"The Falkland lslands situated in the South of the Atlantic Ocean, have, since 1 833, been the center of a dispute between. .." "Argentina and Great Britain over sovereignty." "In early 1982, both governments were undergoing a deep social. .." "and economic crisis." "Each one carries out unexpected military..." "maneuvers to strengthen the regime and the threat of war. .." "becomes central once again." "The armed conflict's outcome is 649 Argentine casualties, and more than 350 suicides since the end of the war to date." "This documentary centers on Sergio Delgado's life, an Argentine who fought the so called 'Mount Longdon Battle', which is remembered as one of the toughest before surrender." "Argentine history was always built like this." "With the sacrifice of its best sons." "What did I do?" "I studied." "I hadn't finished school because I had to re-attend courses..." "many times, but I insisted." "I was drafted, I got number 727, it meant infantry." "It was in 1980." "I was drafted then." "I was sent to La Plata for my Compulsory M ilitary Service." "I left feeling as frightened as everybody felt in those moments." "There I was, lnfantry Regiment 7 'Coronel Conde' was the name." "Regiment 7 is a very old one." "There were rumors that in a battle around 1800, there was a problem, and the Regiment had been punished for 100 years." "Infantry is complex. lt's tough." "The same as the Marines." "The regiment consisted of companies, A, B and C." "I was in the worst one, which was B." "They had us all day doing what the call 'Fast Movements'," "Sort of gym, but the one that hurts." "Squats, leapfrogs, hit the ground, crawling." "It was constant. it was the best prepared company." "My Military Service was awful." "I was discharged after the war." "I wasn't officially discharged." "June 1982 was my discharge." "It was like that." "My father got sick and I had to go home." "On April 2nd I was at home, having lunch with my family, my parents, my sister, who was still single back then, and watching Fortunato on TV." "It rings a bell, doesn't it?" "." "Fortunato?" "The guy was there and I was taking part in the celebration." "The Falkland lslands had been recovered, right then, the bell rings, this is unbelievable." "It was one of my partners, he had a truck. lt was full of soldiers..." "partners that had been discharged, 'What's up dude?" "'.. ." "and there was also a Corporal." "The guy said 'Soldier Delgado' and I go 'How are you, Corporal?" "'" "They told me that we had to go back to the barracks..." "because of the conflict we had to stay in the regiment, "Let's go"." "I said goodbye to my parents." "And I left." "NOT REALLY OURS" "From the Regiment we set off to El Palomar." "We were each assigned a combat role." "And I was 18." "That is also valid." "When you're 18, you do the typical 18 year old things." " What do you think of today?" " Fantastic. I came early." "What is going on is marvelous." "What do I think?" "That finally the Argentine armed forces.. ." "have fulfilled their obligation to the country. .." "and evicted the English pirates." "Let the World, America, that a country with a defined will, as the Argentine one has.. ." "If they want to come, come." "We will put up fight." "Only God knows what my life could have been, if I hadn't been to war." "The war changed me, M ilitary Service and the war change me," "The Military Service one year, Falklands two or three months," "Reinserting in society many years." "I want to be seen by the guy in the carousel, man." "We never thought it was going to be as serious as it was." "We didn't know where we went, what was going on. .." "I think political rulers didn't know what was going on either." "I was clueless, I was part of the flock." "...of the Atlantic Ocean, 250 miles from Argentine Patagonia." "Its scarce vegetation and hostile climate below 0º centigrade..." "and its strong winds complete a picture of cold desolation." "LS 82 Channel Seven, Argentine Color Television, broadcasting together with all the TV stations.. ." "that are part of the National Broadcasting Network." "In my opinion, the Falklands had been recovered, speaking from my ignorance, having no clear idea of what was going on..." "They've been recovered. .." "How?" "Who?" "What happened?" "With the presence of military, civil and ecclesiastic authorities, and representatives of the main political forces, unions, science and culture and business organizations, we set to found forever our new old house." "I realized we were at war when I got to the Falklands, took my position and bombs sta rted to fall." "A few days after, the bombing started and I realized what it was." "That it was for real." "Those guys were 8700 miles away." "I never imagined they would come." "MARGARET THATCHER." "BRITISH PRIME MINISTER." "I am to inform Parliament that the islands remain in our territory." "No aggression can refute that simple fact." "It is our objective that the islands are freed and returned.. ." "as soon as possible." "Let me know when you shoot from a distance," "Look at this!" "What a shame !" "That's me." "This