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32 Thursday July 28, 2011 The Journal NDJ-E01-S2 visit our website thisisnorthdevo

Appeal target set for regiments return

Sappercelebrates21st withmelon fora cake

MOST lads would spend their21st birthdays over-indulging,hanging out with family or hav-ing a tipple or two withfrie nds.

But for Sapper Sam Kille itwas more a case of chilling outin the heat of the Afghanistandesert and pretending a wa-termelon was his birthdayc a ke.

The Chivenor soldier, origin-ally from Kent, spent the mile-stone day at patrol base Pimonin Nad-e Ali, Helmandprovince, as part of his tourwith 24 Commando EngineerRe giment.

For one of the first timessince he deployed in March,Spr Kille essentially had a dayoff, as the rest of his colleagueswere away on a task.

He spent the day with just acouple of Gurkha soldiers andater had some traditional

birthday beats from the lads

but no military rendition ofhappy birt hday.

He said: There was no cake,but we had a watermelon in thekitchen that day, so we justpretended it was my surrogatec a ke.

It was a bit of a weird dayactually as I was here withoutany of the rest of the troop.

I actually got a bit boredwith my day-off and wanted toget back to work.

Spr Kille plans to celebrate instyle with friends and familyduring his two-week breaknext month especially as allhis post hasnt yet reached theremote base.

After Afghanistan, he alsohas plans to spend his leavetouring South America andSouth East Asia.

I CHILLED: Sapper Sam Kille.

I CAMPAIGN: Ray GlaMike Southon. Ref: BNMS20110

Promotion means more focus for AndA LOCAL Royal Marineserving for the third time inAfghanistan says his job pro-motion means work is never offhis mind.

Combe Martin man AndyThomas was promoted to a cor-poral just weeks before he de-ployed to Afghanistan with theCommando Logistic Regiment

in March.As section commander, he isresponsible for about eightmen, including their kit, or-ders, vehicle and, most import-antly, safety.

He said: You cant everreally take your mind off thework. You are always expectedto be thinking of the next step.

Its tough but I feel like Ihave definitely fitted into therole. I am enjoying it so muchand felt I was ready for the stepu p.

Cpl Thomas married KarlyGoodman, of Ilfracombe, in Oc-tober last year, as part of a25,000 prize wedding organ-ised by the North Devon busi-

ness community.His recent marriage and thebirth of his first son Leyton hasmade this trip the toughest yetfor the hardened marine.

He said: Karly has been put-ting up photos of Leyton on theinternet so I can see him.

He is just about to st ar twalking, so hopefully he will

By STEPH COCKROFTsc o ckro ft @ c -d m . co.u k

THE officer spearheading awristband appeal for Chivenorsoldiers serving in Afgh-anistan wants to raise 10,000by the time the troops returnh o m e.

The green bands are beingsold to support 24 CommandoEngineer Regiment, the bulk ofwhich deployed for active ser-vice in March.

And the first batch of 5,000bands have already sold out more than two months before

the appeal is due to end.The regiments Second War-

rant Officer Ray Glass, whospearheaded the campaign,said: We have already raisedabout 7,500 which is aboutdouble what I first hoped for.

Im hoping by the end of thetour in Afghanistan in Septem-ber we w ill have reached10,000.

I have been so surprised byhow it has gone. There has beena lot of running around but tonow have this much money isbrilliant.

The wristbands, which have

now been reordered, have beensold throughout pubs, shopsand restaurants in NorthD evo n .

These include the Jour naloffices in Roundswell, Lilicosin Barnstaple, Alford Engin-eering, East & West bakery andAtlantic Village.

The post office in Wraftonand the Chivenor Service Sta-tion have both sold out of wrist-ba n d s.

The proceeds of the wrist-band campaign will go towardsthree different causes.

Half the money raised will go

towards 24 CERs welfarefund.

This can help fund suppliesfor soldiers, and their families,who are injured or killed inactive service.

It can also be used to covertravel, accommodation andchildcare costs for a soldiersfamily in the wake of a cas-ualty.

The rest of the money will besplit between the Army Bene-volent Fund and Little BridgeHouse in Fremington, which isrun by Childrens HospiceSouth West.

During the regiments lasttour of Afghanistan in 2008, twosoldiers were seriously in-

jured. Corporal Ross Austenfrom Barnstaple had to havehis leg amputated after beinginjured in an explosion.

And Sapper Gregg Stevensonalso lost both his legs in anexplosion in HelmandProvince while on foot patrol.

The regiment is due to re-turn to Chivenor in September,after their six-month tour wasextended by one month.

To support the cause, e-mailr ay m o n d . g l a s s 6 4 1 @ m o d . u k .

Close shave for soldier AdamARMY regiment 1Rifles has had atough time during itssix-monthdeployment inAfghanistan.

