She died making the world a better place.

Blackleaf

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Oct 9, 2004
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SHE DIED MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE
The Mirror
10 May 2006

Sarah-Jayne Mulvihill is the first British woman to be killed in action since a female undercover agent was killed in Northern Ireland in 1984, and she's the first British woman to be killed in action abroad since World War II.

THERE is nothing about the career Flight Lieutenant Sarah-Jayne Mulvihill chose that appeals to me nor to many women in Civvy Street, I imagine.

The majority of us are content to grapple with the photocopier rather than the complex machinery of a Lynx helicopter. We do not on a daily basis risk roadside ambushes as we travel to work.

Courage is something we summon up to ask the boss for an hour off or a pay rise. Being in the line of fire might mean a skirmish with a fractious colleague and the only combat we enter is the verbal kind.

Yet to Sarah-Jayne, who died this week with four male colleagues when their helicopter crashed in Basra, most of our working lives would seem mundane and dull.

Mediocrity wasn't what she wanted and as we mourn the death of the first woman to be killed in enemy action abroad since the Second World War, we must not forget that.

Some, myself included, would prefer to sweep the streets rather than take to the skies in a thundering lump of metal knowing an surface-to-air missile could turn us into a fireball at any moment.

Others, like Sarah-Jayne, relished the adrenaline of life in the front line and tackled every risk with competence and quiet dignity.

"Being in the military was all Sarah ever wanted," said Simon Wallis, her ex-husband. "She loved serving her country."

She also fought for the privilege. Despite a lack of academic qualifications, she was never thwarted in her ambition to become an RAF officer.

In daily dawn jogs she outran the men and when, after earning her commission she was placed in airtraffic control, she longed for a tougher challenge.

Becoming a flight operations officer meant a posting to Iraq was almost inevitable and she went willingly, not once, but twice. From the flight deck she will have seen beneath her the terrifying way British troops are threatened on the strife-torn streets of Basra.

She will have witnessed death in the line of duty but if she had a political view no one would be privy to it.

Unlike the scores of armchair generals back home pontificating on the rights and wrongs of this war, our servicemen and women have no choice in the matter.

"We're here because we're here" is as relevant now as it was in any previous conflict.

It seems inconceivable to us, as we whinge about the weather and a hosepipe ban, that every day in another part of the world British men and women risk their lives for that most noble of causes - to help others. If some Iraqis, imprisoned for years in a culture of mistrusting authority, do not welcome their presence our armed forces are asked to remain diligent and dignified.

By and large, we at home remain untouched and unknowing until the inevitable happens and another coffin comes home carrying the body of a young soldier.

When, for the first time in 22 years, it's that of a beautiful young woman it prompts a more emotional reaction in all of us.

We're reminded that there are things Sarah-Jayne had yet to experience - motherhood, a longer marriage to new husband Lee, and perhaps a different career after the RAF.

It's possible that eventually she may even have witnessed a peaceful conclusion to the troubles in Iraq.

If and when that day arrives, it will be due to the achievements of Sarah-Jayne and others like her who don't just believe they can make the world a better place.

They give their lives to ensure it is.

mirror.co.uk
 

Mogz

Council Member
Jan 26, 2006
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Why is it that a truck load of male soldiers can die and everyone says "that's too bad", but if a woman bites it they get all bent out of shape? Can someone explain that to me? The women I know in the Forces would be disgusted if fan fair was made over their deaths. Maybe it's a civilian thing, who knows.