Charles Stuart MacKenzie, served with the Seaforth Highlanders - a Scottish regiment of the British Army - during World War I. A UH-1D Iroquois helicopter climbs skyward after inserting soldiers near Ia Drang. MacKenzie” moves audiences with its beautiful bagpipes and touching lyrics, the true story behind its origin is a tragic historical footnote. Following the film’s finale, the familiar drone of bagpipes leads audiences to an emotional conclusion.Īs the color guard prepares and a seemingly endless procession of patrol cars makes its way to a funeral, the song overpowers the actions on screen. The memorable song from We Were Soldiers ’ climactic battle was used again to similar effect in 2012’s End of Watch. MacKenzie” overtakes the sounds of the soldiers moving to contact. The order comes to fix bayonets, and as the soldiers on screen prepare for deadly close-quarters combat, the haunting tune of “Sgt. Sergeant Tim Walker said investigations were ongoing.Crickets fade into the low drone of a bagpipe as the men of the 1st Air Cavalry Division nervously peer through the tall grass of Vietnam’s central highlands. The woman, had been living next door to Mr Matthews for just over three years, said he was a "good, quiet neighbour, with good family who kept a close eye on him and visited every day," and she would miss having him as a neighbour. I feel like if we had got in we could have got him out." The woman, who became quite emotional as the Chronicle spoke to her, said she had found the whole event "quite hard". "It was scary, as much as we wanted to smash in the glass, with the oxygen. The woman said she tried banging on the front door and trying to get it open, before a passing police officer stopped in and attempted to kick the door open. I was trying to get him to come back, but he wouldn't." "He was quite the hero, for an elderly gentleman himself. "Mr Hawkins was incredible, he was at the window with his hose." ![]() The house was "well alight" when she did see it, with smoke pouring from every crack of the house, making it hard to see where in the house the fire actually was. She said events surrounding the fire happened so quickly, she didn't know if she saw it out the window, or first noticed it when she opened the door to take her children to school. ![]() Mr Hawkins might have a modest view of his actions, but they were nothing short of courageous, says another neighbour, who did not wish to be named. He was a man on his own, bit like me at the moment." "I will miss him as a neighbour for his oddity. Though not really friends, they always stopped for a bit of a chat if they saw each other out. He used to get on his bike and cycle round to the pub to get a jar." He had friends and family around often, and could be heard belting out a bit of song - and occasionally the odd swearword, from time to time. ![]() Mr Hawkins said Mr Matthews moved into the unit next door about nine years ago, and had been a good neighbour. Unfortunately, Mr Hawkins could not save the occupant of the house as a body, believed to be Mr Matthews, was later recovered.Ī formal identification of the body has yet to be made. I didn't know if he was anything at that stage. "I didn't know whether he was in there or not, I couldn't see anything for the smoke. Mr Hawkins said the window was completely gone by the time he got to the fire, so he continued hosing the walls of the bedroom as small fires sprang up, trying to save as much of the state house as he could. "I was standing in the doorway and when I heard these bangs like a shotgun, "bang, bang, bang, bang", I ran outside and my first move was to grab the hose and shove it in the bedroom window." Savage Crescent resident Cecil Hawkins is a bit of a hero in his neighbours' eyes.įire broke out in Mr Hawkins' 78-year-old neighbour Rua Matthews' house around 8am on Monday.īut Mr Hawkins, himself an elderly man with one arm in plaster after spraining his wrist, wasn't about to sit idly by and watch it go up in smoke.
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