SOPARA – Support Our Paras

By Andrew Fawkes - 28/05/2008

 Occasionally an event comes along that makes you stop and think. The inaugural SOPARA  was one such event. As we all recognise, casualties are a sad but inevitable consequence of conflict.

 

Regardless of our personal views about the necessity or justification for war, those soldiers, sailors and airmen who come home injured need support; physical, emotional and financial -the latter being the theme for this celebration and thanksgiving event for the British Army Paratroopers.

 

May Bank Holiday Sunday dawned, as many do, with torrential rain. My wife and I set off for Old Sarum Airfield near Salisbury and then came home again as our village exit road was flooded.  Typical!  However, we tried again an hour later and managed to arrive at the privately owned airfield that played an important role in World War II along with many other drenched supporters huddled under wind-battered brollies. And what a day it turned out to be...

 

Firstly, the skies cleared during the morning service: the band, the flags, the ‘Last Post’ all combining to open the event in an appropriate tone and a plaque was unveiled as a memorial to the fallen Paras. There was more than one moist eye among the ramrod straight old soldiers.

 

A parade of many Aston Martin and Bentley cars, some would say the best of British, preceded a spectacular drop by the famous Red Devils parachute team. From then until late afternoon the day was packed with things to do; flying displays, try your hand at clay pigeon shooting – whilst children and long-since children climbed over tanks and armoured vehicles, enjoying ice creams, cream teas and hot sunshine (I wish I’d remembered to pack some sun glasses whilst filling my boot with waterproof clothes!).

 

The flying displays deserve a few more words. From lumbering WWI fighters, with songs from the trenches played over the PA system, to the latest Blue Eagles helicopters (Lynx and Gazelle) flying loop-the-loops.  The civil displays were just as spectacular: aerobatics from single wing and bi-planes, but for me the most uplifting – appropriately – was a beautiful silent display by a glider accompanied by classical music for the enthralled audience. I had no idea that gliders can fly in that way and so close to the ground.

 

Of course, with Churchill’s brilliant ‘finest hour’ speech preceding them, the Spitfires Mk VIII and IX, followed by a solo Hawker Hurricane Mk I, can never be surpassed for grown-up small boys like me.

 

 The sunset ceremony and beating the retreat closed the event for 2008 with the promise from Patron General Sir Mike Jackson, that others are planned.

 

The fact is that injured service men returning from the field need the help of those whose freedom at home they protect, whether in Dunkirk or Iraq.

 

Thankfully we are free to attend events like SOPARA and choose to spend a little of our money doing just that.

 

 

For more information about SOPARA visit the website below.