Iraq veteran’s thanks to charity 10 years after invasion
Simon Brown, Iraq war veteran, has spoken of his experiences and the injury that changed his life 10 years after the Iraq invasion.
Iraq veteran Simon Brown has thanked a charity for its life changing support after he was shot in the head and blinded while on active service.
Simon, 34, from Morley, joined the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 1997 at the age of 18 and worked on Army vehicles serving in Germany, Kosovo, Poland, Canada, Oman and lastly, Iraq.
During his service in Basra Simon, then 28, was shot in the head while rescuing six of his colleagues whose vehicle had broken down.
Though he survived, the damage to his face was catastrophic, causing him to lose his left eye and leaving him with only 10 per cent peripheral vision in his right eye.
Blind Veterans UK, founded nearly 100 years ago as St Dunstan’s, supported Simon through his sight loss, providing him with rehabilitation and training to help him recover his independence. He now works for the charity full time as its membership officer.
Speaking about his time in Iraq Simon said: “My experience there was very challenging; it changed me as a person.
“The invasion stage of my deployment was in actual fact less difficult than the peacekeeping stage. We were trained to invade and fight whereas the re-building stage was something we were not used to doing.
“One day I was fighting a war, the next I was giving out water, and helping to re-build a community.”
Simon said he still felt a real sense of achievement about what he had helped achieve in Iraq.
“We went in there and did exactly what was asked of us,” he said. “Seeing the real jubilation on the faces of the Iraqis and hearing them shout ‘liberation’ through the streets, is something I will never forget.
“Iraq changed me just as much mentally as it did physically and 10 years on the scars are still there.”
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