Copied from Yorkshire Post.
Written by
Bob Stewart MP
Care Down The Ages – Our Debt To All Injured Soldiers
Bob Stewart
Thirty years ago this month, at eight minutes past eleven, a massive explosion rocked my house. At the time I was a Major commanding A Company, 1st Battalion, the Cheshire Regiment. I rang the Guardroom because I was the duty field officer and was told, “We think the Droppin' Well - the disco – has been blown up.”
I jumped into my car and was there within a minute. There was blackness where the Droppin' Well was meant to be, everything else was in light and there was silence. I took a torch from my car and went into what was left of the building. The first person I met was only 18. He was Private Mark Young, one of my youngest soldiers. I said to him, “You'll be all right. You'll live. Just stay there.” He had a broken back, although I did not know it.
I went further into the building and there I found another soldier, Private Harthern, who said, “Come over here sir, through that gap.” I looked through the gap and saw a girl called Tina Collins underneath the concrete. She was the wife of my clerk. She said, “I think Clinton isn't moving sir.” I said, “Don't call me sir, it doesn't matter. You've got to stay there Tina.” I left Private Harthern with her.
Lance Corporal Clinton Collins had been promoted by me that day. He and I had played squash until 8pm that evening. I had taken him home and he had said, “In celebration sir, I'm taking Tina out for a drink.” But at eight minutes past eleven, he was dead,
I went on, and a boy stood up and asked whether I was a doctor. I looked like a doctor because I was wearing a coat. I said, “No, I'm not a doctor.” He said, “She needs a doctor.” I looked down and saw a girl lying on the ground, entirely mashed up – legs gone, arm a wreck. I knelt down beside her and said, “Are you all right?” She said, “I think so.” She said, “Am I going to die?” I said, “Yes.” She said, “Will you hold me?” And I did. Of course, this young girl died. She died in a state of grace. She died fully conscious that she was dying. And, thankfully, she died with no pain.
I then discovered that four of my soldiers who had been round a table were also hit. The first was dead and, rather like a pack of cards, after the first one had gone down the next one, who was on top of him, died in two hours and the third one died in three hours. The fourth, Lance Corporal William Bell, was trapped. I spoke to him and eventually, when the doctors arrived, they said they would have to cut his legs off because it had been four hours and the rule of thumb was that gangrene sets in in four hours. I said to him, “Corporal Bell, we are going to have to have your legs off.” He said, “One hell of a way to get out of the cross country run isn't it sir?”
It was a hell of a night. In total, I had six men killed and more than thirty wounded. Eleven soldiers died that night and six civilians, three of them girls and all of them young. This month is the 30th anniversary of Ballykelly.
Here is the point: we have a responsibility to look after people into the future. It is very easy to concentrate on just the Afghanistan casualties or, indeed, the Iraq casualties, but we have had a lot of casualties in the Armed Forces and among our civilian population over the years, particularly during the troubles in Northern Ireland.
Some people might look and see the people who have been hurt in previous wars, perhaps in a wheelchair or something like that, and say that they are a relic of the past. They probably do not say that, but they might think it. Those people might well be a relic of the past, but they live in the past. It is the past that has condemned their future. After all, Mark Young is only 48 and Lance Corporal William bell can't be more than 50, so we have a responsibility to them.
We as a Parliament, and we as a people, are doing great things for our servicemen and women who are hurt now. They get treatment that is world beating, but we also have men and women from previous conflicts who require world beating care for the rest of their lives.
Bob Stewart is a former British Army officer who led troops in Northern Ireland, and Conservative MP who spoke in the House of Commons on the country's duty of care towards the Armed Forces.
Yorkshire Post 11/12/12