a square commemorating the armed conflict. ln Lanús." "The Mayor built it to show appreciation." "There's a plaque with the names of all Lanús soldiers." "And there is also a commemorative plaque for Lanús casualties." " How many are there?" " Six." "Two of them were my partners." "These have been donations from the army." " How many Lanús soldiers are there?" " Officially we're about 110." "CHAPTER 1 SWEET EXPECTANCY." "We unloaded the plane, everything was major." "I felt as in a movie, it was as the beginning of Platoon, many soldiers getting off the planes..." "walking all together not knowing where to." "In the walks we knew the Falklands, the whole city, the warehouses, all the places in the Falklands." "We set off to what seemed to be a mountain." "It was difficult to get there." "We had a lot of equipment." "It was very hard for me." "I have to tell you how my body was." "Briefcases in both hands, I had a gun, which was hanging, and a big bag." "The bag weighted 44 pounds and was as big as an eight year old." "It didn't walk. I tried to balance it." "I put it on my shoulder and balanced it with the tent.. ." "I balanced it and was escalating a mountain, there were rocks..." "I felt as one of San Martin's soldier. .." "like the donkey's that fell down." "As I couldn't carry the bag, an officer attacked me." "He hit me, I remember I cried." "I felt all the injustice." "I couldn't do a thing." "The gun I had didn't even work." "I was given a PAM which is a machine gun..." "the one the Police use when they're on guard. .." "Its a small machine gun." "Half a tube, with a small barrel..." "Like mine." "The first days I slept on my own." "In a position I made for myself." "Under some rocks, but it was windy at nights and took my clothes, lt was very cold." "I dismantled that and moved to another and in a week, I stayed in a fixed position that an NCO had left." "He died at war." "He slept with four." "He had left and I occupied that position for four." "That had improved my status." "We could move inside." "It was cool." "We cooked inside. lt was cool." "It was cool and at the same time dramatic..." "in that position we were going to be on June 11th." "The light blue and white, at the Falklands will not be lowered by no Argentine. .." "if it is lowered is beca use there is no Argentine left in the island." "The waiting. .." "The waiting was... in fact we didn't wait for anything." "At first, it was getting settled." "Deciding how to handle food." "We didn't eat in our position, we had to go where the food was." "It was an orange, a sandwich." "I was far away from the food outlets." "During the waiting.. ." "for bombings, it became tougher because of the attacks.. ." "and for one thing or other food became scarce." "APRIL 1982." "U N voting." "We spent da ys without food. lf we ate, it was something insignificant." "We searched for red balls in the grass to eat them." "If we knew they had killed a sheep, we traveled miles.. ." "to bring their heads and cook them." "And we dedicated the whole da y to that." "The waiting was mainly concerned with our worry to survive." "Then it was our drive to try and have a better time." "The idea was to go to Port Stanley which was were.. ." "the famous containers with goods sent from the continent to us were." "The famous children's letters with chocolates." "However, going to Port Stanley to get them was quite an issue." "It implied stealing them, it was something illegal in the army, you had your position and had to leave it to go somewhere else." "I tell you an anecdote of a friend who's now in Spain." "We went and could get nothing." "We were new." "You had to get in a place which was guarded." "You had to talk the guard into letting you in, try to get in." "We failed with that." "We could get nothing." "On our way back, there was a chopper which was out of order, it had a fuel leak." "and we saw a bulge." "We thought it was the corpse of some animal, something strange." "We approached to see what it was, and it was cold meat." "Cold meat which was soaked in the chopper's fuel." "It was our trophy." "ENGLISH TROOPS DAYS BEFORE LANDING." "We took that bag of cold meat which was as heavy as one of Portland cement." "about 110 pounds.. .soaked in that." "We walked from Port Stanley to the position with that." "It had been a long time and we were tired, weak." "That cold meat was all around Mount Longdon." "It was traded, exchanged for cigarettes." "One of us had the idea of frying it using the helmet as pan, the smell spread around." "Everybody was happy to smell food." "As when you heat salami, the same smell." "People from several places came to trade the cold meat." "We exchanged it for cigarettes, for other types of food..." "for whisky." "Go Argentineans, Let's go to victory.. ." "I can assure they're not cold, they have lots of warm clothes, and they'll be fatter on return as they eat better than at home." "ARGENTINES, TO VICTORY!" "Did you ever have a critical moment in which you were too weak?" "Yes, I'm of small complexion." "Twenty years ago I was smaller, I weighted 100, 110 