Captain Wayne Owers, a member of the Royal Logistic Corps, risked his life 93 times to diffuse Taliban bombs on a six months tour of duty of Afghanistan. He is the most prolific bomb destroyer in the history of the British Army. His average was one diffusion every two days - the highest strike rate recorded by the Ministry of Defence. He will receive the Queen's Gallantry Medal later this year. Captain Owers 39, has served in the Army for 20 years and has been to Iraq, Bosnia, Oman, Kosovo and Northern Ireland.
He said "I used to enjoy the job when I first went out, but when that first bomb went off, I started to get a sour taste in my mouth, it really hit me when I saw my colleagues get injured." After an explosion in May, a friend lost two legs and an arm. Two months later he was standing next to a soldier who had his leg ripped open after stepping on a bomb. "He was handing me a piece of equipment - that's how close I was, I flew backwards but didn't even lose a fingernail". However, Lance Corporal Davie Timmins, Captain Ower's bodyguard, lost his right eye and hearing in his right ear in the explosion and swallowed his own tongue. Lance Corporal Timmins, himself a Queen's Gallantry Medal recipient said "I was losing a lot of blood but Captain Owers pulled my tongue out of my mouth, sat me up and whacked me on the back several times saying "Don't you die on me".
No comments:
Post a Comment