HMS Sheffield memorial: City loves us, and it’s their ship says ship veteran John Young
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As he saw a new memorial unveiled to the ship, survivor John Young told how support from the city helped him come to terms with what happened in 1982.
Mr Young, now aged 64, said: “The city itself and the people who live there, especially the lord mayor, they’ve taken us to their hearts, and its helped me in my coming to terms with the events of May 4.
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Hide Ad"The Sheffield Association is something I took a little while to join, but when we go to Sheffield, the way it makes me feel is like on remembrance Sunday.
"I wasn’t feeling particularly brilliant, but I was stood there and thought I’ve got to go through with this. As soon as the music started and we started to march out into Barker’s Pool, all the people who were there started to cheer and applaud, and you can feel your chest coming up and up, Now, I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. And that’s the way they make us feel.
"OK, I’m a southerner, but it doesn’t matter who you are. They love us and it’s their ship.”
He said the unveiling was part of the process of accepting he was an ex-serviceman, and a survivor of HMS Sheffield.
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Hide AdHe said: “A lot of us have been through trauma, from that event on May 4. I have and I’ve had treatment with combat stress. But seeing these things is acknowledging who you are, but it’s also for the chaps we lost, that are still on patrol. That’s the way we look at it.”
“It means a lot to us, and the new one that’s coming. That’ll be almost like a rallying point for all of us.”
He said he was excited about the prospect of a new HMS Sheffield. He said he was working for a company that is involved in making the vessel
"I’m chuffed. I really am chuffed,” he said: “I’m 64 and I’m hoping the batch two will come on stream soon. Sheffield will be the fifth in the class, and I’m hoping I get to touch it before I retire.”