pounds. I weighted 74 pounds on returning." "Besides, the military men treated you badly.. ." "Of course, they were also hungry, they needed... out of convenience." "There was the one who was a pig and continued being a pig there," "Or the quiet one, who became a pig over there... because he thought he was, I don't know, San Martin." "Rambo." "My attitude towards them is..." "I think it's over." "It's over, man." "They made a human mistake." "The guy who didn't behave properly, didn't stay by the partner." "I think it's his problem." "Please General, I beg you." "I'll read it specially, madam." "In the name of God, General." "Help him." "He's 25 years old." "I'll read it specially, madam." "And you'll get my answer signed by me, madam." "Ask her the name." "The situation was difficult for all." "When you're hungry.. ." "You know... you eat each other." "Hunger is superior to all." "You have to suffer it to understand." "If we have nothing to eat, the feeling will be different from... the same group in a place where there's something to eat." "Commander, which is your unit's situation right now?" "My unit has been doing the same... for the past 20 days." "MAY 1ST." "FIRST AERIAL ATTACK OVER THE FALKLANDS." "...they could be originated, besides the bombs... by the combustibles that explode." "Our missiles are now in search for the enemy!" "We've given you the first war report." "There will be many more, for sure, until the war ends," "WE ARE WINNING." "in the way it will end:" "Triumphant." "Are we on the air?" "The bombing issue is major." "The first bomb that falls, the first noise you hear..." "the first shot is. .." "like the first time you see a woman naked... lt's weird, you see." "At the same time you get frightened." "You say, shit that could hurt me." "Then you hear about someone hurt." "Many things go through your mind." "But when that becomes routine. .." "and you have other worries in your mind, it changes." "My point with this is.. ." "once bombings became frequent, you were worried about getting food, and sometimes it caught you away from your position .. ." "and you didn't give a shit about it, man." "Your destination was the sandwich." "Who could care about bombings?" "It was walking towards food and 'Holy Father thou art in heaven... let me eat the sandwich.' Or let me get to my destination, because we had another concern, it sounds funny but it's like this," "first you look for a hiding place, you hide behind rocks." "You are out of the world beca use you heard a noise miles away." "Then it falls next to you and you don't give a shit." "When the Sea Harriers flew over us, for example, they were far away, very far away." "Our weapons reached 7600 yards so they flew at 12.000 yards." "We fired anyhow." "So the guys flew over us." "You saw them flying over you." "It was a movie." "You were watching a movie, dude." "The English enemy." "And the guys were there." "And once they had left, the bombs fell down." "They were so high up, that they had to drop them when... they were already far away, I think." "It was like that, the guys passed and when they disappeared... the bombs fell on the ground." "And... there was a rumor that there was an alert, I don't remember the color, which is an alert about the planes." "Each alert has a color." "Tha navy has one color, the aerial has another, if one comes with a toy is another, I don't know, each one is a different alert." "So we went inside because we knew that in a while, we were used... and when they fell, they made a whistling noise... and we looked at each other and we laughed out loud." "We laughed." "We laughed because the noise was similar to... there's an episode of the Three Stooges... where the guys throw cakes at each other." " And the cakes go..." " The typical sound... and it hits him on the face." "One of us, probably me, remembered that, and we started laughing." "And the bombs fell." "In the middle of the mess and death, in places where the bombs fell." "For us it was all fun inside there." "In the naval attack, the sound was different." "You heard six consecutive explosions." "Six seconds." "That weapon was miles away from the islands. ln the sea." "Thirty five, sixty, forty." "I don't know." "Twenty." "So the noise had an itinerary which was the time it took it to fall." "They were 1100 pounds." "They were very big." "A very big bomb." "Like this table." "Where that bomb fell it was disastrous." "It made enormous holes, it torn pieces of mountain." "Those were scary, beca use when they fell relatively near, it gave you the sensation that the floor trembled, man." "As if... I slept in a place that was below a slab." "A huge slab, really wide, about 200 inches long., a huge wall." "The bombing came from the other side of that wall... so we sheltered behind that wall." "But that string of bombs had a peculiar characteristic, where the 1st one fell, the 2nd marked where the 4 would fall." "Am I making myself clear?" "The 1 st one fell and the 2nd marked the line where others would fall." "So if the 1 st one fell 18 miles from you, and the 2nd 15, 3rd one 12 , 4th 6, and it would get closer." "And in that wa y the last would approach, 5th , 6th , depending on your position." "So the thing was to see where the first one fell, besides it made a terrible noise." "The noise when it fell, the smoke, or the hole it left miles away, the guys missed some, the guys..." "Thank the Lord they missed them." "The thing is that once, one dammed time, lt was already night and the bombing began." "We were already in the times where we put up with everything." "The bombing had no influence." "You only prayed it didn't hit you." "You had no other choice, look for a sort of safe position... but if it fell near, you were history." "So it was just praying and asking for... I don't know why we went out." "I don't know if they forced me... or maybe beca use we had the intuition." "Those bombs scared you, man." "The island shook with those bombs." "You heard the 6 bombs and in a matter of seconds they fell." "All that was a very tense moment." "A situation very..." "So we left the position," "Waiting for the first bomb to fall." "And the first one fell, right in front in Two Sisters, it was near, 2, 3, 4 miles away." "And we see the second fall, thats to sa y," "Two Sisters is a mountain range, Mount Longdon is a parallel range, in the middle there's a road, and that is 4 miles , the sea is over there and the first one falls on this mountain," "and the second one here, it was coming towards Mount Longdon." "The third one fell in the middle, where the road was, the other three were going to fall there." "It was a mathematical equation you performed while waiting, when we saw the fifth fell near and everything had moved, we were waiting for the sixth... you know..." "A situation of praying, fear, many things in that moment." "When the bomb approached your location, it whistled, it was short, about 2 seconds." "Then it hit, and where it hit it was a mess." "This one did... a noise as of metal, I don't know... as if a truck engine hit a wall, something like that." "Pieces of rock flew, we were all paralyzed." "Then we said goodbye and went to bed." "It didn't explode, man." "Why didn't it explode?" "Bombs and bomb's bloopers." "CHAPTER 2 JUNE 11TH" "Defeat?" "." "Do you remember what Queen Victoria once said?" "Defeat?" "." "The possibility does not exist." "My presence here... wants to give... visible proof, of this love, in a such a painful historical moment... for you as today is." "WELCOME TO THE CITY OF LA PLATA." "Good morning." "We're veterans." "We want to visit the museum." " Who does he have to ask to?" " Captain Assar, in the guard." "Captain Assar in the guard." "Would you please turn off your camera?" "We're in the Julio Argentino Roca Museum, it's situated inside the 7th Infantry Regiment." "April 2nd 1982, a date that all Argentineans remember, because we woke up to the blasts, the flags, we wanted to know what had happened..." "Argentina wasn't playing, what had we won?" "It was we had recovered our Malvinas Islands." "This regiment had the honor of getting in combat in Malvinas." "It would have been an honor to be there." "M ilitary men prepare all their lives with one objective: war." "And we don't know what we'll be like at war." "We all think we'll be heroes, but, I don't know." "I don't know, we're all human beings." "I think it was not good for veterans to be called..." "'War kids', that they hid in holes and cried." "They were soldiers, eighteen year old soldiers who went to combat, and fought in combat." "They gave everything they had to give." "Let's talk a little about history." "If you join me we'll see... what the situation was like in Malvinas." "On the night of June 11th, the British start the attack on Port Stanley." "They do it by attacking Mount Longdon." "24HS." "FOR MALVINAS FUND RAISING PROGRAM FOR THE CAUSE." "We begin here the 24hs of Argentine Malvinas." "What does the mother of a soldier who is there now, defending... our sovereignty, feel in such crucial moments for the country?" "I feel great pride and more than anything a deep emotion... beca use we know what's happening and that they have to be there." "What's the message to your son right now?" "That he should go on fighting, serving his country... and I want to congratulate him because today is his birthday." "Let's not pay attention at who we face." "What is important, is our will to defeat." "If my son sees me, at any moment, serve the country with honor." "WE WANT NEWS!" "As a mother, I feel really proud to have a son fighting there." "They gave us some bad news, it's that, on our side, there would be 9 casualties and more than... 20 people injured, apparently there was an impact on a tent, full of Argentine soldiers who were sleeping." "That would be the cause for the majority of the casualties." "There are also casualties in the enemy lines." "Three planes were mentioned, one at least is confirmed." "At least one enemy plane has been brought down." "I n the afternoon, there had been... great movement of Argentine troops in Mount Longdon." "And we had a radar in our position." "They started using the radar