Stevens story

Steven’s Story

This is not the usual thing I write about but I do think it is something people should read if only to understand the kind of sacrifices being made by our troops in defence of our way of life.

Lyn and I have a great friend called Terry. Terry lives down in Coombe Martin on the N.Devon coast and has two sons and a lovely partner Joanna. We first met Terry nearly forty years ago when we were all in the Barton Green Youth Theatre Group in New Malden.

One of Terry’s sons is called Steven and from an early age he wanted to join the army. Eventually he went for Officer Training and became a captain in the Marines. After various postings he ended up in Afghanistan where he was the Officer Commanding (deleted) Company, in charge of approx 175 personnel (mainly marines) based in the Northern half of the Nad e Ali district of Helmand Province.

In late May this year he was blown up by an Improvised explosive device (IED). Although terribly injured Steven survived but a number of his troop were killed. Unknowingly you would have seen some of these on TV coming back to the UK via Wootton Bassett.

Amazingly and only three months later, although still badly wounded he managed to write an account of the attack and his subsequent fight back. Steven is currently at Headley Court in Surrey and will be for some time.

With the families permission I have posted Steven’s own story on the club website. I would urge you to read it, it’s a unique insight into the danger that our troops face every day in Afghanistan.

Please note that at Steven’s request certain identifying data concerned with individuals and or their units has been deleted both from the above and from his account of what happened. This in no way detracts from Steven’s account.

Mike (over Easy) Baker