PALIN MITENK BLOG

By Liz Hull and Neil Sears

A Taliban bomb claimed both his legs, but it couldn’t take away Sapper Gregg Stevenson’s courage.

The 24-year-old stunned doctors by learning to walk on artificial limbs within two weeks.

In February the 6ft 4in former rugby player will return to duty, ten months after the attack.

And yesterday he insisted that his next goal is to go back to Afghanistan when his comrades from the 24 Commando Engineer Regiment return later in the year.

His inspiring story emerged as it was confirmed that a sixth Army bomb disposal expert has been killed while trying to defuse IEDs (improvised explosive devices) like the one which caught the young sapper.

Gregg Stevenson was just a fortnight from returning home after his first tour of duty in Afghanistan when the bomb went off as he was sweeping for mines in Kajaki, Helmand Province.

Since then he has made incredible progress in intensive physiotherapy at Headley Court Rehabilitation Centre in Surrey.

Last summer he went white-water rafting in Colorado and he has also taken up fly fishing and golf.

‘I was lucky that I was so tall because it meant the explosive missed my vital organs,’ said Sapper Stevenson, from Foulridge, Lancashire.

‘Everything has been going really well. I am where I wanted to be in my recovery and the doctors are really pleased with my progress.

‘I am going back to work in February and will be based in the UK for now. My colleagues who I was serving with when I was injured are going on a tour again in about eight months, and I would love to join them – that is my target. I am still capable of doing a job out there.’

The most recent tragedy on the front line confirms fears that the Taliban’s skill with explosives is becoming ever more deadly.

Just two of our bomb disposal men were killed in the first eight years after Afghanistan was invaded in 2001 – but four have died in the last six months.

The latest victim, a soldier from 33 Engineer Regiment (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), Royal Engineers, died from wounds suffered in the blast near Patrol Base Blenheim, near Sangin, in Helmand Province, on New Year’s Eve. His family has been told.

It is understood he was part of a patrol conducting controlled explosions to help reduce the threat from IEDs when the incident happened.


Defence medical rehabilitation centre, Headley Court, Surrey, where Sapper Gregg Stevenson made his amazing recovery

His death took the number of British service personnel who have died since the start of operations in Afghanistan in 2001 to 245 – including 108 in 2009, the bloodiest 12 months for British forces since the 1982 Falklands War.

The last bomb disposal expert to die was his regimental colleague Corporal Loren Marlton-Thomas, 28, who died after a roadside bomb exploded while he was clearing a route in Helmand Province on November 15.

Cpl Marlton-Thomas ‘epitomised the men of courage and nerve that he led’, the Ministry of Defence said.

The other bomb disposal experts killed in the last six months were Captain Dan Shepherd and Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, who served in the same unit, nicknamed Team Rainbow.

Captain Shepherd, 28, killed in July, and a member of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, Lincoln, had dealt with more than 50 Afghan devices before he died.

Sgt Schmid, 30, was killed in October while lying on his stomach as he attempted to defuse the 65th IED of his tour of duty. He had been due to fly home the next day.

In a letter to his widow Christina, he had written: ‘Staying alive is like a lottery. Patrolling the Afghan badlands is playing Russian roulette with your feet.’
About three-quarters of the British deaths in Afghanistan last year were thought to have been caused by IEDs. Last month, the Prime Minister confirmed a £150million package to tackle roadside bombs in Afghanistan as he warned of more ‘hard fighting’ ahead.


source: dailymail