MoD's decision comes too late for Marcin
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30 June 2010
By Ben Truslove
WEDNESDAY: The mother of an RAF corporal killed in combat has welcomed news the vehicle he was travelling in when he died has been recalled from front line duty.

Cpl Marcin Wojtak (24), from Croxton Kerrial, died in Afghanistan last year while serving with 34 Squadron Royal Air Force Regiment when the Vector armoured carrier he was in was blown up.

Mum Teresa Woods has been campaigning to discover why Marcin wasn't in a Mastiff, a more heavily armoured vehicle requested by his commanding officer.

She said: "I heard last weekend that, as of April, the Vector has been confined to compound. If the soldiers leave Camp Bastion it has to be in a Mastiff. The Vectors are reduced to moving equipment around the base.

"It's too late for Marcin but it is excellent news."

Mrs Woods recently spoke to a soldier serving in Afghanistan who has seen the Mastiff named Big Ted in memory of her son.

Marcin was killed when the bomb exploded underneath the wheel he was sitting on as commander of that vehicle.

Everyone else on board, including a senior officer, was unharmed.

Mrs Woods has been told of Marcin's last patrol, protecting the flight paths of British planes into the base, and that he would have had no more than a slight headache had he been in a Mastiff.

She said: "He was laughing hysterically with his driver. Marcin was teasing the driver about him always eating when he pulled out a scone. They were joking about trying to get the Vector up a hill.

"When the bomb went off it was right underneath the wheel he was sitting over. He wouldn't have suffered."

An inquest into Marcin's death has now been delayed which Mrs Woods believes is down to her persistence in questioning the Ministry of Defence.

An inquiry into the incident has been launched by the RAF which the coroner has insisted on seeing before the hearing.

A MoD spokeswoman said: "Vector troop carrying vehicles were withdrawn from being used outside of bases in April this year.

"The Royal Air Force convened a Service Inquiry into the incident in May. It is up to the Coroner to set the date for the inquest."
    

Edited by Elaine - 01 Jul 2010 at 8:06am

Inquest hears how Nuneaton soldier died in Afghan blast while helping colleague

Jul 7 2010


Two soldiers, including one from Warwickshire, were killed by an explosion in Afghanistan alongside the injured colleague they were trying to rescue, an inquest heard

Fusiliers Louis Carter, from Nuneaton, and Simon Annis, from Salford, Greater Manchester, were carrying Lance Corporal James Fullarton, from Coventry, on a stretcher after an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in a river bed near Sangin, Helmand province, in the early hours of August 16 last year.

They had only moved between five and 10 metres after picking up the stretcher when a second device exploded, causing them fatal injuries and wounding two others.

Warrant Officer (Class 2) Peter Burney, on patrol with the men, said of the second blast: "It threw me backwards on to the ground and at that point we immediately went into darkness. The dust went everywhere. After the explosion, I could hear people screaming."

It transpired the Taliban had planted at least seven further IEDs along the river bed, not previously considered a vulnerable area, in the hope of destroying a helicopter. They were later made safe.

The men, members of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, died of blast injuries. The inquest at Trowbridge Town Hall was told each would have been rendered unconscious almost immediately, such was the extent of their wounds.

They had been on foot patrol following an explosion days previously, which had seriously injured another soldier, with the intention of clearing a route for bomb disposal experts to move in.

A metal detector was used to try to find IEDs in the soldiers' path, but it did not detect them despite being fully functioning. Fusilier Stanslaus Zvirawa, operating the Vallon metal detector, said it was likely IEDs with minimal metal content had been used by the Taliban insurgents.

Wiltshire Coroner David Ridley recorded verdicts that each soldier was unlawfully killed while on active service. Their families wept as details of their deaths were revealed to the coroner's court. They were among eight soldiers who lost their lives that week, Mr Ridley said.

Fusilier Annis, 22, had married Caroline in February last year, weeks before he deployed. L/Cpl Fullarton, 24, had become engaged to girlfriend Leanne while on leave from Afghanistan three months before his death and planned to marry this year. Fusilier Carter, 18, had been with the battalion for less than six months and was on his first posting.

    

Edited by Elaine - 15 Jul 2010 at 11:32pm

Soldier who foretold his own death: 'Disgraceful' lack of kit will cost lives, warned officer in his diary

By Tom Kelly
Last updated at 1:21 AM on 20th July 2010

An Army officer shot in Afghanistan foretold his own death in a diary warning about a 'disgraceful' shortage of medical equipment, an inquest heard yesterday.

Lieutenant Mark Evison, 26, bled to death after being hit in the shoulder while leading his platoon under heavy fire in Helmand.

The colleague who first came to his aid did not have special bandages that stop bleeding arteries because they had not arrived when the men were deployed, the hearing was told.
Tragic: Lieutenant Mark Evison, 26, bled to death after being hit in the shoulder because comrade who came to his aid was not supplied appropriate medical equipment

Tragic: Lieutenant Mark Evison, 26, bled to death after being hit in the shoulder because comrade who came to his aid was not supplied appropriate medical equipment

Lieutenant Evison was then treated at a field base before being flown to hospital in Birmingham, where he died three days later.

Weeks earlier, he had described in his journal how he and his men desperately needed basic supplies.

He wrote: 'As it stands I have a lack of radios, water, food and medical equipment. This with manpower is what these missions lack.

