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Rifleman<\/p>\n
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I served with 1st Battalion, The Rifles, in Musa Qala, Afghanistan. I was 24 at the time, and my role was a sniper. I also trained the Afghan army in day-to-day fighting and patrolling skills. I think the most difficult thing about being a sniper is having to guard all the people, and choosing your target correctly. When you\u2019re on the ground in Afghanistan, it\u2019s about trying to decipher who is the civilian and who is the enemy. You need to be wise and take your time; you don\u2019t want to injure the wrong person.<\/p>\n
I have a very clear memory of the whole day I was injured, 30th January 2009. It began with a 4am start, and we patrolled in north Musa Qala. We were heading towards a village, trying to find enemy hot spots and enemy positions. Then at about 2pm, a firefight broke out on a rooftop. It went on for about an hour and then, during this fire fight, an Afghan army soldier was firing out an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] towards the enemy. But one of the RPGs misfired. It blew up everyone on the rooftop, killing two guys\u2014the guy who fired the RPG and a friend of mine\u2014straight away. Me and a friend of mine, Dave, were injured.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t realise what my injuries were at first\u2014there was still a firefight going on. The battlefield was very busy, and we were still trying to suppress enemy fire. I tried to treat myself as much as possible. I was in quite a lot of pain, so I administered morphine to myself. At the time it was quite surreal. I was still conscious, but on morphine so feeling a bit crazy. The guys round me were very supportive, they did a great job of taking care of me and patching me up. Then I was casevac\u2019d by helicopter to Camp Bastion hospital, where I spent four days having various surgeries and operations to try and keep me alive, and also to save the leg. I had injuries to the right side of my leg. I shattered my right femur, suffered penetrating wounds to the right foot, the right calf, the right thigh and the right buttock. The sciatic nerve in my right leg was lacerated and so I lost all feeling and function straight away to my lower leg, from below the knee. Because of this nerve injury, I\u2019d actually thought that my leg had been blown off straight away because I couldn’t feel it at all. So I was quite relived to learn it was still there!<\/p>\n
From Bastion, I was then transferred to Selly Oak Hospital for ten weeks. I had a series of operations, to first of all try and fix my right femur. I also had a nerve graft, to repair the laceration to the sciatic nerve in the right thigh, and then I was discharged. I went to Headley Court for two days and then I got an infection and I was readmitted to Selly Oak for a further twelve weeks. Recovery is definitely an ongoing process. It\u2019s now been four and a half years since I was injured, and I\u2019m finally getting there. I\u2019ve had about twenty operations on my leg. It\u2019s OK now; the foot\u2019s still without feeling, so I can\u2019t feel the lower leg on my right side, but apart from that, it\u2019s getting there.<\/p>\n
The support of others has been amazing. My family have been great, all the Armed Forces have been fantastic and Headley Court has been amazing too: you get world-class treatment there. Without that support network, it would be a lot harder to recover. The most challenging aspect of my injuries now is learning to deal with the day-to-day pain, and managing it. It\u2019s also trying to blend in without looking too, in a way, too crippled or too disabled. How people regard you can vary. Most people either ask a lot of questions, or just keep quiet.<\/p>\n
I think the public now are quite aware of the injuries people sustain, but they don\u2019t take into account the long-term effects of the injury, which will last the rest of your life. They\u2019ll see someone\u2019s injury and then forget about it straight away. But I do think that mental injuries and brain trauma are worse than my injury. I see guys who have PTSD and can\u2019t really break free from that cycle of trauma. There\u2019s also guys who have a brain injury, who don\u2019t know who their family are, who might forget who they are themselves. That\u2019s very difficult, I think. So, in comparison to that, I do see myself as being very lucky.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m aware of my injuries and what my limitations are, but it\u2019s a case of adapting. I\u2019m off to university in September to become a physiotherapist. I can definitely do a physio job. I\u2019m going to retrain for three years, then work in the NHS or go private, and maybe I can self-treat in the future for free, and save the pennies! I think I\u2019ve done more now with my injury than before my injury. A lot more doors have opened for me. I did the Atlantic row two years ago with some of the other guys. I\u2019ve had a lot of adventures really, so I\u2019m very lucky that way. I also went surfing last week, for the first time in a few years. It was excellent. Basically it\u2019s just adapting to what you can do and what you can\u2019t. I think I\u2019ve definitely matured because of what happened. I\u2019ve grown up very fast; I think you have to when you get injured. You realise what\u2019s important and what\u2019s not important. You value all family and friends, and you value life. In general, you just enjoy life as much as possible.<\/p>\n
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RiflemanCarl AnsteyI served with 1st Battalion, The Rifles, in Musa Qala, Afghanistan. I was 24 at the time, and my role was a sniper. I also trained the Afghan army in day-to-day fighting and patrolling skills. I think the most difficult thing about being a sniper is having to guard all the people, and choosing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3588,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3521","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n