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Private<\/p>\n
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I deployed to Afghanistan in November 2010 with the 23 Pioneer Regiment, Royal Logistics Corps. I served there until 19th January 2011, when I was injured. I was the Commander of the search team. The primary role of a searcher is to go out and seek explosive devices. We then give the best description we can of the device: whether it\u2019s pressure plate, command wire, high metal content, low metal content, no metal content, possible switches, and whereabouts we think the battery pack will be. To be honest, I knew a lot of us were going to be hit. I was half expecting not to be coming back. I had something niggling at the back of my head that it didn\u2019t feel right.<\/p>\n
On 28th December, we got a call through to say that our Sergeant Major had been hit and killed and we were going to go down and replace him and his team. So we moved down to Patrol Base Nadir from where we\u2019d been based over Christmas, MOB [Main Operating Base] Price. We went straight out on the ground the day after we arrived, in order to finish clearing the route that the team had been killed on. We stayed over New Year\u2019s doing that route\u2014it was a bit demoralising because I was on the 1100\u20130100 stint on New Year\u2019s Eve, so I actually rang in New Year\u2019s on my own, in the back of a vehicle.<\/p>\n
The day I got injured started like any other day. We got up and went through the usual morning routine, checking our kit to make sure it was in working order and things like that. It was meant to be a quiet day of admin. Then at about 11 o\u2019clock, our boss went off for a meeting. He came back and said that he had a bit of good news and a bit of bad news. The good news was that he was bringing our R&R forward, and the bad news was that we had to go out on a job that afternoon. To me, that was good news as well, as we hadn\u2019t been out in a while and I was getting a bit frustrated sitting around camp.<\/p>\n
When we came to the location, two of my mates went off and searched out a safe area. The field we were in had been freshly ploughed, so there was no reason to suspect something was there. Nothing was found, so we moved in and set up. I thought I\u2019d help the lads out, so I took all of the extra water, the extra spray cans and extra ammunition in my day sack. We use yellow spray paint to mark off the safe lanes, so people know that an area has been searched and is safe to walk down. We set out to isolation the device. I was actually the fifth man back and I was blown sky high by the explosion.<\/p>\n
Being blown up feels like going into a rugby tackle that\u2019s gone wrong. Your spine gets compressed from the force of being pushed upwards, and the next thing you know, you\u2019re seeing a lot of sky and ground as you get flipped through the air, and then you\u2019re heading back towards the ground. I landed with my pack on top of me, which did some damage to my spine. I thought it was my 2ic who had been hit. I was looking over my shoulder and thinking, \u201cWhat the hell just happened?\u201d I tried to push myself up and collapsed on my left-hand side\u2014I didn\u2019t understand what was going on, and why I couldn\u2019t get up. Then I looked down and realised that both my feet were gone, and my arm was pretty mangled\u2014it was bent backwards and it had no skin on it. My med pack was gone, so I didn\u2019t know what to do. That moment felt like a lifetime but must only have been a few seconds. Then, my mate came to help me and started putting a tourniquet on my right leg. As he was doing that, we started hearing hissing coming from my left leg. We looked at each other and he stepped back and looked at me. As he stepped back, that leg exploded and more chunks of meat went flying. We were covered in yellow paint which had set on fire\u2014the explosion was from the spray can in my pocket. There were six additional cans in my back pack, and they all followed suit afterwards. The reason I lost my left leg so high up is because burning paint cooked my left leg all the way down to the bone. But if I hadn\u2019t set myself on fire, I would have bled out and died\u2014as a result of it, all the arteries became cauterised.<\/p>\n
The minute I got blown up, we got contacted from seven different positions in a 360- degree attack; we were taking fire from every single direction. The guys that were helping me were also under fire. Then the Chinook helicopter came in to try and get me. It was a huge relief to see it, but then a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at it. You\u2019re not allowed to land under fire, so it withdrew and circled overhead. That\u2019s when I thought, \u201cI’m actually going to die here.\u201d The main thing I was thinking about was the girls. I had to make sure that I got back because I didn\u2019t want them growing up without a dad. I was just trying to concentrate on them. Then the Apache turned up, and rained fire down on the location, taking out the Taliban so that the Chinook could come back in and land.<\/p>\n
I remember everything. I remember being a pain-in-the-arse patient: asking them to sit me up, asking for cigarettes, not taking it too seriously. I was more interested in having a fag then I was in actually being taken care of. I wasn\u2019t in much pain. I think that\u2019s to do with shock and adrenalin\u2014if I hadn\u2019t subsequently been given morphine and the shock had then worn off, I probably would be telling a completely different story. The minute I got into the helicopter, the medic came over to me, mask in hand, and said, \u201cThe next thing you\u2019ll know, you\u2019ll be in Birmingham.\u201d My final words were \u201cCrack on.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was in a medically induced coma for six days. My left leg was amputated when I got back to Birmingham. I lost my right leg below the knee in the field. I don\u2019t remember the first time I woke up. I\u2019m not too sure how many days after the incident it was, as my memory of the time frame is completely gone. I remember our family midwife coming in, and saying to her, \u201cI’m a pirate!\u201d because of my stump. When I woke up, I knew my feet were gone. I\u2019d known that straight away after the incident happened.<\/p>\n
