Junior Bonner
I was granted Sergeants’ Mess privileges whilst on the Falklands. Queuing up with my tray one evening, I noticed the man in front had quite a few insignia stitched to his Army jumper. Having had more than a pre-dinner sherry at the bar beforehand I felt bold enough to say to him, “You look like a bleedin’ Boy Scout with all those badges.”
He turned, and on seeing I was a civilian, decided not to crush me with his bare hands like a used fag packet but smiled and said, “Hi, Sean Bonner, but everyone calls me Junior.”
We sat together and over dinner he told me what each badge signified. “When I was 17 I joined the Royal Marines to be a commando and kill people,” he said pointing to the dagger insignia. “As I didn’t manage to kill anybody in the Marines and the Paras were doing this rather well in Northern Ireland, I transferred to The Parachute Regiment,” he continued indicating his parachute wings.
“I didn’t kill anyone in the Paras either so now I’m in the Army Air Corps,” here he showed me the roundel. “I’m PDB’s personal helicopter pilot.” Peter de la Billière was then Commander of British Forces Falkland Islands. Junior didn’t talk about the Excalibur insignia.
“Can you send me some Gold Spot when you get back to England?” Junior asked. “It doesn’t look good flying the Boss around whilst stinking of booze.”
“Sure,” I said, “but tell me, what about your ambition to kill people?”
“Oh that!” said Junior, “I’ve killed more than enough people as a Helicopter Instructor.”
Great story Mike, and I very much like your blog. Glad to see you’re doing well. Take care.. and if you can, please try to persuade my Pa to start writing one too (though, God knows, I shouldn’t be encouraging him in spending more time on the computer!)