The moving story of the veteran who will return with his trumpet to Malvinas and will ring it to honor his companions

"I drowned, I was speechless," replied Omar Tabarez, trumpet of the 25th regiment, when he learned that he would be part of the contingent of parents traveling to the Falkland Islands on March 13th.

Is Tabarez a story that He is almost 37 years old. As the first regiment 25 musician in Cabo, he went to the islands like a trumpet. Although he was armed, his main task in the pattern of modern warfare, in the British air attacks against the Puerto Argentino airport, was to give the epic and to touch "the charge" and so encourage your peers.

Arrival at the surrender, a Scottish soldier named Tony Bankshe stayed with his trumpet. It would end with a showcase in a private museum in the British Isles. Nearly 30 years later, this same soldier, now a successful businessman, sought him out for him.. So, on a cold afternoon of June 14, 2010, Tony Banks rang the house of Moreno, where Tabarez lives. He only said, "Now I can die in peace."

But this parable of the life of the former non-commissioned officer, today a professor of history – profession that he particularly chooses to find answers to the thousands of questions posed by the Malvinian question – still has no end. But one why.

Sandra Aguirre, wife of Tabarez, is director of the school 42 of Paso del Rey, where he is also a teacher. In 2017, it was decided to name the school and the students voted among three candidates: René Favaloro, Crucero General Belgrano and Hector Guanes, a Veteran of 6 Regiment who died on the islands. And won Guanes.

But who is Guanes?

Héctor Antonio Guanes lived in Moreno, was the son of a single mother and, true to his Paraguayan origins, a devotee of the Virgin of Caacupé. The Black Guanes had few words, calm, "look more than talk," according to his superior, today Colonel Esteban La Madrid, young second lieutenant in Malvinas. They are referring that he was a black haired man, very much liked in the group. He joined a firing squad of Company B of the 6th Regiment of Mercedes.

On the night of June 12, the Royal Marines Commando 45 attacked their positions at Mount Dos Hermanas. At first there was a very intense bombardment, then a fight was fought and finally the retreat was ordered to go to Mount Tumbledown, a maneuver already practiced.

By the time they retired, an English shot fell that seriously hurt Guanes in the legs, which was part of the back of the fight. As he was losing a lot of blood, he was turned into a tourniquet and the soldier Walter Goñi he applied morphine.

With the English only 100 meters, Guanes was covered with a white cloth that allowed to identify the wounded. A few hours later, Argentine soldiers entered a territory that the British were already dominating in search of food. They saw the sheet but Guanes was no longer there. His companions thought that he might have been healed by the English.

Back on the mainland in El Bahía Paraíso, they thought they could see Guanes in the infirmary. But that did not happen like that. He was dead. And when they arrived at the port, they did not have the courage they had shown on the islands: no one was encouraged to tell the truth to the mother of Guanes.

The double mandate of Tabarez

Tabarez now goes to the islands for the first time with a double mandate. Accompany the relatives of the dead and touch the minute of silence and replace the sound of bagpipes accompanying these ceremonies. The initiative came from the Parents' Commission, which proposed to the British Embbady the opportunity to wear a trumpet and that the candidate with all votes was Tabarez.

But it will also be necessary to take into consideration the tributes that the pupils of the school 42 are already preparing for Guanes: a rosary, next to pictures of the school bearing his name, that Tabarez will leave in the soldier's grave.

Tabarez is excited. He said Infobae that this trip will be like "caressing the soul of the fallen". He does not stop thanking his son for successfully obtaining his pbadport with his identity card.

He talked about the trip with his psychiatrist. "I'm fine, I'm ready, I know that the comrades who stayed in the islands will accompany me," he said, giving him a moment of relaxation, he commented: "Who tells him to touch at loading ". But he immediately made it clear that it was a joke.

Likewise, Tabarez is not compliant. "It would be nice to be able to cover all the places where I was, especially Puerto Argentino", a point.

He says that he would like to visit the place where they were buried on June 3, 1982, Lieutenant Dachary, Sergeant First White and the soldiers Lamas and Diarte, killed during a bombing, and where he was bound to honor them. But he knows it will be a journey in which emotions will be squeezed in a day, even if they are stored forever in the soul.

At the school, which bears since 6 October 2017 the name of Guanes, his medals are preserved. He had a brother, but they have long since lost track of him. Your mother is dead.

And Tabarez, once again with his trumpet on his back, will overtake Malvinas after 37 years. What better opportunity to tell Guanes, in the cold crowd of Darwin, that there is a school that bears his name and that has not been forgotten. This is not little to say.