Stephen Guard explains why it is so “important” for him to attend Iraq15 organised by the Royal British Legion to honour those who served during the conflict.
A former soldier says he will be attending the Royal British Legion’s Iraq15 event on Friday to honour his fallen colleague who died after bravely stepping forward to volunteer.
Former Fusilier Stephen Guard, 44, from Rugby ,told The Mirror: “It could have been me. I was right next to him in that line. We were all standing there when they asked for two volunteers.
“The two new guys, they went. They were young and keen and stepped forward. One came back and one didn’t. It always seemed to be the people who volunteered or who stayed a bit longer.”
His friend who stepped forward was Fusilier Stephen Robert Manning, 22, from Erith in Kent, who was killed alongside Fusilier Donal Anthony Meade, from south east London, aged 20.
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They died in Iraq on September 5th 2005, after a roadside bomb detonated while they were out on patrol in the Basrah province. They were both acting as ‘top cover sentries’ in the first of two vehicles when they were struck by the improvised explosive device, a terror for every soldier sent out on patrol in Iraq.
“They were in my platoon. They asked for volunteers and the two new guys volunteered and I thought I’m not going to volunteer because I think I’ve been there a bit longer and we’re going to be going next year anyway,” Stephen told The Mirror.
“If I had stepped forward that could have been me. That’s why it’s important I go on Friday. That’s why I’m going to honour them. I could have been the one that didn’t come home. It was a lottery and there was quite a high chance you wouldn’t come back.”
Now a window fitter and reservist Stephen will be attending the Royal British Legion event to mark the 15th anniversary of the Iraq War with a service at the National Memorial Arboretum.
The RBL will lead commemorations marking 15 years since the end of Operation TELIC, paying tribute to all who served, their families, and the bereaved. There 1500 veterans and their families are expected to attend.
It will be a poignant day and even more so for Stephen, who will lay a wreath at the service, when he finds the names of his fallen comrades etched on the Armed Forces memorial wall.
Tragically they were among the 179 British Armed Forces personnel who lost their lives in the conflict and more than 6,000 who were injured.
Stephen was 24 years old when he went to Iraq in 2006, a year after his pal’s death. He survived but his platoon suffered devastating losses.
“I left. I knew I had been lucky during my time out there and I didn’t want to push my luck further. But my other mates stayed on and went to Afghan and a lot of them didn’t come back.
“I did feel guilty. I felt like I’d let them down. In 2009, about 11 died from my battalion, it was a bad year. You feel guilty that you’ve left and you should be helping them. I was gutted hearing the names of people I was close to.”
It was not only overseas they suffered losses, as his platoon were struck by the tragedy that shocked the nation, the murder of Lee Rigby, who was killed in 2013 on the streets of London.
“He was a bit younger than me so I didn’t know him well but I knew the name. He was in my battalion. I was leaving and he was just getting in.
“I just remember looking for him one day when he was supposed to be on guard and he wasn’t. I think he was at home, I just remember the name, and saying ‘where is he? He’s supposed to be on guard today.’
“Then five years later I heard his name again all over the news when he got killed. It made my blood boil to hear it was happening on our own streets.”
Stephen knows only too well how lucky he is to escape with his life, having had “three or four” near misses including just after he arrived in Iraq.
“I’d been out in Jordan on an exercise for a few months and I think the army was stretched so half of us went to Iraq and half to Afghanistan. At that time they were both as bad as one another.”
He recalls: “We’d gone to the main place called the ‘A-pod’ in Basra Iraq but then we all separated and went to smaller bases, flying in at night.
“We were just following the moonlight on the river and it was swaying left and right. It felt like it was a scene from the Predator with red lights in the helicopter, when special forces are hunting for missing people.
“All the alarms were going off, something had locked onto our helicopter. So we started deploying these flares, and we were all looking at each other as if we were kind of excited but scared at the same time.”
Stephen and his 15 colleagues survived the landing and ended up in a British camp based around a hotel complex. They were targeted by mortars at first light and then last light.
“It seemed to be a pattern. At first we just got on the floor and hoped for the best but then they ordered a load of big blocks and we put them around our bed. We’d make a sort of brick wall underneath our bed and crawl through a little gap. The mortar blast kind of goes up in a fountain shape. As long as it doesn’t land on top of you, you should be alright.
“One morning when the mortars were very close, you could hear the detonations go off about a mile away and then the explosions land closer and closer. You’d sometimes hear ten in a row and then wait for them to arrive.
“One hit our tent entrance, 30 metres from where we were sleeping. A few guys got lacerations and blown up, it wasn’t a good day. We’d all hidden under our little coffin type beds whilst it was going off and the siren was blaring. We then heard the sergeant shouting ‘medic’ so you know someone had been hurt. “
Two guys had been struck, including one casualty from another regiment who ‘didn’t look great’. Stephen said: “I had three or four close calls like that, things blowing up near me. It kind of made me get my faith back.
Stephen has been married now for nearly 10 years, with two boys, one’s 16 doing GCSEs and the other is eight. “It might never have happened with one step forward or I could have stepped in the wrong spot, it could have been me that never came home. This is why it is important for me to be there on Friday, to remember those who didn’t.”
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