Transcript: IED

Audio transcript

Lance Corporal Chris Schivas: 

We were in our vehicle. We patrolled down. Everything was quiet and we thought: 'Right, we'll just head back to camp now.' So we all turned round, heading back to camp, and then the next thing, I thought: 'I’m in a cloud here, what’s going on?' 

It was quiet, there was no noise, and then the next thing I was on my hands and knees. And I thought: 'What is going on here?' And then I thought I'd lost my legs.

And then all I heard was: 'Medic! Medic! Medic!' I could hear somebody screaming: 'Medic!' And I thought: 'Oh no, I’m the only medic here. [unintelligble] casualties. What am I going to do?'

So I was feeling round and I felt my legs, and I thought: 'Thank God, I've got my legs.' So I got to my feet. I ran out of the cloud of dust itself. I just looked round. I could see the other three lads.

I went to the driver first. He was fine. He just said he had a sore back. I said: 'Right, walk up to the next vehicle, and get into the back and speak to somebody.' I went to the commander. He went, 'Yeah, I'm OK. I've just got a small cut on my arm. But the gunner's over on the other side. Can you get to him?' And I went: 'Right, no worries.' 

So I went forward. I said: 'Are you OK?' He went: 'Aye, except my back's really sore.' And I thought: 'No worries at all.' And then the next thing we're getting shot at. I thought: 'We cannae stay here.' We were out in the open at that point. So I picked him up. We basically ran round the side of the vehicle that had just been blown up.

Everybody was firing everything at these compounds that were firing at us. I mean absolutely everything. Guns blasting everywhere, RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] getting fired everywhere. And we basically walked on up the road... middle of the road... we kept walking up, basically us four that had been blown up. Everybody was just firing so that we could walk up the centre to go to the doctor that was up maybe another 800 metres away from us.

He checked us over and went: 'Are you alright?' And I went: 'Aye, I'm fine.' And he went: 'Are you sure you’re alright?' And then I thought: 'Don’t you dare say that again,' because I could feel the tears coming on. I said: 'I’m fine, just leave me.'