AP News, June 18th, 2007
Dozens of military aircraft flew over Buckingham Palace on Sunday to mark the 25th anniversary of the end of the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina.
Prince Charles, Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher joined military leaders and thousands of veterans for the ceremony commemorating the end of the 1982 conflict over the south Atlantic islands.
Thatcher sent British troops to retake the islands after Argentina's invasion. More than 600 Argentine troops, 255 British servicemen and three islanders were killed.
Some 10,000 veterans and their families attended a solemn service on Horse Guards Parade _ traditional home of British military pomp and ceremony. Footage of the conflict was broadcast on big screens, and veterans recounted their experiences from a stage in the shape of the Falklands.
Among the veterans was Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, who flew Royal Navy helicopters during the conflict.
He took the stage and quoted Rudyard Kipling's "Song of the Dead" _ "If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha' paid it in!"
Despite their defeat, Argentines still universally claim ownership of the islands, which Britain seized by force in 1833. Last week, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner called the British victory "a colonial victory, really unacceptable in the eyes of the world."
After the service in London, veterans and current members of units that served in the war marched down the Mall, the broad boulevard running up to Buckingham Palace.
The climax of the commemoration was a flypast by more than 50 aircraft representing squadrons that flew in 1982, including Typhoon fighter jets, Sea King helicopters and the Royal Air Force's Red Arrows aerobatic squadron, trailing red, white and blue plumes of smoke.
The ceremony coincided with a service 8,000 miles away at San Carlos bay in the Falkland Islands, where Prince Edward, the queen's youngest son, laid a wreath at a memorial to British dead. On Friday, the prince laid a wreath at a memorial to Argentina's fallen on the islands.
The ceremonies capped a week of events marking the end of the war on June 14, 1982.
