Son of Frederik Johannes and Anna Sophia (nee Schnettler) van Heerden. Husband of Cynthia June (nee McArdell) van Heerden. ref. 85 years of SAAF
5 Sep 2026: Unit "24 Squadron" (a squadron, SAAF's regiment-equivalent) promoted to Regiment, per John's decision. Corps (South African Air Force) unchanged.
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Army" was CLEARED. It was not a sub-unit, it was a service-branch word, and it CONTRADICTED this record's own Branch, "Air Force". Across the roll 787 records carried such a contradiction; judged against Corps and Regiment -- independent of both columns -- the evidence backed Branch 744 times and Unit2 not once. Branch is therefore kept and the contradicting word removed. Nothing is guessed: this man's branch of service is already recorded, and his sub-unit, if any, is simply not known.
14 Oct 2026: Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post, 14 Oct 2026, gives the fuller account: his Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer S-50, Serial No. 418, crashed on the weapons range west of Bloemfontein during a low-level "retarded bomb" sortie; his navigator, Capt G M Joubert, ejected safely, but by the time van Heerden's own ejection seat fired the aircraft was virtually inverted and the seat fired straight into the ground, killing him instantly. ServiceNo, regiment, date, age and cause already matched exactly.
-
Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post
Graham Last Post 14 Oct 2026
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
-
The War in Angola
open source ↗
War In Angola Roll of Honour (warinangola.com, tabid=1175), page 6 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
No stories have been added yet.
No dedications have been added yet.