Capt. Philip Guy, Royal Marines, 29
Michael Rhodes
killed when a US helicopter crashed following an attack on the Al Faw
peninsula in southern Iraq on Friday 21 March, 2003. He was 29.
Capt. Guy, of Skipton, North Yorkshire, was the son of Stuart & Anne
Guy, who farm at Ribba Hall, Bishopdale, North Yorkshire. He had a
brother, Ian.
He was educated at Wensleydale School, and at Salford University [BA].
At the end of his training in the Corps, he won the Marine Medal, an
award for courage and unselfishness voted for by his fellow batch of
officers.
Career: joined the Royal Marines in 1995, qualified as a paratrooper
and in mountain and arctic warfare, spending several weeks every year
training in Norway.
Capt. Guy served in Bosnia during the Balkan crisis where he was
awarded the Bosnia medal and later in Afghanistan where his troop was
searching caves in the mountains for Al-Qaida arms.
He leaves a widow Helen [whom he married three years ago], and a son
Henry, 20 months old. Mrs Guy expects their second child in the next
few weeks.
His widow is quoted as saying: "He was a true professional in his job,
always striving to be the best that he could be, the fittest that he
could be.
"He was so very well loved and admired by all the people who he had
met through his work; we had both made many lifelong friends. He was
the most brave, courageous man you could ever imagine; tough and
steadfast, honest and true. He would not have been afraid to go in
that helicopter. He had been in helicopters countless times before.
This would have been just another drop-off for him.
" I know he died a true hero. He died for his Queen and country, and
to make the world a safer, better place for us to live in, for his
children to grow up in..."
--
Michael Rhodes