Colchester, Essex, UK
Army, CPL, Royal Electrical and Mechanical
Engineers
7/22/2008, Afghanistan, Helmand Province
Corporal Jason Stuart Barnes, 25, from Exeter, was born on 27 May 1983. He joined the Army in December 1999 and chose to follow a career in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as an Armourer, maintaining the Army’s weapon systems. Following initial training at the Army Apprentice College in Arborfield, he learnt his specialist trade at the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering in Bordon.
He completed his training in October 2001 and took up his first posting with the 1st Battalion, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, with whom he deployed on his first operational tour to the Balkans in 2002. In November 2003 Cpl Barnes was posted to the 1st Battalion The Scots Guards, with whom he deployed to Iraq in late 2004. In May 2005 he was posted to 657 Squadron Army Air Corps at RAF Odiham.
He arrived at 2 PARA in February 2008 and within weeks had deployed to northern Helmand in Afghanistan. Cpl Barnes had been promoted for the tour and very quickly impressed his colleagues. He had spent his whole career supporting the fighting units of the Army, which he relished. He was married to Diana, and they had recently moved to Colchester, the home of 2 PARA.
On Tuesday 22 July 2008, Cpl Barnes was driving a Vector ambulance vehicle when it hit a suspected Improvised Explosive Device. He was returning to base after he had successfully aided in the evacuation of a casualty who had been injured earlier near Kajaki in northern Helmand. Despite the very best medical efforts at the scene, Cpl Barnes sadly died a few minutes later.