the afternoon of the 10th, and they detected things, they detected something, a few miles away, they were there, the guys were already there." "Something happened, they detected someone, and then they detected something similar meters away from there." "Sometime later, they detected the same but nearer, so they said they were sheep moving from one place to another." "No, they were the British, dude." "They were everywhere." "Like that, we went to bed." "And at about 11:30 p.m. they attack Mount Longdon." "As I was very near the place they used to enter, I was one the first to welcome them." "Everything was really silent." "In fact, I was sleeping." "We were quiet." "We weren't waiting for them." "And I woke up... my ears woke up, I was sleeping and my ears woke up." "Beca use... the information I received in my head was strange voices... but not waking up, I was lying there, resting... but at the same time worrying second after second... because if they were not Argentine, who were they?" "The sound was becoming clearer despite I didn't understand." "I was realizing they were foreign voices." "Saying 'come on', 'come on', 'you'... as if wanting to speak low." "Sound of steps approaching, sounds of running." "A few yards away, running..." "When we realized about it I wanted to wake my friend." "I called him, shook him and he was going through the same." "Listening... not being able to understand." "So I told him, listen... the noise, they were voices, who they were, who they were not..." "They're the British, jerk." "We changed. I think I'm in the Guinness, I changed in 16 seconds." "I put on everything." "including the helmet." "I even took the gun." "But my gun didn't work." "I don't know why." "As defense." "To die with my gun on." "What was a British guy doing next to me?" "I would have never dreamt it." "They were at our place." "We were under ground." "They were on top of us." "Walking our places." "And..." "We didn't know what to do with my partner." "Seconds seemed like years." "It was a panicky moment." "The true 'l shit on my pants out of fear'." "and... that foreign voice, already acknowledged by us... came too close, the same distance that separates us." "It was that one guy was talking to the other.. ." "It must be him..." "Hello." "The voice approached too much." "It started talking to someone on top of us, on the roof we'd built." "Two Englishmen were talking, man." "I was shitting bricks, dude." "The guy was there to kill someone." "I couldn't even play hide and seek." "I could do nothing." "What could I do?" "The guy was on top..." "The guy was talking, and when he moved dust fell on us." "On my body, I was down there." "The guy talked and never left." "I think he was there for two seconds that were eternal." "He never left. I wanted him to go." "What could I do with that guy, man?" "I had no weapon, man. I couldn't throw him a cannon shot." "I couldn't." "The weapon didn't work, I was shitting bricks and maybe him too." "But he was on top and I was down there." "The thing is the guy finally left." "I looked out, and it was horrifying... it's an image that I can't forget." "Seeing the guys walking around, and at the same time stationed, in different strategic points of a stone, or one that crossed running." "A friend told me there were many parachute landings there." "That night, before the first shot, he was discovered." "As they could have discovered me." "It wasn't that they were near, no, they saw them." "They were made prisoners." "And they took them somewhere, on their way they went by my position, and my friends knew I was down there," "The four of them crossed." "My two friends and the British pointing." "When they passed by, this guy, that I never saw again, it was the last time I saw him, I heard him, I didn't see him..." "Meliciades Benitez was his name." "We talked about food all da y with that dude, he was a cook." "He says 'Delgado, jerk, get out 'They do nothing to you.'" "As if everything was fine." "Me and my friend said, let's go out." "We were defining the situation." "Because he talked, the Englishman got frightened and pushed him, hit him, he got scared thinking he was going to be killed." "He started screaming when I was almost getting out." "He started screaming like hell, and that made me retrace my steps." "Both, my friend and I ." "Things would have been different if that had not happened." "Maybe I got out like this." "Maybe they got scared." "They didn't know I was there." "Which were my intentions at night?" "." "A stealthy attack, at about 9 p.m." "A very quiet night." "The radar of Mount Longdon had to detect people had been turned off." "But an English patrol gets lost and ends up in a mined field, they have a mine explode, find the position and hell begins." "The first shot explodes." "In one of the lines someone saw something, something happened, someone opened fired." "When they opened fire, it was like New Year's eve." "Hell broke." "Bullets everywhere, a real chaos." "Bombs, screams, shots, help requests, fear screams, many different things that... which was adding panic to