Preparing for the horror of war

10:14am Wednesday 2nd January 2008

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THE horrors of war have been graphically brought home to squaddies preparing to ship out to conflict zones through the work of a York soldier.

Staff sergeant Iain Bareham, a senior non-commissioned officer, based at Queen Elizabeth Barracks, in Strensall, has organised a training exercise to prepare soldiers for what they could face in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Part of the exercise has been to create a film using soldiers who have lost limbs, or their sight, fighting in recent conflicts.

To make it as realistic as possible, make-up artists from film companies used their expertise to make the missing limbs appear as if the horrific injuries had just occurred.

Iain Bareham's father, Norman, a former soldier, helped his son prepare the exercise, which he described as a "harrowing experience".

"Iain is serving as a senior non-commissioned officer and he has just been moved into a training post where he is using his experience to train and to prepare people who are about to deploy to Afghanistan.

"Last weekend I went to where Iain is now serving to assist him in a training exercise he had organised to prepare people for what they were about to face. It was realistic - far too realistic.

"It was a harrowing and emotionally draining experience, the local' regiment for that area (Royal Anglians) has just returned from Afghanistan - they lost nine dead and had 258 wounded out of 600 men."

Norman feels the public are not fully aware of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said: "My grandfather was a soldier, my father was a soldier, I was a soldier and my son is still serving as a soldier.

"My father spent six of his 26 years service fighting in a global conflict where the nation was united against a common foe. Both my son and I have fought in localised' conflicts where only our loved ones knew vaguely where we were and what we were doing.

"The rest of the nation just go about their lives without much thought about those in conflicts."

St sgt Bareham recently completed a 24-hour gruelling fitness challenge to raise money in aid of the Help For Heroes charity, which supports wounded soldiers.

Help For Heroes was set up to support wounded soldiers and aims to raise £5 million to build a gym and swimming pool at Headley Court, a rehabilitation centre in Surrey which specialises in battle injuries.