Speaker 1: Approache projection. Yeah, it was probably done about not about
Speaker 1: fifty twenty patrols every day before this happened. You know,
Speaker 1: every every day gone patrol could could last up to
Speaker 1: twelve hours, just all dependency, you know what. I minutes,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I wasn't never very long at all.
Speaker 2: And you said and you said that when on the
Speaker 2: day day it happened, the routine patrol has changed three times.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So why was that? I don't know. It
Speaker 1: was just there was all sorts of this is like
Speaker 1: where bubb was. It was like the commanders who were
Speaker 1: who sat in HG saying can't go, you can't go,
Speaker 1: they can't well yet we'd we'd always have to wait
Speaker 1: for the for the green light to go out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and remember it was kind of like we woke up
Speaker 1: on the morning like a normal routine day, like wake up,
Speaker 1: go get our scoff, get breakfast. Then we'd go for
Speaker 1: a brief. The brief is it was always the same
Speaker 1: made right, you're gonna go and do this. This is
Speaker 1: the freaks, that's what's gonna happen, blah blah blah. Then
Speaker 1: we'd go and load our weapons up and all that
Speaker 1: type of stuff and we'd sit I don't know, I
Speaker 1: make see pictures, but there's there's pictures. We just sounded
Speaker 1: like like Hesco type thing. Yes, yeah, yep. So we'd
Speaker 1: sitting there, we'd waiting on wait for the green lights,
Speaker 1: kept got put back, you know what I mean. The
Speaker 1: patrols were like, what's going on? Then finally we were
Speaker 1: allowed out, and yeah, it was just like a normal day,
Speaker 1: like just left the gate. As soon as soon as
Speaker 1: you leave the gate, tally by talking on the radio,
Speaker 1: you can need them saying we can see the patrol
Speaker 1: leaving the gate. Now this was all like they're trying
Speaker 1: our our interiorly he was. He was to all what
Speaker 1: I'm saying and standing But yes, I think we got
Speaker 1: abouts been about five the meters camp, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean it took us took us about two hours to
Speaker 1: get here because all the IV frond and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I just remember remember anything about that day. Was left
Speaker 1: the gate, he went like a straight line our normal route,
Speaker 1: and then from here he was split off, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, split off, go go go right or
Speaker 1: all left. We decided to go left, and we came
Speaker 1: like came like a bun line, like a little irrigation
Speaker 1: ditch of the floor. Some was that reason. I was
Speaker 1: at the back of the back of the patrol with
Speaker 1: the with the detector. Yeah, we let thea go first.
Speaker 1: She arms an the ideas I can get it becard us.
Speaker 1: That was That was the same. I know it's cruel
Speaker 1: to say, but it's just like yours.
Speaker 3: And I.
Speaker 1: Got this tree line and I was at the back.
Speaker 1: It was like Rosie Rosie getting the front. So I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, like it was seventy pounds on me back.
Speaker 1: It was. It was absolutely red after what I mean
Speaker 1: it was, but you're constantly alert. You're not You're not
Speaker 1: to switch it off because you're like, oh fucking canam tired.
Speaker 1: It's like right, and I need you won't do this.
Speaker 1: That was my job. Now I've got the Valor, I've
Speaker 1: got the melt Detector whole album. So I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna clean room for the lads. And it was I
Speaker 1: told the world rights want of me, mate, I told
Speaker 1: them all left Maca. So I went right and approaches
Speaker 1: tree line. As I get to the tree line, I
Speaker 1: sat there and maybe Army he was giving me cover
Speaker 1: and got like a good feeling, you know, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's always everyone always says always trust
Speaker 1: you go to the next SoCon it is one hundred
Speaker 1: per century. Like I've got this good feeling that something
Speaker 1: didn't feel right or something, but it was good Rabbit
Speaker 1: and said that we made JORDI said, John, the fucking dodgying,
Speaker 1: amte properly dodgy And he was just like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah not. And one of the one of the big
Speaker 1: indicators is like the farmers fields never get touched. That's
Speaker 1: how you know it's dodgy because obviously the Taliban around
Speaker 1: the area and the farmers don't want to come out
Speaker 1: and cut the fields and do all the crops on
Speaker 1: that type of stuff. So that was one of the indicators.
Speaker 1: And yeah, kind of I was walking up to this
Speaker 1: tree line lifted the branch up and that's why I
Speaker 1: turned on and said to me, may when it's dodgying,
Speaker 1: and he was like okay, okay. Then I scanned the
Speaker 1: area once more with a metal detector and that's when
Speaker 1: I took one more step of the right leg. That
Speaker 1: was when I stepped on this id and you just
Speaker 1: know if that like split second while it happened, it
Speaker 1: was just like just like tiniest little split settings like
Speaker 1: shit and then blow me into the air of five
Speaker 1: and ten meters a blanderomic back kind of like from
Speaker 1: there there was no pain all couldn't feel any pain.
