Soldiers who had leg each blown off return to duty

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
48,340
1,650
113
Two British soldiers won't let a small matter like having one leg prevent them from continuing to fight for their country....

.

Courage ... Aveuta and Andy
rejoin unit in Cyprus



EXCLUSIVE Army pals are fighting fit


From TOM NEWTON DUNN
Defence Editor, in Cyprus
December 13 2006

TWO Army pals who each had a leg blown off in different war zones defeated their disability yesterday — reporting back for duty together.

Fusilier Aveuta Tuila, 25, and Drummer Andy Barlow, 20, are on course to pass standard infantry tests and are even prepared to see battle again.

They were yesterday welcomed back as heroes at the Cyprus base of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

But the keen sportsmen — who played in the battalion rugby side together — were incredibly modest about their heroism and determination to get on with their careers.

Machine-gunner Andy said: “We just had a bad day at the office. As far as I’m concerned, none of it means I have to give up the life I want and the job I love.”

And Tuila — known as Big T — said: “So you get blown up. S**t happens. The leg isn’t going to grow back.


On duty ... Aveuta and Andy back at work


“You’ve got a choice. You mope around or you learn to live with it and get back on with the rest of your life.”

Big T’s left foot was shattered by a roadside bomb that tore through his thinly armoured Land Rover in Iraq in September last year.

He recalled: “Doctors gave me the choice of saving it, but they said it would leave me in pain for three years. I couldn’t be bothered with that, so I told them to take it off.”

Andy, from Bolton, Lancashire, was wounded in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province in September this year. A patrol that left his observation post walked into an old Soviet minefield.

Two paras were blown up. Andy sprinted to help and stepped on a mine himself.

He said: “There were a lot of other guys in trouble so I had to tie my own tourniquet just above the knee.”

Commanding Officer Lt Col Peter Merriman said: “They are two very brave men.”


thesun.co.uk

The Stiff Upper Lip in action.