Falklands war veteran 'still haunted' 40 years on from conflict

Sulle Alhaji faced racial discrimination and victimisation in the Army in the 1970s

A Falklands war veteran has told how memories of combat "still haunt him to this day", 40 years on.

Sulle Alhaji, who grew up in Wallsend, joined the Parachute Regiment in 1978 "to get himself out of trouble".

Serving in Germany and Northern Ireland, he was a member of 3 Para, landing on the islands in May 1982.

"I remember making a deal with myself... if I'm going to die, I'm going to take down as many as I can with me," he said.

"In my own mind, I kind of relaxed after that and I thought 'Right, that's it, if I don't come back, I don't come back. If I do, then great'."

After a troubled start in life, Mr Alhaji joined the Paras and went on to become a senior officer during his 40-years' service

The conflict was the culmination of the long-standing dispute with Argentina over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia that lie in the Atlantic to the east of Argentina.

"We got a briefing, we're going to go to war, and I'm like, wow.

"At that point I was still thinking to myself that when the Argentinians see the Para's coming, they're going to leave the Falklands and go home with their tails between their legs.

"It was chaos," Mr Alhaji added.

The conflict saw 655 Argentine and 255 British servicemen lose their lives, as did three Falkland Islanders.

"The worst thing that I had to do, was taking our dead into a safe place, that was horrible because I knew them, they were mates.

"To pick them up and move them, was the hardest thing I've ever done."

Mr Alhaji was honoured for his decades of service at the Army Training Centre by having one of the centre's troops named after him

Mr Alhaji, who now lives in Hampshire, later transferred to the Royal Army Physical Training Corps and rose through the ranks to become Lieutenant Colonel.

Towards the end of his 40 years of service, he took command of the Army's Youth Outreach Team.

He hopes to inspire others who are in a "really in a dark place, where they keep getting into trouble".

He said: "If I can inspire them to be a better person, if I can inspire one person, then I'm happy."