Private Benjamin Ranaudo was killed in action on the 18th July 2009 age 22 years when an anti-personnel explosive device detonated in the Baluchi Valley, near Tarin Kowt in the Uruzgan Province in Afghanistan. He was returned to Australia on Sunday, 26th July and laid to rest with full military honours on Friday, 31st July. The service was held in the Boyd Chapel at Springvale Botanical Cemetery with family, friends and comrades paying tribute. Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, addressed the mourners saying, “we regard him as an Australian hero”. Commander 3BDE, Brigadier Stuart Smith, paid tribute to his qualities as a soldier and the mates in Afghanistan he has left behind saying, “his example is their inspiration”. A bearer party and honour guard from 1RAR escorted a gun carriage bearing Private Ranaudo’s coffin to the burial site where a firing party saluted the soldier with three volleys, and a bugler sounded the Last Post and Rouse.
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