panic." "I can't take it out of my mind." "Spying the place where everything was happening from my position, was spying with fear but trying to look for a way out." "and not being able to because as I opened a bit... 60, 70 inches away from there was an English boot." "I couldn't put my hand out to make him trip." "The two or three times I spied I remember the skimming shots, the British..." "The flares illuminating the place for some short seconds, and seeing what was going on in that place, man." "It's horrifying, you know." "Combat lasted until 7 a.m. the following day." "Company B, in which there were about 200 men, was attacked by a whole battalion, which means 800 men at least." "with all the support of artillery and Milam mortars and missiles." "There was a time in which they were zones under British control, and zones under Argentine control." "They were intermingled." "There was no dividing line saying this is British, this Argentine." "Combat thus became really confusing." "Confusing." "At 7 a.m. the combat still went on..." "Although the British had taken the Mount's crest." "MOUNT LONGDON" "Obviously, they saw the position." "For some reason, they saw something." "And he had no better idea than to throw a grenade in the position." "When he throws the grenade, I heard a noise, on my knees region, I was lying down." "I sensed it could be something bad for me." "Automatically, with the explosion, I covered myself defensively" "Anyway, it threw me about 2 yards up," "Both my friend and I." "But I got 99% of the injuries." "From the moment of the explosion, personally I... so that you have an idea, Victor Sueiro's first book, have you read it?" "I had an experience that... I saw the light, I don't know, everything... waiting for death and rebirth... they came but they couldn't bring Highlander down... many call me Highlander, dude." "After that... I was wounded there, I must have lost conscience, not immediately, beca use I remember what happened very clearly." "After a while, the one who had thrown the grenade, or some other, who knew the place of the explosion came to inspect the place, to see if there was someone, if we were still alive." "Their weapon was a bayonet." "My position had been brought down, the roof was on us." "The two that came, used their bayonets to remove the debris." "They used the ba yonet as shovel." "The position was split in the roof and with holes from the explosion." "It had deteriorated and there were big and small holes." "Through those holes you could see the moonlight." "Through those holes, there was smoke inside the position, and in the moonlight you saw that white smoke... immediately after you could see the bayonets in the moonlight, but you didn't know where they aimed at." "We were static there and saw a succession of bayonets." "But unfortunately, one of those bayonets hit my partner's stomach." "They plunge it in his stomach and he sta rted screaming." "Desperately." "When he screamed I heard steps that left, running, as if the guys had been scared." "and my partner...screamed and... I was sort of hugging him after the explosion, sort of on top, wounded on my legs and he... he told me it hurt, that he was dying, his voice became lower," "he talked for a minute to me... and he died." "He stayed there." "I was next to him waiting for, I don't know, the same as him." "Two British came, and took all my partner's belongings," "They did the same with me. I faked death and they bought it I lost my rosary." "The letters my family had sent... stuff." "I had two of those inspections during the night." "The last one that came, saw, I don't know if because of the skin, he realized there was something strange with me... and with one hand he pointed at me with an Argentine 9 millimeters," "and with the other he pulled up my eyelids." "I blinked." "He touched my eye and I blinked." "When I blinked, he backed up and pointed at my head." "And he told me 'Come on, come on'." "He talked to me in English, he told me to get up." "'Come on, come on', he said." "Because I was lying on my back, he didn't realize I was hurt." "I n my bad English, I told him 'Please, my legs' I said 'The please, my legs', but the guy understood me, dude." "Pointing at me all the time." "With the right he pointed... and with the left he grabbed me from my pant, near my knees." "He looked at my legs and he went..." "When I saw his face, I imagined my legs... I knew I was injured but..." "He looked at me in the eyes." "He had clear eyes, in his thirties, looking at me in the eyes, he put the gun up and unloaded it." "He said something and left." "After a while more British came, and well... when I saw all those British guys, doctors, Red Cross people, I realized that if I didn't die beca use of the wound I had, I had been born again." "CHAPTER 3 THE END" "Omar, they request fire on Longdon." "On the Longdon crest..." "Fire!" "Lieutenant Caballero, where is the fire aimed at?" "It is aimed at Mount Longdon, which is now in enemies hands." "They gave me morphine and they marked my forehead with an M." "One of them approached