[Tezcatlipoca]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/ma...ry.afghanistan

Originally Posted by The Guardian

* Audrey Gillan and Richard Norton-Taylor
* The Guardian,
* Friday March 7 2008

· Four posthumous awards among 184 honours
· Thirteen medals for Mercian Regiment


One was a woman pilot who made a decision to fly her helicopter using night vision goggles into the middle of Basra city to save a soldier who would otherwise have died. Another was a Territorial Army soldier in Afghanistan who, despite being seriously injured, provided covering fire for his colleague and in the process was shot again. Yesterday, they were among 184 members of the armed forces to be told they would receive medals for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the highest number of medals listed since the invasion of Iraq five years ago.

The honours, to be awarded by the Queen, include the largest number of Military Crosses to be given since the end of the second world war - 28 - as well as five Conspicuous Gallantry Crosses, five Distinguished Service Orders and three Distinguished Flying Crosses.

The Mercian Regiment, which lost nine men during its six-month tour of Afghanistan last year, was awarded 13 medals, including a posthumous MC for Sergeant Craig Brelsford, who died while trying to retrieve the body of a fallen comrade, Private Johan Botha, lost in no man's land after a ferocious firefight with the Taliban near the town of Garmsir in Helmand.

(snip)