Matthew Holden

Death in combat casualty #08:-

04-Jan-2009 Private (PTE) Gregory Michael SHER, 30, has been Killed in Action (KIA) during a hostile rocket/missile bombardment on the provincial patrol base in Oruzgan province, Afghanistan where he was stationed.

Private Sher belonged to the Australian 1st Commando Regiment and was serving with Special Operations Task Group. He and his partner lived in Sydney.

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Private (PTE) Gregory Sher, a Commando of the Australian 1st Commando Regiment has been killed in a rocket attack on the forward patrol base where he was located in Oruzgan province in Afghanistan.

He was 30 years old and had seen service in East Timor and Afghanistan. Whilst the Australian Defence Department have not said where he was killed in Oruzgan.

However, Officials did say it was a forward camp which means more likely Forward Operational Base Camp Hadrian, Phoenix or Coyote.

Regretfully for Private Sher he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The use of rockets by the Taliban is not a strategically ideal solution. Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Air Vice Marshal Angus Houston, has suggested that 107mm type rockets were used in the attack.

Battlefield rockets are extremely dangerous to use. They leave a large heat trail which means that for the crew operating them their life span will be cut very short and they are also very inaccurate, prone to movement by wind turbulence and have a limited range. In order for the Taliban to use these rockets they have to be closer than 500 meters to their target.

Sher was born in South Africa and moved to Australia in 1986 when he was eight years old. He joined the Australian Army when he was twenty and served for ten years. He leaves behind his parents, two brothers and his partner.

Tags: 1st Commando, Afghanistan, Australian Army, International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, KIA, Military & Warfare, NATO, Oruzgan, Private Gregory Michael SHER, Provincial Reconstruction Team

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 6:24 am and is filed under Military & Warfare. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.