Falcon
Well-Known Member
This is an interesting story for today.
My nan and grandad have been down for the weekend, and my mum, them and me decided to go for a walk along the side of a nearby canal as it was a nice evening.
We didn't get far along the towpath before we ran into this young lad who said he's lost. It turned out that he had been jogging along the side of the canal and had lost track of time. He was in a confused state and likely dehydrated. My grandad who is an ex Royal Marines commando asked him about his 2 Para badge on his T-Shirt. It turned out that he had come back from a tour in Afghanistan last week, and had already crashed his car since he'd been back.
My mum went into a nearby pub to get him a drink of cold water and some lemonade to get some sugar back into him. My grandad stayed with him and talked to him to calm him down as he had more of an idea than the rest of us what he had just been through. The bar staff took ages before they noticed my mum so eventually she just demanded to go to the front of the queue by saying that she was getting some water for a confused young soldier she had run into outside.
Eventually we managed to call his mum from his mobile phone and tell him where he was and that he needed picking up. We waited with him until she arrived as he was in no state to be left on his own much longer. When his mum arrived to fetch him she offered to pay back the money to my mum for the drinks but my mum rightly said there was no way she would take it.
This brings it home to me what it must be like for these lads who are out there. He was the same age as me (19), and with the state he was in surely someone in the military should have realised that he was suffering badly after 5 months on the frontline. He really should have had some help from somewhere in the system.
He told us that he wanted to get out before he got sent back again but apparently it takes a year to leave. He said he could get sent back for another tour before he gets the chance to get out. My mum was really glad she had found him when she did as he could quite easily have fallen in the canal and had no one there to help him.
My nan and grandad have been down for the weekend, and my mum, them and me decided to go for a walk along the side of a nearby canal as it was a nice evening.
We didn't get far along the towpath before we ran into this young lad who said he's lost. It turned out that he had been jogging along the side of the canal and had lost track of time. He was in a confused state and likely dehydrated. My grandad who is an ex Royal Marines commando asked him about his 2 Para badge on his T-Shirt. It turned out that he had come back from a tour in Afghanistan last week, and had already crashed his car since he'd been back.
My mum went into a nearby pub to get him a drink of cold water and some lemonade to get some sugar back into him. My grandad stayed with him and talked to him to calm him down as he had more of an idea than the rest of us what he had just been through. The bar staff took ages before they noticed my mum so eventually she just demanded to go to the front of the queue by saying that she was getting some water for a confused young soldier she had run into outside.
Eventually we managed to call his mum from his mobile phone and tell him where he was and that he needed picking up. We waited with him until she arrived as he was in no state to be left on his own much longer. When his mum arrived to fetch him she offered to pay back the money to my mum for the drinks but my mum rightly said there was no way she would take it.
This brings it home to me what it must be like for these lads who are out there. He was the same age as me (19), and with the state he was in surely someone in the military should have realised that he was suffering badly after 5 months on the frontline. He really should have had some help from somewhere in the system.
He told us that he wanted to get out before he got sent back again but apparently it takes a year to leave. He said he could get sent back for another tour before he gets the chance to get out. My mum was really glad she had found him when she did as he could quite easily have fallen in the canal and had no one there to help him.
