.Army medic tells of heroism in Taliban attack in Afghanistan
A medic in the British Army, who helped to save the lives of 35 casualties during the worst spate of roadside bombings in Afghanistan, has described an incident in which five soldiers died. Corporal Carl Thomas rushed to help the wounded without a helmet, rifle or body armour and was reprimanded for it twice.
The Regimental Combat Medic was serving with C Company, 2nd Battalion The Rifles at forward operating base Wishtan at the time of the incident on July 10.
The 2 Rifles battle group lost 24 soldiers killed in action and more than 80 wounded, the worst casualty rate for a British unit in Afghanistan.
Thomas, 29, from Bootle, Liverpool, was on a dawn patrol in a complex of mud-walled compounds half a mile from the base. “There was a bang and I saw a dust cloud over a compound which I knew a section led by Lieutenant Alex Horsfall had moved into 30 seconds earlier,” he said.
“I came around the corner and knew straight away there were mass casualties. The bomb had taken out the whole section. As the smoke cleared I saw bits of webbing, parts of weapons systems and casualties scattered around the place.
“One lad was killed outright. Mr Horsfall was lying against the wall and I could see straight away he was T1 [critically injured]. He had lost a leg and badly injured his left arm. I applied tourniquets, first field dressing and HemCon haemostatic bandage.
“Mr Horsfall was not a good patient. He was fighting me, trying to hit me with his injured arm. I sorted him out.”
The platoon had walked into the most lethal trap yet sprung in the Afghan conflict and was surrounded by a “daisy chain” of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). A secondary blast, triggered by an insurgent, killed four men in the stretcher party carrying a critically injured interpreter.
A full-scale firefight was in progress. Thomas had taken Horsfall back to the base, removed his body armour and put down his weapon.
“A call came in over the radio that there were more casualties. In the confusion I could not find my body armour or helmet and just ran out of the base back to the contact area.
“They talk about the ‘golden hour’ in treating a casualty [when there is most chance of saving life] but there's also a platinum 10 minutes. The faster you take action the better the chances.” But the casualties had already died and there was nothing Thomas could do.
“There were three enemy firing points in contact with the boys and I turned up, grabbed someone’s rifle and started putting rounds down. At that point the colour sergeant gave me a massive bollocking to the effect of, ‘What the f*** are you doing? Get back to the base before you end up getting killed’. Fair one, it wasn’t my best moment.
“I got another bollocking off Sergeant [Paul] McAleese when I got back to the base.”
McAleese, who was the son of a former SAS hero, would himself be killed by a Taliban bomb along with one of his men five weeks later.
When Horsfall got back to Britain, he sent Thomas a case of champagne for saving his life.
Timesonline
The Regimental Combat Medic was serving with C Company, 2nd Battalion The Rifles at forward operating base Wishtan at the time of the incident on July 10.
The 2 Rifles battle group lost 24 soldiers killed in action and more than 80 wounded, the worst casualty rate for a British unit in Afghanistan.
Thomas, 29, from Bootle, Liverpool, was on a dawn patrol in a complex of mud-walled compounds half a mile from the base. “There was a bang and I saw a dust cloud over a compound which I knew a section led by Lieutenant Alex Horsfall had moved into 30 seconds earlier,” he said.
“I came around the corner and knew straight away there were mass casualties. The bomb had taken out the whole section. As the smoke cleared I saw bits of webbing, parts of weapons systems and casualties scattered around the place.
“One lad was killed outright. Mr Horsfall was lying against the wall and I could see straight away he was T1 [critically injured]. He had lost a leg and badly injured his left arm. I applied tourniquets, first field dressing and HemCon haemostatic bandage.
“Mr Horsfall was not a good patient. He was fighting me, trying to hit me with his injured arm. I sorted him out.”
The platoon had walked into the most lethal trap yet sprung in the Afghan conflict and was surrounded by a “daisy chain” of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). A secondary blast, triggered by an insurgent, killed four men in the stretcher party carrying a critically injured interpreter.
A full-scale firefight was in progress. Thomas had taken Horsfall back to the base, removed his body armour and put down his weapon.
“A call came in over the radio that there were more casualties. In the confusion I could not find my body armour or helmet and just ran out of the base back to the contact area.
“They talk about the ‘golden hour’ in treating a casualty [when there is most chance of saving life] but there's also a platinum 10 minutes. The faster you take action the better the chances.” But the casualties had already died and there was nothing Thomas could do.
“There were three enemy firing points in contact with the boys and I turned up, grabbed someone’s rifle and started putting rounds down. At that point the colour sergeant gave me a massive bollocking to the effect of, ‘What the f*** are you doing? Get back to the base before you end up getting killed’. Fair one, it wasn’t my best moment.
“I got another bollocking off Sergeant [Paul] McAleese when I got back to the base.”
McAleese, who was the son of a former SAS hero, would himself be killed by a Taliban bomb along with one of his men five weeks later.
When Horsfall got back to Britain, he sent Thomas a case of champagne for saving his life.
Timesonline
posted by madtom at 11:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home