'It is disgraceful to send a platoon into a very dangerous area with two weeks' water and food and one team medics pack.

'Injuries will be sustained which I will not be able to treat and deaths could occur which could have been stopped.

'We are walking on a tightrope and from what it seems here are likely to fall unless drastic measures are undertaken.'

Lieutenant Evison, from the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was fatally wounded last May during the patrol in Haji Halem, Helmand province, which has seen some of the most ferocious fighting since the Second World War, Birmingham Coroner Aidan Cotter was told.

But the soldier who first treated Lieutenant Evison did not have a team medical pouch on him - which contained crucial equipment - because it had not arrived in time before they were sent out that day.

Guardsman Thomas James told the inquest he did not have any Hemcom bandages to treat his wounded comrade.

These are applied to a wound and act as a glue, forming a seal which is intended to stop an artery bleeding, he said.

The men went out on patrol in sections and were in a compound when they came under attack.

Medic Corporal Benjamin Lacey had a team medical pouch, but was in another section when Lieutenant Evison was shot and could not get to him straight away, the inquest at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall was told.

Guardsmen James said: 'I was with him within 30 seconds as he was in the same compound as me so I only had to come out the room.'

Corporal Lacey arrived around five minutes later and took over treating the casualty in the field before he was carried back to base by another soldier.

Medics treated Lieutenant Evison at Camp Bastion field hospital before was flown back to Britain for treatment.

He died on May 12 with his family-at his bedside in hospital in Birmingham, three days after being shot.

Guardsmen James was given a team medical pouch two days after Lieutenant Evison was shot, the inquest heard.

The hearing was told that 'in a normal cause of events' he would expect to have had the pouch with him when on patrol, but that it had not arrived when they went out that day.

A statement by pathologist Dr Nick Hunt said Lieutenant Evison had severe damage to the brain that was consistent with oxygen deprivation.

His death was a result of late complications including low blood pressure, caused by bleeding, he concluded.

Dr Kenneth Shorrock, a pathologist-added: 'In other words he bled to death. He did not die immediately. He died later.'

Lieutenant Evison, from Dulwich, south-west London, was on his first tour of duty. In his diary he also condemned a lack of clear orders. He said: 'There is a definite lack of steer from above.'

Lieutenant Evison also complained: 'We have a satellite phone but no way of charging it.

'Some of the guys have not been able to speak to their wives or children for three weeks now which is terrible.'

In a poignant aside, he wrote: 'Life is fragile out here, it feels like it can be removed in an instant.'

The soldier, a graduate of Oxford Brookes University, was nicknamed '007' because of his charisma.

His mother, Margaret Evison, a consultant clinical psychologist at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, last spoke to her son two days before he was shot.

The inquest continues.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1296138/Soldier-foretold-death-Disgraceful-lack-kit-cost-lives-warned-officer-diary.html#ixzz0uChgWwzJ

Marine blames himself for death of Solihull soldier

Jul 15 2010 by Paul Suart, Birmingham Post
An explosives expert broke down as he told an inquest how he could have done more to save the life of a Birmingham soldier.

Corporal Robert Christopher Deering, from Solihull, died when he triggered an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) during a pivotal operation in Helmand Province, in Afghanistan.

The 33-year-old, who had served in the Royal Marines’ Logisitics Regiment for more than 11 years, was picking up tools to help clear a bombed vehicle from the road when he tripped the booby trap.

At least 25 vehicles in the convoy and 20 soldiers had passed by the bomb before Cpl Deering triggered a pressure plate.

The force of the blast, which took place during a crucial mission to build patrol bases in the Nad-E’ali district, propelled him into a nearby canal killing him instantly.

Sergeant Jason Rose fought back tears at the inquest at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall, when he blamed himself for not doing more.

The explosives specialist was one of only four experts serving with the British Army in Afghanistan at the time with enough training and experience to conduct widescale searches for hidden bombs.

Sgt Rose, a marine with the Royal Engineers, said: “I won’t lie, I could have searched the whole route.

“I’ve no doubt that myself and other marines would have been injured but Rob, bless him, would be here now. I made that assessment.”

Cpl Deering’s mother Karen Waspe and his step-father Peter, who live in Tamworth, said Sgt Rose should not blame himself.

Mrs Waspe said: “The sergeant blames himself still but we hold no blame on him whatsoever.

“I don’t feel he could have done anymore. He did what he could.”

Sgt Rose also conceeded there was ‘limited information’ about the perceived threat of IEDs on the morning of the fateful mission in December 2008.

Speaking after the hearing, Rob’s father Dave Deering said: “He died trying to make this world a safer place for us all.”

The coroner Aidan Cotter declared Cpl Deering died as a result of blast injuries.

TA man died in cliff crash | Daily Mirror, London (UK), Jul 24, 2010 |

A VOLUNTEER soldier died in a 25mph paragliding accident just weeks after getting the all-clear from cancer.

Novice Andrew Filler, 51, was on a training course in Morocco when he lost control and veered into a cliff face, an inquest heard yesterday.

TA soldier Mr Filler, an electrical engineer from Newport Pagnell, Bucks, had recently recovered from mouth cancer.

Coroner Rodney Corner said: "We will never know what caused him to come so close to the rock face."
Verdict: Misadventure.
    

Edited by Elaine - 31 Jul 2010 at 8:35am