BOY SOLDIER CRAIG WOOD - BLOWN UP IN A MAN'S WAR

Written by: Neville Thurlbeck
Published: News of the World Sunday 25th October 09

THE terribly-maimed boy soldier whose bravery touched Camilla's heart told last night how he was sent off to war just THREE DAYS after his 18th birthday.

Twelve weeks later fresh- faced Rifleman Craig Wood lost both legs and an arm when a Taliban bomb tore his young dreams to shreds. "I thought it was a nice birthday present when I first went. It was the excitement, the action, the chance of travelling the world."

Craig added: "I knew when I joined up I'd be sent to fight but I didn't worry too much. It was only when I got to Afghanistan that I realised just how bad things were. "We knew it was going to be a bad tour but I didn't realise just how bad."

Now Craig, who is so young he only needs to shave once a week, has had to put his plans to marry sweetheart Vicky Swales, 16, on hold while he battles his crippling injuries in an Army rehabilitation hospital in Surrey.

It was there that he met the Duchess of Cornwall on a trip to mark the launch of this year's Poppy Day appeal. Camilla told him his determination to recover, return to a job and make Vicky his wife were "inspiring".

Craig's courage has also been praised by Prince Harry, himself a veteran of the Afghan war, who also visited him in hospital. For despite horrific suffering, Rifleman Wood refuses to admit defeat and he looks to the future with astonishing optimism and supreme courage.

Before joining the army, Craig's weekends were spent WINDSURFING and dreaming of playing the GUITAR like his hero Hank Marvin. He even had a guitar finger plate signed by the musician on his bedroom wall in Doncaster.

"Me and my dad used to play guitar together," he recalled. "One day I know I'll be playing again."I used to sit in my brother's bedroom, having a beer and playing on our PS3 Playstation. Now I'll have to find a one-handed controller.

"But I will get new legs and a new hand. In a year or two I'll be walking again. I used to go windsurfing at weekends. And I'd love to be able to go surfing again."

Two years ago, while his friends were hanging around burger bars, Craig was pursuing his dream of fighting for his country. He signed up at 17 and went to the infantry training base at Catterick, North Yorks, for basic training.

Recalling the moment he passed out in November last year, his mum Joyce, 45, said: "He was a strapping lad, 6ft tall and weighing 11st, but he still looked like a schoolboy."

For Craig, however, it was the realisation of a dream - he was a member of 2nd Battalion The Rifles, the Northern Ireland based battle group. "It was a great feeling," he said. "It was all I wanted to do."

When the rest of his battalion flew to the war zone, Craig was left behind because he was too young. He had to wait until last April before he could join his mates. And the very next day he was out on patrol.

"I was scared and shivering because I didn't know what to expect," he said. "You look at the locals and think they're all out to get you, but obviously not all of them are."

He'd already been out on ten patrols when on July 30, during a "normal" early evening patrol in Helmand province, the wire-detonated IED bomb exploded beside him.

As a firefight raged around him, shattered Craig remained conscious. "All I remember was the flash and the next thing I was sitting on the ground with my mates running towards me," he recalled. "I was the only one injured. The nearest soldier to me was about 10ft away but he was okay. Amazingly, there was no pain but I was dazed. I knew I'd been hit but obviously I didn't know how badly.

"As I drifted in and out of consciousness, I kept having some sort of nightmare where my hands and legs had been chopped off." That nightmare became a reality when, after arriving back at Birmingham's Selly Oak hospital, he realised he'd lost three limbs and his young face had been ripped open by shrapnel.

His bullet-proof breast plate almost certainly saved his life. Craig spent 10 days in a medically induced coma, unaware that his mother, girlfriend Vicky and dad Paul, 49, were by his bedside.

Recalling the moment when they learned of Craig's injuries while on holiday in East Yorkshire, student Vicky said: "When we got to the hospital, Craig was completely covered up, apart from his eyes.

"The only way you could tell he was alive was from the beeping of the machines he was hooked up to." Craig battled hallucinations and a serious MRSA infection as he fought for his life.
In all, he spent 11 weeks in Selly Oak hospital before being transferred to the Headley Court rehab unit near Epsom, where he will be fitted with prosthetic limbs and learn to walk again.
But he counts his blessings, as one of only three triple amputees from the Army who have survived such drastic surgery.

Craig recalls it was visits from Princes William and Harry that helped to shape his future. "They came on the same day," he said. "Harry came and saw me first. He was really nice, really down to earth. I think he understood what I'd been through. "He's done a tour in Afghanistan himself so he's seen what it's like out there.It's a tough place. "It was such a boost, he gave me a massive lift. He was chatty and funny. We had a laugh together.

"William was great too. He was really reassuring, he told me the army would look after me."They both gave me a lot of confidence. It shows they do care. They were really good lads."Craig still faces extensive plastic surgery to repair injuries to his face, part of which is now held together by a metal plate - yet it's a miracle he's alive at all.

He was only saved by the skill of battlefield medics and 27 pints of blood that enabled him to be brought back to the UK. Remarkably, Craig helped to launch the Poppy appeal this week in his home town of Doncaster - alongside Ben Parkinson, another local soldier who almost died when he was blown up by a landmine in 2006.

Once he is fit enough, the wounded warrior hopes to get a desk job with his regiment or even work as a welfare officer with other injured soldiers. "I know I've lost a lot but I'm determined to get on with things and have a good future," said the lad who will never surrender.

* CRAIG'S parents have set up a fund to help pay for his recovery. Cheques can be made payable to Craig Wood, c/o PO Box 17, 19 St Sepulchre Gate, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, DN1 1SJ.

Posted by: Michelle Nielsen