Soldier Honored: Ian Malone

Lance Corporal Ian Malone of Ballyfermont, Ireland was deployed to Basra, Iraq while serving under Operation Telic in an armored infantry section with Number 1 Company, Irish Guards, Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Battle Group of the 7 Armored Brigade. At dawn on April 6, 2003, he and a fellow piper in his unit, rose to play traditional Irish melodies on their small practice pipes. Little did they know that later in the day, as the unit flushed out enemy fighters, they would lose their lives side by side, as Fedayeen fighters ambushed the brigade in a flurry of gunfire. He was 28 years old.

LCpl. Malone was educated near Dublin at De La Salle Christian Brothers Catholic School and joined the Second Line Reserve of the Local Defence Force at the age of 15. In 1997, he joined the Irish Guards, a regiment of the British Army created in 1900 by Queen Victoria. Over the next five years, he would be deployed to more than 20 countries, including Canada, Poland, Oman, Afghanistan, and Korea. At the time of his death, he was studying to obtain his Lance Sergeant promotion. A fellow soldier remarked, “He died in the cause of freedom”. His regimental motto: “Quis separabit” or “Who shall separate us”?