OUR ETERNAL STRUGGLE: KIWI HAKA HONORS FALLEN COMRADES

***********************************************************
***********************************************************
Greetings and Salutations to All my Kith and Kin and All the Ships in Outer Space:

This video of New Zealand Army troops honoring their fallen comrades with a traditional Maori haka was posted at the YOU TUBE web site on Saturday 25 August 2012 by the New Zealand Defense Force channel.

For the best effect, please be sure and watch this video in "FULL SCREEN" mode.

I'm grateful to William Brock Townsend at the FREE NORTH CAROLINA web site for bringing this to my attention.

"Ngāti Tumatauenga", the Maori motto of the New Zealand Defense Force, means, "Tribe of the God of war".

The Prime Minister has released the names of the two soldiers and a medic killed in an incident in the Northeast of Bamyan Province, Afghanistan on Sunday 19 August 2012.

For a larger view,
please click on the photographs.

They are Corporal Luke Tamatea, aged thirty-one, Lance Corporal Jacinda Baker, aged twenty-six, and Private Richard Harris, aged twenty-one.

They deployed with the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamyan Province, Afghanistan in April of 2012.

All three were from Second of the First Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment based in Burnham Military Camp.

CORPORAL LUKE DOUGLAS TAMATEA joined the New Zealand Army in February of 2000 and was posted to First Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment in Linton Military Camp.

He deployed to Timor-Leste in 2001, to the Solomon Islands in 2003, and to Sumatra to help with the tsunami in 2005.

Corporal Tamatea had also previously deployed to Afghanistan in 2007.

Corporal Tamatea was posted to Second of the First Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment in 2007.

Corporal Tamatea was promoted to Lance Corporal in September 2005, and promoted to Corporal in June of 2008.

LANCE CORPORAL JACINDA FRANCIS ELYSE BAKER joined the New Zealand Army as a medic and was posted to Burnham Regional Support Company in April of 2007.

Lance Corporal Baker was posted to Second of the First Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment in December of 2007, and deployed to the Solomon Islands in 2010.

Lance Corporal Baker received a Chief of Army Commendation in 2011 for her professionalism and courage during Exercise Southern Warrior in June 2008.

Lance Corporal Baker was promoted to Lance Corporal in July of 2008.

PRIVATE RICHARD LEE HARRIS joined the New Zealand Army in February of 2009 and was posted to Second of the First Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment.

Private Harris had previously deployed to Timor-Leste from 2009 through 2010.

The families of Corporal Tamatea, Lance Corporal Baker, and Private Harris are preparing statements, which will be released in due course.