Mark Cridge

never forget.

i was so saddened to hear about marks death, i left the Army over a year ago now, but for 4 years of my career i served with mark and he was one of my close friends. while serving my first tour of iraq i manned a vehicle with mark and we had some great laughs together, after shaving each others heads before we left england mark was branded mini-me because he did look an awful lot like a smaller me!
He was a star, i remember all the long nights sat on a shift with nothing to do, so we'd talk for hours about family, girls anything at all, we even had competitions to see who could chew the most gum after we stole some americans ration packs, and we would go on regular night raids of the cook house tents while eveyone else was asleep.
As a soldier he was an average joe, he didn't want to stick out at anything or be good at anything, but as a person he's one of the few people in life you meet, whose instantly likable and easy to get on with.
He always knew what to say to lighten a situation, no matter how grim, and he always had a rubbish joke to tell, that was mark, he didn't take anything too serious, like the time my vehicle broke down in a large convoy move..us at the back and the convoy carried on, so we did what we were told, an stayed with the vehicle, with no water (because we'd thrown it all for the poor iraqis) an only one ration pack between us, while it was so hot we decided to sunbathe so we climbed on to the roof and lay down, when we both had had enough we climbed down to find a group of iraqis ransacking the vehicle, taking the spare tyre off, the antennas, an having a go at our corn beef hash, so mark said i should clear them off while im bigger and because i was an army boxer, they'd listen to me? so i start waving my rifle around and shouting, they all just stopped an looked at me, i started ushering them away an when i turned round, marks there arguing the toss with a fella of about 80 over the corn beef hash! what a guy. Also remember letting him drive the vehicle once, a pinzgouer which is a 6x6 automatic, he loved it an thought he was a bit of a dab hand, so he overtook our small convoy and decided to navigate. needless to say it took us nearly 6 hours to make up the lost time and we had to borrow fuel from some skinny americans.
He really was a good guy, and a great friend and he will be sadly missed by all who knew him and all who had the privelidge of sevring along side him.

Nige (we served togeather for 4 yrs) November 13, 2006

im so so sorry to hear of your loss, my thoughts are deeply with you, my younger brother is due to fly out to afganistan shortly, he is on 24 hour standby otherwise going to iraq, i couldnt start to understand how your feeling, but you are all in my heart,

god bless xxx

Stacey Sutherland (non) September 25, 2006

Hero

A True Hero Never To Be Forgotten.Bless your Family and Thank You for making the world a better place.

Lumby September 10, 2006