Andries “Skillie” Human : Fallen Paratrooper coming home 40 years on

[KK20]

https://parabat.org.za/skillie-human-project
Bring Skillie Home

Missing in Action

Andries “Skillie” Human was last seen alive exiting the side-door of a Hercules aircraft at 500ft over the fortified military base Cassinga, 150kms over the border into Angola on May 4 , 1978.

Skillie was only found to be Missing in Action that evening when the Parabats returned to base in SWA.

Speculation that he had landed in the Culonga River which ran alongside the camp was the most probable cause of his disappearance.

Over the years, every tour group that visited the battlefields of Angola was asked to make enquiry as to Skillie’s whereabouts.

In 2011 a rumor spread that Skillie had been found and buried by a local tribesman and this spurred the Parabat Veterans Organization (PVO) to plan a trip to search for the grave. Detailed estimates of Skillie’s landing site were made taking into account the aircraft run-in speed and the location of the landing positions of his stick. The expedition anticipated using Below-Ground Radar and metal detectors to sweep the banks of the river.

Found

While planning proceeded, a windfall came our way. A Namibian Historian visited Cassinga and also made enquiries about Skillie. The historian was taken to a nearby village where he met the man who had actually found Skillies body and buried him.

Skillie had indeed fallen into the river and drowned. A few days after the battle , his body floated to the surface and was retrieved by the headman and buried in a waist-deep grave next to the river. The old man took the historian to the grave site and showed him the indentation in the ground where the body lay.

A detailed GPS reading was taken at the site and photographs.

The grave site is in fact within 100m of the estimated landing area established by dead reconing.

The plans for the expedition were immediately put into high gear and the Ebo Trust was contacted to help with the governmental interaction . The Trust had previously brought three SADF bodies back from Ebo near Luanda and had experience in this kind of project......

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/N...years-20180414

[CorditeCrazy]

I hope the bring him home

[Pirate]

Wow...