But the arm surprised me; I\u2019d known it was damaged but I didn’t know it was gone. They had tried to reconstruct my arm by putting a plate in, but it left me with hardly any movement in my hand. Then my left arm started poisoning me with an infection so it was a case of losing the arm or losing the person. But obviously I was unconscious, so I was never aware of any of this going on. I was in Birmingham for about four and a half months, then had a week at home, and then I was down at Headley Court for six weeks.<\/p>\n
We were in a high-rise flat before I deployed to Afghanistan; it was my fianc\u00e9e, now my wife, Danielle’s place. I was living in Barracks at the time, and I\u2019d go and see her and the children at weekends. After I got blown up, I obviously needed a larger space. When we put this to the council, they said the flat was more than suitable for me, and that all they had to do was put in a wet room. They put in a standard wet room, with a high toilet for those who find it hard to sit down. That\u2019s no good for me, as I need a normal height toilet so I can put my wheelchair over it\u2014I don’t actually sit on the toilet otherwise I\u2019ll fall in to the bowl. They gave me a shower, but I couldn\u2019t use it because I couldn\u2019t sit on the shower seat. At the time, my left leg was still open and still had stitches in it\u2014it was too sensitive to be on the shower seat. So because I couldn\u2019t sit on the shower seat, I had to wash at the sink. But I couldn\u2019t use the bathroom sink because it had been moved right into the corner, and I couldn\u2019t get to it in my wheelchair. The wet room for me was completely obsolete. I couldn\u2019t use it at all. I had to use the bedroom sink or a bowl in the bedroom. I also had to get in and out of the flat using the lift, which often didn\u2019t work. A couple of times, we were caught off guard when we were downstairs. We\u2019d been out for the day, and I\u2019d need to go to the toilet and the lifts would be out of order. I couldn\u2019t just go to a friend\u2019s flat, as I couldn\u2019t fit in the toilet.<\/p>\n
I was infuriated, because I\u2019d pointed out all these problems before I left the hospital. I\u2019d foreseen it and I\u2019d been ignored. I felt like that was the story of my life\u2014nothing is ever going to change. You get blown up and you still don\u2019t get listened to. I did feel a little bit let down. It was challenging for Danielle, especially with two young children as well. We knew we were going to get a payout because of what had happened to me, and fortunately we found a nice house pretty quickly. She fell in love with it, so we bought it, moved out and got our life back on track. My injuries have brought my Danielle and me a lot closer. Before, I wasn\u2019t a very nice person, I was pretty self- centred, and it has changed me. I\u2019m lucky, because I have a very strong wife.<\/p>\n
Danielle is a lot more in touch with her emotional side than I am, so it\u2019s affected her a little bit more. In that way, it\u2019s been harder for her than it has for me.
Losing my legs and arm never really fazed me; I just kind of cracked on. If I struggle with something, I take a step back for a minute and work out a way to do it. I think it is quite unusual to be like that\u2014a lot of lads say they don\u2019t see many disabled people doing as much stuff as I do. Going from six foot and reaching top shelves for everyone to then being this height and having to ask other people to reach top shelves for you is a bit demoralising. I think that\u2019s the most apt word for it. I\u2019m not very good at asking for help. I try and do everything myself. I\u2019ll do it to the point where I either hurt myself or damage something else. That\u2019s when I think, \u201cRight, I\u2019ve got to ask someone.\u201d The biggest challenge for me is asking for help, I still can\u2019t do it. I\u2019m still working on that.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the lads who have enabled me to survive this as a soldier. The way I justify my injury is that the mates I was out there with are fine, and nothing happened to them. I would rather that this happened to me than one of them having to deal with it. When I was blown up halfway through my tour, knowing all the lads were still out there played heavily on my mind. I felt like they should be here back with me or I should be out there with them, not split apart. It was hard feeling out of the loop. The boys getting back to the UK was a big relief for me. It was great to see them and know that everything is all right. Nothing is going to happen to them now, they\u2019re back home and safe.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m leaving the Army this year. I\u2019m obviously upset that I can\u2019t carry on with my career in the Army, but I\u2019d rather leave and go into employment so I can get back to normal life. I want to put what\u2019s happened behind me and move on. At present, I can only do placement work\u2014while you\u2019re in the Army, until the last thirty days of service, you can\u2019t be employed and paid by someone else. I\u2019m on placement at Barclays at the moment. I\u2019m hoping to go into a project management role. I like the work load, the challenges it presents. I don\u2019t have any fears, because there\u2019s no point really. If you start to worry about things, that\u2019s when you stop doing things. You just have to crack on.<\/p>\n
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PrivateAlex StringerI deployed to Afghanistan in November 2010 with the 23 Pioneer Regiment, Royal Logistics Corps. I served there until 19th January 2011, when I was injured. I was the Commander of the search team. The primary role of a searcher is to go out and seek explosive devices. We then give the best description […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3588,"menu_order":25,"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-3546","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n