Soldier hoped for Afghan peace

2:08am Saturday 6th September 2008

A British Army soldier killed in Afghanistan had spoken of hopes of bringing peace to the war-torn country.

Ranger Justin Cupples, 29, a member of the 1st Battalion of The Royal Irish Regiment (RIR), was killed while on routine foot patrol in Sangin, Helmand Province, on Thursday.

He was fatally injured in a roadside bomb attack and, despite receiving first aid, died at the scene.

His death takes the number of British Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan to 117.

The Ranger, known as Cups to his comrades, was from Miami in the US but had moved back to his family home in Co Cavan in the Irish Republic, where he met and married his Lithuanian wife Vilma.

Before his recent deployment to Afghanistan, he spoke publicly about his desire to take on the Taliban following the September 11 terrorist attacks on his homeland.

He was then in the US Navy and was on board the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt during the initial invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

After leaving the navy and moving to Ireland to the family home in Virginia, Co Cavan, he decided to join the British Army, spurred by the belief he had some unfinished business with the Taliban.

"It was one of the things I regretted after September 11, not being able to go in there (to Afghanistan) and do the job that needed to be done, and obviously still needs doing," he said when interviewed before the Royal Irish's recent deployment to Helmand.

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't apprehensive at some level but I'm anxious to go at the same time. I think it's now about trying to restore order to Afghanistan and trying to make it into some sort of a country."

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