In Memory Of

DU TOIT, PIETER GERHARDUS VILJOEN

Service Details
Age:
 19
Date of Birth:
 -0001-11-30
Service No:
 84379122BG
Rank:
 Lance Corporal
Regiment:
 South African Medical Health Service
Date of Death:
 1988-04-18
Cause of Death:
 Killed in action, at Xangongo, in contact with the enemy. Trained as Ops Medics at SAMS Training College. Viljoen was later to be attached to the Bushmen unit of 201 Bn SWATF at Omega in South West Africa. On the 18th of April 1988 he was attached as Ops Medic to one of the 201 Battalion Reaction Force units. By this time he was an experienced combat medic. They were following up on a SWAPO spoor when a combined Cuban / Fapla force of approximately 200 intervened and a fierce fire fight took place. Rifleman Petrus Wama was killed by either an RPG rocket or a heatstrim in the initial attack and Viljoen was seriously wounded. He could not be found after the contact and about a month later his body was recovered by a Recce element buried in a shallow grave. Whilst still alive he was taken by SWAPO to a nearby kraal where he was murdered.
Commemoration
Grave Reference:
 HA2
Cemetery:
 CENTURION CEMETERY
Localitly:
 Gauteng
Country:
 South Africa
Additional Information
Son of Col. M. S. du Toit