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Ravele (M J)

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No photograph available — remembrance poppy
Identity
Person No.
32649
Service No.
94981065
Last Name
First Name
Unknown
Initials
M J
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
Unknown
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
DIS 6,078
Died of disease
Cause of Death
Died of Medical Reason, lung cancer
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Sergeant
Regiment
Unknown
Defence Force
SANDF 1,026
South African National Defence Force
Memorial
Memorial
Location
On a koppie at the Voortrekker Monument, overlooking Pretoria
Address
Coordinates
Panel
Not listed against a numbered panel
On the panel
Position on the panel will be added with photographs
Unit History
Role at time of death
Mechanised Infantry (combined-arms battalion group)
Status
Regular Force
Part of
Formed 1978 as Battle Group Juliet (SWAPO counter-insurgency, Ovamboland); formally named 61 Mechanised Battalion (Group) January 1979; disbanded 2005 at Lohatla. "Battalion Group" reflects its integral combined-arms structure: two Ratel-20-mounted infantry companies, an armoured car/tank squadron (Eland/Ratel-90, later Olifant), an integral G5 howitzer artillery battery, an 81mm mortar platoon, an anti-tank platoon, and an anti-aircraft troop -- not merely units attached for one operation. Fought at the Battle of the Lomba River, 1987. No evidence found that it was ever subordinated to or redesignated as a "61 Mechanised Brigade" -- see the note on that separate OrgEntity record.
Notes

Ref SANDF 1998 RoH

Research notes


4 Sep 2026: Regiment leftover "SA Army" cleared -- that's the service branch (Army, as distinct from Navy/Air Force), not a specific regiment; the actual unit ("61 Mechanised Battalion Group") is already captured in Unit. Per John's decision, the 52 records with no better Unit info were left as-is.
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Army" was CLEARED as a duplicate. It was not a sub-unit, it was a service-branch word repeating what the Branch column already says. Secondary Unit is for sub-units -- a company, a squadron, a commando -- and this record's branch of service is unchanged at "Army".
Database-wide FirstName/Age contamination sweep (extension), 28 Sep 2026: FirstName 'Riaan Jakob' and Age 20 were forward-filled from PersonNumber 32648 down a contiguous run of 2 records -- this record's own LastName ('Ravele'), Initials ('M J'), ServiceNo ('94981065') and DateDeath ('1998-03-22') are all genuinely distinct, confirming a different real person whose FirstName/Age were simply never captured. Unlike the first pass of this sweep, Unit is NOT touched here -- it is not part of this contamination (see the Unit-restoration correction on the related run) and this record's own Unit ('61 Mechanised Battalion Group') is left exactly as found. FirstName and Age CLEARED; no replacement guessed.

Citations
Unknown
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