Afghanistan Diggers honoured with replica of Tarin Kowt memorial wall

ALEX Hopkins lost his dad to the war in Afghanistan. Soon it will be easier for the five-year-old to pay tribute.

Victoria Hopkins lost her husband - Corporal Mathew Hopkins who was killed on March 16 2009 during a joint patrol near the village of Kakarak, 12kms north of the Australian base at Tarin Kowt. The Brisbane-bred soldier had only met his son once, for about four days. Now Alex Hopkins is five-years-old and has started school. Pic Mark Calleja

NINE families of Queensland soldiers killed in Afghanistan will be present when Major General John Cantwell, commander of the Afghan operation, unveils a memorial to the fallen at the Sherwood-Indooroopilly RSL tomorrow.

The memorial is a bronze replica of the wall at Tarin Kowt in Afghanistan that contained the names of 114 coalition soldiers killed in Uruzgan Province including 40 Australians.

The wall was destroyed last November because it was too big to return to Australia.

The flags of Australia, France, the Netherlands and the US will be flown tomorrow and the four national anthems will be played at the conclusion of the service, which begins at 11am.

The original Tarin Kowt memorial in Afghanistan was controversially broken up and buried before the departure of Australian soldiers last year under the instruction of Defence Chief General David Hurley.

RSL Sherwood-Indooroopilly sub-branch president Kevin Alcock commissioned the replica six months ago to be in bronze, “so it’ll be there for all time”.

Mr Alcock said he was inspired last year to construct the memorial after seeing the impact an Indooroopilly memorial to Private Tim Aplin had on his family. Pte Aplin died in a helicopter crash in 2010 while serving in the Special Operations Task Group in Afghanistan.

“The driving force behind that was Tim’s mother, and we lent all the assistance we thought we could give,” Mr Alcock said.

“I attended the unveiling of that, and every time I drive past that memorial there are fresh flowers there. So that’s what it means to parents.”

Mr Alcock wanted to ensure the current generation of soldiers wouldn’t have to wait as long for memorials as the Vietnam veterans.

“What we want to do is let the current cohort of serving soldiers know that we recognise what they’ve done, the hardships they’ve gone through and the sacrifices,” he said.

“We’re putting their memorials in place to show that we care.”

Corporal Mathew Hopkins, one of the Australians killed, attended Sherwood State School. Students from the school will attend Saturday’s ceremony as well as more than 100 Australian soldiers in uniform.

Victoria and Alex Hopkins, widow and son of former Sherwood State School student Corporal Mathew Hopkins, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. Pic: Mark Calleja

Originally published as Afghanistan Diggers honoured with replica of Tarin Kowt memorial wall