Speaker 1: It was just like shock. I was in like proper
Speaker 1: like shock. I knew you I happened, but I didn't
Speaker 1: know the severity of my injuries, you know what I mean? Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was when the when the when the shock settled,
Speaker 1: that's when that's when the pain kind of got all
Speaker 1: of me, you know what I mean. It was just
Speaker 1: like it was like a blow todge all over my body,
Speaker 1: all over my legs, and everything just kind of hit
Speaker 1: me at once. It kind of went from hectic to
Speaker 1: like really quiet, you know, like like dust and all that.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you ever get titt and
Speaker 1: I've got it, there's really bad nomal it's just like
Speaker 1: that he sounds, that's all. I could eat it. And
Speaker 1: I could just see him one brushing around and everything
Speaker 1: that It was quite mad.
Speaker 3: Could all could all your your soldiers get to you?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Everyone everyone was there. So the first person who
Speaker 1: got me was we made many scouse. He came bruning
Speaker 1: straight over you kind of you just fucking had all
Speaker 1: me and wrapping me, and all was because I was
Speaker 1: I was in that of consciousness. Then he was slapping
Speaker 1: me and doing everything was sand in my mouth and
Speaker 1: all that, and he was picking all the sand out
Speaker 1: so and brief probably and it was liked two of
Speaker 1: the odd jobbie legs, putting putting tony gars on both
Speaker 1: of my legs. But obviously I can I didn't even know.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a clue what had happened. I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I couldn't lift ver. But I didn't know if my
Speaker 1: legs are still there or not. All I wanted to know.
Speaker 1: All I wanted to know. I just need to get
Speaker 1: out there, you know what I mean. It was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was absolutely treendless. Then the lads kind of got
Speaker 1: me stable. Then they give me give me two shots
Speaker 1: of morphine which completely just absolutely knocked me clean out.
Speaker 1: I was just like, oh it all the pain went.
Speaker 1: I just felt for world warm and fuzzy, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, that there was no pain. The lads
Speaker 1: were talking to me, and I was just like kind
Speaker 1: of like when you're watching a movie. When you're watching
Speaker 1: a movie and you try your harder to keep your
Speaker 1: eyes open. Yeah, but you can't keep more than you're
Speaker 1: just like this is too nices and go to sleep.
Speaker 1: I'll watch it more type thing. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly
Speaker 1: how it fell for me. But I was only for
Speaker 1: about ten minutes. Then after after that I'll say that,
Speaker 1: I'll say about I say about five minutes or something
Speaker 1: like that, the whole pain just comes straight back again.
Speaker 1: And at this point I was just I was waiting
Speaker 1: for the QR and F, which is a quick reaction force,
Speaker 1: to come out and get me. So they'd come out
Speaker 1: on a you'd come out in a quad for there
Speaker 1: be a trailer on the back. There come flying from
Speaker 1: the forward of rain Based while I was injured, and
Speaker 1: my commander he literally had all of me like dragging
Speaker 1: me all the way because I just remember the lads
Speaker 1: couldn't pick me up to it was too heavy, and
Speaker 1: he just fucking moved everyone out of the way. Again
Speaker 1: he went, he went just grab out of my leg,
Speaker 1: so I was i'ming off, was like, I'm off the stretcher.
Speaker 1: I was all that his legs, so I was in
Speaker 1: full weight on his leg. He was like dragging me
Speaker 1: all away. Was to drag me about hundred meters. Then
Speaker 1: he literally just picked me up and shot me on
Speaker 1: the back of this trailer. And that was as well.
Speaker 2: Like I'm trying to like, I'll never be able to
Speaker 2: even know how much pain you're going through, But what
Speaker 2: kind of fucking pain was that?
Speaker 1: It was like it was just pure burning. That's that's
Speaker 1: that's the only way I can explain it. Like it
Speaker 1: was it was burning. All me inside were ripped open
Speaker 1: as well, so it smelled that I could smell shit
Speaker 1: and pissing everything. I was just like I was freaking
Speaker 1: of that ship myself. But what happened is it came
Speaker 1: the blast, It went bright underneath you then bust all
Speaker 1: be inside like all me on my internal organs, all
Speaker 1: ten stuff. Yeah, so it was just a complete mess.
Speaker 1: But the pain with.
