Support Our Squaddies By Getting A Wristband

Sergeant Major Andy Stockton who has been discharged from the Royal Artillery after losing an arm in Afghanistan, asked the nation to say thanks if they see a squaddie down the pub.

Andy has helped launch our Help For Heroes campaign and can be seen on Channel 4 on Christmas Day at 8pm.

Andy said that people need to understand how difficult the job is. Here is some of Andy’s story below:

Andy said that “Modern day warfare isn’t like the Falklands was. It’s not two sides wearing identifiable uniforms knocking lumps out of each other. On today’s operations you don’t know who the enemy is. The Taliban don’t run around wearing Taliban T-shirts. This causes a deep-seated mistrust. And when the threat heightens, everybody becomes a bomb.

I was deployed as a Sergeant Major of an unmanned aerial vehicle flight troop to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, 15th May 2006.

On 11th June one of the aircraft went down and the decision was made that we’d recover it. A patrol was put together. One man was shot and killed.

At that point, I took my two remaining men and volunteered to go. We too came under attack. I was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Initially the panic rose, I’m shouting, ‘I’m down, I’m hit’.

I knew the arm was gone. I realised that the round had gone through my arm. It sometimes angers me when I hear people talking about the troops, Afghanistan, places they can’t even place on a map. But forget the politics, it doesn’t matter what you think of the war.

Support the troops. And when you see them down the pub, go over there, say hello and don’t be ashamed to say thanks.”

So why not that is the least we could do don’t you think.

You can even say thanks by getting one of these wrist bands from here

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