Award for saving soldiers' lives

Sqn Ldr Gezz Van Zwanenberg on duty treating injured soldiers

An RAF nurse from Barton Seagrave, near Kettering, has been given a national award for saving the lives of British soldiers in Afghanistan.

Sqn Ldr Gezz Van Zwanenberg leads the team that treats injured soldiers in the battlefield and on their flights back to Britain.

He has been presented with the Ambulance Service Institute's Military Award.

It acknowledges his efforts during Operation Panther's Claw.

The offensive against the Taliban, during the summer of 2009, was one of the bloodiest periods for the British forces since the Second World War.

Emergency flights

Sqn Ldr Van Zwanenberg said that he brought back to Britain "an awful lot of young men with limbs missing."

He adds that for every British soldier killed in Afghanistan there are around five who are seriously injured.

Emergency flights bringing wounded soldiers to Britain can last between six and 40 hours depending on the location and weather. Sqn Ldr Van Zwanenberg explains: "You can leave expecting one patient and by the time you arrive there are five, six or seven patients."

As far as he is concerned, it is his wife and four children that have suffered the most because of his long tours of duty and the danger he is put in. "I think it is very tough for them. They're the unsung heroes," he says.

'Rewarding'

Between October 2001 and 26 October 2009, 223 British Forces personnel or Ministry of Defence civilians died whilst serving in the conflict.

Many of the injured soldiers had lost arms or legs

The number of coffins returning from the war zone has led some to question the UK's participation in the war.

Sqn Ldr Van Zwanenberg believes the British public do not have a full understanding of the conflict: "It's a difficult political sell because nobody likes to see coffins coming back; that reminds people we are at war," he says.

He loves his job and is proud of wearing his RAF uniform. "It's what we do," he says, justifying his role.

"There's nothing more rewarding than, at the end of a tour, looking back and thinking: 'I contributed to that young man or woman getting home safely.'"

And as for his award, he simply says: "It's nice for someone to say thank you."