and told me my partner was dead." "I cried a lot then." "God save Argentina!" "Right now they celebrate what the camera can show..." "Mount Longdon is covered in smoke." "The impacts are truly accurate." "They take my friend away and I am left alone in my position, many people come to my position, they come to see the position, me." "They gave me morphine and my legs didn't hurt, I didn't walk out... but I felt great." "They used four of my partners to transport me." "The four of them were really down, we were all really miserable." "After the starvation, all this tragic end..." "My friends couldn't hold me, dude." "And I weighted only 70 pounds." "So that you get the picture, dude." "It was very hard for them, I begged them to be careful." "They were four guys carrying me and I cared for them... they weren't just anyone, they were four partners of the military," "Four guys you cared for, and who cared for me." "Although they couldn't carry me, they did carry me, dude." "They transported me for about ten blocks." "They did it, dude." "Then I became prisoner of war, myself and all my..." "You were on the floor with morphine..." "Lots of morphine, very often." "My head was full of M's..." "The last time they injected me, I hugged the British and we talked." "My first assistance was taking off my boot, they were like, in an episode of The Three Stooges... I saw them quite a lot... the cigar explodes, typical, the cigar explodes and is like this... that's what my boot looked like." "I sounded like Fortunato..." "The explosion in my body made the clothes to be part of it, dude." "Stuck to my body, surgery was needed to take off my boots." "I remember clearly how they took my boots off with pliers, I was really hurt." "I saw this in a British movie." "They recorded what I'm telling you." "BRITISH FIELD HOSPITAL SERGIO'S LEGS OPERATION I saw it. I recognized my self because of my legs... I saw my legs, who can know them better than me?" "On camera, only my legs are visible and two guys working." "When I saw the legs I couldn't believe it, dude." "I saw it at a disco. I was 26." "Many years had gone by." "Can you imagine the shock it was to me?" "They told me 'let's go to a disco, they're showing a BBC movie... on Malvinas', I said "Let's go"." "When I see the tent and the legs, you can't imagine, dude." "It was so..." "It was a shock..." "seeing my legs..." "After many years seeing my legs..." "They gave me first aid there and then took me to a British ship." "It was called Uganda." "To resist pain, were you still on morphine?" "No then I changed to joints..." "At first it was morphine, then I suppose they were painkillers." "I was totally wasted, they must have given me painkillers." "Really human the guys, more than anything, human." "My life depends a lot on them, although they tried to kill me." "I'm alive because of them." "They rescued me when hurt." "They took me, healed me." "They wanted to kill me, but then they took responsibility." "I liked what you said. lf it had been the other wa y round... I don't know what we would have done." "I'm taken to the ship Uganda... and I'm transported with 15 other wounded people." "But I was the one in worst condition." "I'm taken to... a bed, which had in 3 parts." "One in the middle, two on the sides, a bed." "A three-quarter bed." "It was a very big place, full of beds." "Where the British that had been wounded were." "They put me on that bed and the guys give me a remote control." "Another one teaches me to use it, the bed was movable..." "The three parts moved, like the famous Pink Panther's one.. ." "it moved to all sides." "Too influenced by TV, so as to be understood." "My favorite channel is Cartoon Network." "All the time." "Seeing the sunset at sea was fantastic, dude." "Then, they closed the curtains everything electronic." "They cover the windows, one approaches and with the remote, he sort of sits me, not straight." "And all the lights are turned off." "And a huge movie screen appears in the middle." "And I watched 'Airplane!" "'" "But it wasn't subtitled. I quietly watched 'Airplane!" "'" "With those guys we talked about music." "I said Queen, Zeppelin." "Once I said Roberto Sánchez, Sandro." "The guy said no... I said Deep Purple and the guy got excited." "They were sailors." "People who worked on the ship." "We didn't know what to talk about, I said a name of a group and the guy gave me the lyrics." "He sang a song." "And I tried to teach a Sandro song to the guy." "Until the big moment arrived." "On Monday 14th, three days after I had been taken there, a Spanish speaking priest approaches." "He told us that Falklands were English territory once again." "That General Benjamin Menéndez had surrendered the troops." "That the war was over." "The idea was to be happy, the worst was over." "But we felt bad, it had been a vain sacrifice." "I think the greatest pain veterans have, and the least acknowledged, is having lost the war." "Its a great pain for the ones who went there. lt's a pain that..." "After all the sacrifice, after so many things," "Losing was painful." "At that