Bar nstaples veryown AdamStansmore isserving with theregiment and wasinvolved in one of itsmost dangerousencounters so far, asTom Bevan re p o r t s .

IT was one of the most dra-matic and prolonged firefightsof the Rifles t our so far.

Six hours, regular and ef-fective enemy fire, a battle tosave the life of an Afghan na-tional, one Taliban capturedand another shot by helicopterfire.

And as the patrol team fromB Company paused to reflecton the action of the night be-

fore, Rifleman Adam Stans-more from Barnstaple, wasmore grateful than most to bea l ive.

The 20-year-old, who wasshot at twice during the patrol,dodged insurgent-fired bulletswhich narrowly brushed pastthe side of his head.

He said: I felt the air brushpast my face when the bulletwent past, so it must have beenvery close.

I was the closest to the en-emy out of the ten of us on thepat rol .

It is a hard feeling to de-scribe and there is a massiveadrenalin rush when you arebeing shot at.

The drama began when theteam, who are based out of PBJeker in the Nahr-e-Saraj, Hel-

mand Province, were takingpart in a patrol around the areaof Charda.

There were another twopatrols to the south of themthat had begun to come undersmall arms fire.

Cpl Jamie Tyson, who wasleading the patrol, said: Wethen tried to cut the insurgentsoff by going to the north.

They were already up thereso we cut across thetop of theurban area. This was about5pm and we had already beenon the ground for around halfan hour.

Insurgents were then pickedup moving through variouscompounds, while the patrolcame under further contact.

They then arrived at a com-

pound where the team carriedout a search.

This was the moment Rifle-man Stansmore had his brushwith death.

He felt two single shots beingfired at him.

He said: There was no timeto react but what I felt straightafterwards was controlled ag-g ression.

It took me a couple ofseconds to realise what washappening but I knew I neededto getup and find out where ithad come from.

I wanted to go and get who-ever did it but knew I couldn t

just be all guns blazing.Waiting a short while after

the shots had died down, thepatrol continued to push to the

north east.All three patrols onthe ground at this time werecoming under what is knownas shoot and scoot f i re.

A cal l was made to theApache team back at CampBastion for air support and oneinsurgent was subsequentlyshot by helicopter fire.

The patrol then came acrossa group of around 40-50 locals,one of whom had been shotthrough the arm and chest as aresult of enemy fire.

The casualty had a collapsedlung and internal bleeding butwas still alive.

Rifleman Stansmore said:While we were trying to treathim we got shot at from threedifferent firing points.

There were a lot of civilians

around so we thouwould be safe but mosthen fled the area.

We spent 45 minutto keep this guy aliverounds kept coming to deter us. But we cidentify the firing ptried to move him butdid not make it.

Rifleman Stansmorworked as hard as hehelp the casualty.

He said: It was the fI had dealt with a mualty.

We tried to help thout but it was a lot harexpected with enemy ing in. We were up to oin the irrigation ditch

After the incomingdied down when thearrived, we had to tryout of there. The civinot asking for our hefelt a moral obligatisomething.

We did everything for him but sadly itenough. His injuries

severe to treat withoucessary equipment.

This was now four-ahours into the patrol.

Just as things hadquiet and the riflemheading back to theipoint, they noticed crawling through thtion ditches.

Cpl Tyson said: He firm in a marshy arecould not see him evewe were right on top o

We eventually spoof his hair and he was and taken back to Cation. There must havleast ten fighters andtwo of them whichthan none. Most impn on e of my gu ys

j u re d .

I IN BATTLE: Rifleman Adam Stansmore, left, and Corporal Jamie Tyson, both of 1 Rifles.

hold off until Im back on restand recuperation. Im back forhis first birthday.

He was almost sitting upbefore, but you had to putsomething behind him, so itwill be weird seeing how muchhes changed.

The Ilfracombe Comprehens-ive schoolboy first served in

Afghanistan with 42 Com-mando, based in Plymouth,when he was 19.

His trip was cut short whenhe was run over by a BritishViking tank. He was left with abroken arm, bruising andhaemorrhages in his eyes.

He returned for the secondtime in 2008 with CLR.

He said: It has been reallybusy and very hard work. Theworkload is ridiculous. Some-times the lads embrace it, othertimes they dont. But the mor-ale is great here. Wed all ratherbe at home but we all push eachother to keep going.

A n dys parents, George andChristine Thomas, still live in

Combe Martin.He gave his loved ones thismessage: To my wife Karlyand sons Dylan and Leyton.Make sure the house is tidy forme when I come home, also Illneed lots of X-box time, so nocartoons! Only jokin, missingyou loads and cant wait to seeyou on my R&R. I STEP UP: Cpl Andy