Marine Gary Wright died as a result of injuries sustained when a suicide-borne improvised explosive device detonated next to the vehicle in which he was patrolling in Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

 

Gary Wright joined the Royal Marines on 21 October 2002, and after completing his basic training at the Commando Training Centre in Lympstone, he passed out in July 2003 as a member of 843 Troop. He was an enthusiastic and physically fit Marine who possessed a cheerful and optimistic outlook on life. After training he joined 2 Troop, Whiskey Company, 45 Commando Royal Marines in Arbroath and deployed almost immediately for an operational tour of Northern Ireland where he excelled as a ‘Snatch’ Land Rover driver. During this period his determined and ambitious nature led him to undertake the Recce Troop Selection Course, which he passed with flying colours. He attended the physically and mentally demanding Recce Leaders’ Course in June 2004. This led to a two-year period with Recce Troop where he attended training exercises in the jungles of Ghana, the deserts and mountains of California and the savannahs of Senegal.

 

In 2004 he also attended the Joint Services Parachute Course at Brize Norton and proudly wore his parachutists’ wings on his uniform. He spent the first three months of this year in Norway where he and the Troop honed their skills in long range recce in a cold weather environment, including ice climbing on frozen waterfalls and the use of skidoos, before beginning pre-deployment training for Op Herrick 5. [Source: MOD].