moment, I felt like that." "We lost. lt was in vain." "We lost." "On top of everything we lost, dude." "Everything finished there." "Thats what I remember, I'll never forget it, lt was the sensation I had, feeling bad because we had lost the war." "BUENOS AIRES, JUNE 14TH 1982" "People united, we'll never be defeated !" "It will finish, it will finish, the military dictatorship!" "Galtieri, son of a bitch!" "When I left the English ship, for many of them, a friend was leaving, dude." "When I left and when many of us left." "They gave us a farewell party." "Especially to me, because I was alone with them." " God save Argentina, damn !" " Long live !" "In fact, as the guys transported me, while they took me out of bed, they hadn't dressed my wound so my blood was on the sheet," "so when they wanted to take me I was stuck to the sheet, it hurt." "So their boss said, stop it." "He made a signal to stop." "And they let me take the sheet, so that it wouldn't hurt." "Great guy that one!" "As soon as I got to the Bahia Paraiso ship, a military man..." "I don't know their ranks, saw the sheet, it had the ship drawn, the name on it, imagine how he took it." "he couldn't care less about my pain." "He took it away." "Kid, relax, we have to take this, kid here, kid there and..." "He was from the provinces." "What first impressed me was, I said 'These Argentines'... was the shouting, the telling-off." "'Come on jerk, this can't be possible'." "The scolding to injured soldiers." "Beca use of the urgency, they put me on a plane, a Hercules." "And the Hercules brought me back to El Palomar." "When I got off in Palomar, only the seriously ill got off." "Palomar was a revolution, M ilitary men and people." "I remember a military man asked me if war was... like as in the movies." "I'll never forget that." "The guy approached me and said:" "'Soldier, how are you?" "I'm such and such..." "He introduced himself." "And said 'l want to ask you a question'." "'Are wars like in the movies?" "' l said yes..." "The question was so weird." "I hadn't made the comparison yet." "From there to Campo de Mayo." "Hercules to El Palomar." "In El Palomar ambulances.. ." "that people had given to take veterans to different hospitals, I went in one of those ambulances, a guy had lent it to do that service." "He drove really fast, the son of a bitch, he almost got us killed." "When I got to the hospital, I was given a cleansing." "I was there for a few hours and before noon I called home." "I asked a woman to call." "A nurse." "I begged her to phone that number." "And they called my parents." "It was moving." "My dad was crazy." "Getting a phone call sa ying I was alive..." "My parents came the next da y." "It was really moving." "It didn't matter that I was hurt." "I was there." "And from then on, the whole post war issue." "The kids died, the chiefs sold them !" "Once there, there are many things to tell, partners, people I met." "Professionals who only wanted us to be fine." "One of them is responsible for my leg recovery." "'Go away, go away!" "'" " How was the leg recovery?" " Very slow." "Very slow, beca use a splinter cut off my sciatic nerve, which springs from the spine, in the cervical, and in your waist separates towards the legs." "At the knees it separates again." "Of those two one was cut." "It cannot be recovered." "My foot was loose." "For years, I attended rehabilitation through... external consultation, the doctor is called Guillermo Lasalle." "Guillermo Lasalle, a great guy." "The guy had a theory he wanted to prove." "Regarding nerve stimulation." "And as I didn't have many alternatives... I agreed." "And for two years he made no advancement." "The treatment is... he gives a shot to the dead nerve, and you send the order with your brain." "he put the needle and through a monitor, similar to this, there was a green line, and the guy looked at it," "For two years, he looked at that line. I went three times a week, for only fifteen minutes." "One day that line moved, dude." "The guy cried, dude." "Beca use the guy... and to me you can't imagine what it meant." "The foot didn't move, it was the order that got there." "From then onwards, the guy brought several professionals to see that." "Little by little, through the years and with his help,... that line became a great drawing." "1983." "MARGARET THATCHER VISITS THE FALKLAND ISLANDS." "I'm in debt with professionals like him." "Maintain peace whith freedom and justice, is always expensive, lt's less expensive than war." "Particularly, in human lives." "I spent my months like that, recovering." "The first months, I thought I'd never walk again." "With all the will for life, I started walking again." "Would you return to the Falklands... with this mentality..." "if there was another war?" "No." "Though they sa y that if a soldier survives one war, he can be used in another, I don't remember the saying. ." "No. I wouldn't go back." "At all." "Not for a war. I'd return because I was there." "It would be quite something to visit the casualties tombs." "As a matter of respect..." "But as a soldier, no."