Heli Rescue For Hero's Body

[Kor37 9]

Heli rescue for hero's body

 

By TOM NEWTON DUNN

Defence Editor

January 17, 2007

 

FOUR Royal Marine commandos clung to the missile “wings” of two Apache helicopters to retrieve a comrade’s body.

 

The extraordinary bid to recover Lance Corporal Mathew Ford’s body from an Afghan battlefield emerged last night.

 

Mathew, 30, was killed by a hail of Taliban bullets as he charged a walled compound on Monday.

 

Enemy fire was so heavy, the troops following him had to withdraw.

 

But pals were determined not to let fanatical fighters capture and mutilate his body near their HQ.

 

They persuaded pilots of two Apaches – which cannot carry passengers – to fly them back into the combat zone on their missile carriages.

 

In a scene out of a Rambo movie, the Apaches carrying two men each swooped on the compound with their under-mounted Gatling guns blazing.

 

A third Apache hovered above and kept Taliban at bay with cannon fire as troops jumped off and strapped Mathew’s body to a landed chopper.

 

As the commandos held on for dear life again, the Apaches took off with bullets pinging off their metal frames and returned to the British front line.

 

There is already talk that the marines and Army Air Corps pilots could be rewarded for their bravery.

 

A military source said: “This shows how far the lads are prepared to go to get everyone home, dead or alive. Mathew’s family can bury him as the hero he is.”

 

Mathew, of 45 Commando, was part of a Marine and Light Dragoons force which attacked a Taliban fort south of Helmand town Garmsir. Four troops were wounded.

 

Lt Col Rob MaGowan, who led operation Glacier, praised troops’ “tremendous bravery and endurance”.

 

Matthew lived with fiancée Ina in Dundee and was considering quitting the forces. Mum Joan said: “His love for life and ability to make everyone laugh will always be with us.”

 

Wow! What an incredible feat! All we hear over here is what the USA is doing. We never hear about the British troops. These guys are real heroes!