Speaker 2: Your legs totally got with their legs totally blowing up. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they couldn't save anything.
Speaker 1: The right leg, that was what I that's what I
Speaker 1: stepped the idea with that was that was completely off
Speaker 1: above the knee. The left leg that was I was
Speaker 1: hanging on below the knee, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But they just couldn't save it. It was that was
Speaker 1: that damaged. Yeah, I couldn't, couldn't do nothing about that.
Speaker 1: But this left leg when they put me on the
Speaker 1: back of the trailer, it was kind of hanging over
Speaker 1: the edge. So every time I was going over bums,
Speaker 1: I was like screaming. It was just like it was
Speaker 1: whatever whatever's left of me leg there. We just bounced
Speaker 1: off the side of the splooey trailer. It was absolutely agony,
Speaker 1: but it was just like pure, pure burning sensation. That's
Speaker 1: that is it.
Speaker 3: And you were you were conscious for the whole lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, cut all the way through, all the way through it.
Speaker 1: I've got asleep three or four times. That was when
Speaker 1: that was when I was getting stamped on and kicked
Speaker 1: and just telling me to stay awake. When I when
Speaker 1: I did fall asleep with a third tie, I no,
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't be done with this. I kind
Speaker 1: of like look to the right. I see my patuit
Speaker 1: size and on one knee, and I knew that he
Speaker 1: was getting help, you know what I mean. So I
Speaker 1: was just like, right, he's calling the QR and have
Speaker 1: to come and get me out. So just fucking stay away.
Speaker 1: Went soon as you're in a FOB or the med center,
Speaker 1: we can get your other Chotter back to back to
Speaker 1: Campastion and I was I remember just getting getting driven
Speaker 1: back into the forward over in base, then into the
Speaker 1: med center and I was there. I can't remember they've
Speaker 1: done from there. They give me some sort of drug buy.
Speaker 1: You completely knocked me out and I was woke up,
Speaker 1: woke up in Birmingham after that.
Speaker 3: What the fuck was going for your head? Bro?
Speaker 1: Well you probably laughed at this because I don't even
Speaker 1: know why, why why, he even said. But when I
Speaker 1: was injured on the floor, met me beyond me the scouts,
Speaker 1: I said, I'm still gotta be I was still gotta
Speaker 1: be cocking bollocks. He went, yeah, he can't a lot
Speaker 1: of you mean, you're still gone him? So I was
Speaker 1: like okay. It was like a kind of release, you know,
Speaker 1: and I just I kind of like shoot the eyes again.
Speaker 1: But then joining your thing that was going through my
Speaker 1: head was there's another ied going off, but I was
Speaker 1: getting Kazi back to the r F exce. If another
Speaker 1: one went off, it would have just took the full team,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. That's that was the only
Speaker 1: thing going from my head when I was getting tuck
Speaker 1: to the the QR in Australia. But later that day
Speaker 1: we did find out that I think there was about
Speaker 1: thirty or forty I d's all where I was. So
Speaker 1: I'm not like injured in this place and there was
Speaker 1: like thirty or just started around everywhere.
Speaker 3: So so just just walk for me through this.
Speaker 2: You you step on it, is it released when you
Speaker 2: step off?
Speaker 3: Or is it just when you step on it?
Speaker 1: That's it? So soon I stepped on it, because it's
Speaker 1: like pressure blades, so soon as the metal touches a
Speaker 1: metal or whatever it is, that's it, and it completes
Speaker 1: a circuit.
Speaker 2: Okay, So it's not it's not like if you take
Speaker 2: your foot off, that's that's it. If if you if
Speaker 2: you keep your foot on it, it won't go off,
Speaker 2: or it will just.
Speaker 1: Go off soon you step on it. That's it. There's
Speaker 1: there's different types of IDs. Is like there's like that
Speaker 1: what you mentioned. There's the pressure blade I D, which
Speaker 1: is what I do. Then there's like a command wire
Speaker 1: where you can get I know, tally Ban will be
Speaker 1: over there and I'll just watch it. As soon as
Speaker 1: you go past, it will just put a wire. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but nine times I would tend the world like press
Speaker 1: play I DS and this idea with our steff On.
Speaker 1: There was no there was no metal in it at all,
Speaker 1: so the metal detech and never picked it up at
Speaker 1: this point. Look getting really really clever, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. It was just there were there was switch
Speaker 1: that would there were switched on. It would just fighting
Speaker 1: losing battle.
Speaker 2: Has that changed your mind about joining it or you
Speaker 2: that's no, I'll.
Speaker 1: Do it all again. I loved it, ye