping to give democracy a chance in Sangin.'
Rob Hilliard, a 2nd Lieutenant and 10 Platoon Commander, revealed Sjt McAleese died trying to help a wounded comrade.
'Sjt McAleese was killed while trying to get to a fellow British soldier who had been hit in an IED strike - fearlessly fulfilling his role as serjeant - a role he had excelled at in recent weeks in the most unimaginable of circumstances,' he said.
Pte Young, born in Hull, joined the Army in February last year and was deployed to Afghanistan on August 2 as part of reinforcements sent to the country to boost numbers after a wave of casualties.
He is understood to be the first of the extra service personnel to be killed.
Defence chiefs sent 125 extra soldiers at the end of last month to maintain troop levels after a record number of injuries and deaths in July.
John MacAleese who led SAS raid on Iranian Embassy siege
Hero: John McAleese was pictured on the balcony of the Iranian Embassy placing explosive charges moments before the SAS stormed the building
Pte Young leaves his mother, Angela, brother, Carl, sister, Leah and girlfriend, Nicola.
Lieutenant Colonel Tom Vallings, Commanding Officer 3 Yorks, said: 'He had already set his mark as a robust and determined soldier who always put his friends first.
'He had a strength of character that forced him to be at the very centre of events and it was no surprise that he volunteered to deploy at Afghanistan at short notice.'
Lieutenant Colonel Rob Thomson, Commanding Officer 2 Rifles Battle Group, added: 'Private Young is a hero in my book. A soldier from the Yorkshire Regiment, he volunteered to come to Afghanistan to reinforce my Battle Group.
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'I will always be in his debt. He died on Election Day, helping to give democracy a chance in Sangin.'
Major Sam Humphris, Officer Commanding Burma Company 3 Yorks, described Pte Young as 'a regimental star in the making'.
The latest fatalities took the UK death toll in Afghanistan to 206, and the number of troops killed by Taliban booby-trap bombs to 100.
The tragedy was reported as counting continued in the presidential elections.
jonathon young
Double tragedy: Private Jonathon Young (above) died alongside Serjeant Paul McAleese in Helmand province
But concern was mounting over the way polling was carried out, and the low turn-out across the country amid Taliban attacks and widespread intimidation.
Both President Hamid Karzai and his main rival Abdullah Abdullah were claiming victory last night, although results are not expected for some days.
Election officials said turnout may have been as low as 40 per cent - well below the figure of 70 per cent in the last such election five years ago.
More worryingly, there were widespread reports of serious irregularities which now threaten to undermine the legitimacy of the results and destabilise Afghanistan's fragile democracy.
Journalists who visited polling stations early on Thursday found ballot boxes already stuffed with thousands of papers, even though only a few dozen voters had passed through the doors.
Male voters were found carrying women's voting cards as well as their own, apparently hoping to cast their wives' votes.
In Helmand province, where British troops have endured fierce fighting and heavy losses in operations aimed at improving security for the elections, officials claimed voter turnout was as low as eight per cent.
In Nad-e Ali district, at the heart of the area from which the Taliban were supposedly driven during Operation Panther's Claw area, only 150 out of almost 50,000 registered voters cast their ballots, according to officials from the Independent electoral commission.
An Afghan worker
An Afghan worker of the election commission office sits under the shadow of ballot boxes piled up to be counted at the counting centre in Kandahar province, south of Kabul
Local people described Taliban gunmen patrolling the streets and threatening anyone approaching the polling stations.
In Nawa and Garmsir, officials said no votes at all were cast by the 85,000 entitled to vote. Foreign Secretary David Miliband yesterday hailed what he called the 'enormous bravery' of the Afghan voters who did defy Taliban threats.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think we were all braced for the worst after the very difficult six weeks in the run-up to the election.
'The worst did not happen yesterday but we don't yet know how good it was in terms of the ability of Afghans to come out and vote'.
Mr Miliband added: 'What's vital that there is a credible Afghan government to which Afghans can commit their loyalty.' The Defence Ministry said last night that the two soldiers had died during a routine foot patrol, not connected to election security.
Wootton Bassett
Mourners surround the hearse of one of four soldiers killed in Afghanistan as it is driven through the streets of Wootton Bassett yesterday
A source close to John McAleese said: 'The SAS is like an extended family and everyone is devastated. It was always Paul's wish to follow his dad into the SAS and he had put himself up for selection. He was a great soldier and will be sorely missed.'
John McAleese was said to be too upset to talk about his son's death.
Tributes to Paul McAleese were posted on internet sites by fellow soldiers in the battalion, which was formerly known as the Royal Green Jackets.
Comrade Rory MacSween wrote: 'Thought you were bullet proof bruv....gutted.'
Marcus Kruk wrote: 'Brother Rifleman, one of the finest Riflemen I served with, has been taken from us today in Afghan.
'RIP Paul McAleese, you are one of the finest Green Jackets I ever served with my thoughts are with your family.'
The serjeant and his wife Joanne lived on the outskirts of Hereford, where the SAS is based.
A worker counts ballots at a mosque-turned polling station in Kabul today
A worker counts ballots at a mosque-turned polling station in Kabul yesterday
Man who told Thatcher: Move, missus
A few hours after the SAS had stormed into the Iranian Embassy on May 5, 1980, the troopers returned to find a jubilant Margaret Thatcher and her husband, Denis, waiting for them at Chelsea barracks.
She was in front of a television on which the BBC was showing endless repeats of the moment John 'Mac' McAleese blew the windows on the front of the building, a picture that would go round the world as the iconic image of the siege.
Mr McAleese recalls of his encounter with the prime minister: 'I couldn't see the telly, so I said: "Get your a*** out of the way, missus!" She did!'
The incident was typical of the war hero who spent 23 years in the British Army, 16 of them in 22 Special Air Service, regarded by many as the world's best Special Forces.
As a teenager, the Military Medalwinner - he would never say in which of his many conflicts he earned the honour - escaped his career as a miner in the Stirlingshire village of Laurieston - to join the Army.
He excelled and applied to join the SAS, renowned for its brutal selection process.
He was well established as a Warrant Officer in the regiment by the time six Iranian fanatics invaded the embassy in London on April 30, 1980, and took 26 people hostage, demanding the release of political prisoners at home.
Mrs Thatcher decreed there would be no negotiations.
After a six-day stand-off, the SAS - motto Who Dares Wins --was ordered to go in, rescue the hostages and make 'hard arrests', a euphemism for killing the terrorists. Mac was seen by millions live on TV leaping on to the embassy's front balcony and placing the charge to blow in the front windows, stepping back as the explosion rocked the building.
He then stormed in along with 19 SAS colleagues, helping to shoot dead all but one of the hostage-takers. Mr McAleese left the Regiment ten years ago and copresented the TV series SAS Survival Secrets in 2003.
For a while he ran a pub in Hereford, the SAS's home town, and now makes a living as a private security consultant in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208137/Two-soldiers-killed-explosion-Afghanistan.html#ixzz0OunYyaI1
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