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Thirion , Adriaan Jacobus Booysen (A J B)

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Photo of Thirion Photo of Thirion
Identity
Person No.
33262
Old ROH no.
1418
Service No.
74468430BT
Last Name
Thirion 3
First Name
Adriaan Jacobus Booysen
Initials
A J B
Date of Birth
11 May 1958 98
Age at Death
25
Death Record
Date of Death
03 August 1983 110
Cause code
ACC 1,584
Accident
Cause of Death
Died in Freak Accident 255
Died in Freak Accident, while packing up a TB north of the Chandelier Road in the vicinity of Eenhana; accidentally shot in the face by a 60 mm mortar round. (Some sources: accidental mortar bomb explosion during operations in Southern Angola)
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Rifleman
Regiment
South African Commandos 98
Corps
South African Infantry Corps 10,347
Unit
Boksburg Commando 3
Defence Force
SADF 3,830
South African Defence Force
Location
Country
South Africa 23,873
Locality
Northern Cape 808
Cemetery
UPINGTON (KEIDEBEES) CEMETERY 12
Grave Reference
Alternative Commemoration until grave found 5
Unit History
Role at time of death
Infantry (area defence)
Status
Commando (Area Bound Reserve)
Part of
SADF Commando System category
Part of
Group 41
Generic Regiment-field text used across hundreds of records whose actual unit is a specific local Commando (e.g. Rustenburg Commando, Boksburg Commando -- captured in Unit). Post-WWII, "Commando" is its own force-component category alongside Regular/Permanent Force and Active Citizen Force -- area-bound, part-time reserve units tied to a specific district, mobilised for local counter-insurgency/area protection duties during the Border War era. Not a single regiment; this Status applies to the whole category.
Notes

Son of Mr. and Mrs. G. J. Thirion, of Noenieput. Headstone: Gebore 11-5-58, Oorlede 3-8-83. Lys van Weermaglede had Sterf 08 03 83 (day/month ambiguity) — ROH uses 3 Aug 1983 per headstone / Mike Sandham.

Research notes

DATE DISCREPANCY 25 Aug 2026: pantser.cmvo.org.za's SADF deaths PDF gives this person's Sterf (date of death) as "08 03 83" (DD MM YY) against the same ServiceNo (74468430BT) and name -- differs from this record's DateDeath (1983-08-03). Not overwritten, flagged for reference.
14 Sep 2026: Pro Patria Medal added -- database-wide sweep for SADF Border War operational-area deaths within the medal's gazetted window (25 Jun 1976 - 27 Apr 2003), per the warrant's died-before-qualifying-period provision. See PersonAward.Citation for the gazette references.
14 Sep 2026: Pro Patria Medal added earlier today REVERTED -- John obtained the actual Government Gazette (GG 5171/5575); the "died before completing the qualifying period" provision relied on does not exist in the primary text (it was a secondary-source claim). Actual Rule 5 requires (a) combat/enemy-caused incident, (b) a Ministerially-acknowledged operation (clasp), or (c) 55+ continuous/90+ non-continuous days in an operational area -- none of which this record's cause of death clearly demonstrates.
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".

Citations
Unknown
External References
Stories 1
by Okkie Butler on 11 August 2014 · via source
On the day he died I was present, sitting with him until the chopper arrived...
Dedications 1
by undefined:undefined on 20 February 2018 · via War in Angola
Was out on same patrol as Thirion, patmor projectile missed a lot of us, sad day, based at Eenhana, combined border camp with Germiston Commando. Rest in peace. Deryck Venter