"I only thought in coming back home"

Ronnie Quinn was a conscript soldier during the Malvinas' war.

Ronnie Quinn participated in a live press conference transmitted by Bede's Live. Ph: Santiago Pizarro

He wrote a book about this called “The rare privilege”. He explained that to write his book he did it because someone said to him that all the things he had experienced had to be written so as not to forget them.

“My life changed after the war; for example, I learned to appreciate all the things that you have because in the war you cannot eat whatever you want or drink water when you need it. Another thing is that you learn the things cannot be solved by war, like killing other people”.

He said that when he was 18 years old all the boys had to do one year of military service. They gave you your job in the military service with your three last numbers of your document. If it finished with 000 – 300 you were not a conscript, 300 – 600 you were a soldier, 600 – 900 you were in aeronautics and if it finished with 900 – 1000 you were in the navy.

He also told us that when he knew that the Malvinas were being invaded he did not think that he had to go. “When I arrived I was only thinking about coming back home as soon as posible, I was really very scared”. He said that his mother was from England and she told him that he had to go to the war and her father had died when he was 2 years old.

“I was in communications. I had to put lines of comunication and when we were fighting everyone said to us that we were winning the war, but the next day we knew that we had lost. I think that they said to us that we were winning so that we would not stop fighting”, Ronnie explained. “When the war finished, the sky of the island was full of helicopters”, Ronnie told us.