Wimbish: Queen Honours Brave Army Engineer

28 September 2012, 15:52 | Updated: 28 September 2012, 15:55

A soldier serving at the Royal Engineers base at Wimbish near Saffron Walden - has been awarded for his bravery, by the Queen.

Sapper Ryan Pavery, from 33 Engineer Regiment in Wimbish, risked his life to help victims after an Afghan minibus hit a roadside bomb, saving a child who lost a leg in the explosion, has been awarded a Queens Commendation for Bravery.

The 24 year-old was the lead Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) searcher for a team tasked with clearing the infamous Route 611 of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), when the civilian minibus bypassed the military cordon to stop vehicles while they worked.

The vehicle initiated a large IED planted at the side of the road less than 100 metres away. Eighteen civilians were killed outright, the majority women and young children. Five others were critically injured including a four-year old boy.

IEDs planted along the road had already destroyed two heavily armoured vehicles in the past two weeks alone, and the risk of further devices amid the carnage of the explosion was high.

Ryan immediately switched his focus to clearing a safe route to the survivors. Time was of the essence but he could not risk more devices being activated by letting everyone run to the minibus.

Sapper Pavey explained: "I heard the explosion, and when I saw what had happened I just turned to start clearing towards the casualties. Your senses get heightened as obviously there is a lot going through your mind but you have to keep focused. You want to get there as fast as possible but you have to work safely rather than just quickly and risk further injuries."

His citation says: "Drawing on raw courage and resolve, Pavey led the team towards the survivors, constantly adjusting his assessment of the extraordinary real threat underfoot. This demanded nerves of steel, a cool head and clear focus. The heavy burden of avoiding any IEDs was his alone to bear."

His progress was made all the more difficult by the fragments and metal remnants of the minibus covering the area which gave false readings on his metal detector searching for more hidden deadly devices.

As he reached the casualties he immediately started to give treatment, particularly to the four-year old boy whose leg had been amputated in the blast.

His citation says: "As the first responder, Pavey's treatment was outstanding, stemming the bleed, reassuring the boy and extracting him to a waiting Afghan Police vehicle for evacuation; without doubt saving the boy's life."

Ryan, who was on his second tour of Afghanistan, admits that the carnage of the blast was the worst he had ever seen: "It is harder when the casualties are civilian. When you deploy you have to ready yourself for the possibility of soldiers being injured, but seeing a child hurt is a lot harder than seeing a grown up. But your training takes over and you just focus on where they are injured and what you can do to help them, says Ryan who also deployed to Afghanistan in 2009."

His citation concludes: "Pavey's conduct was extraordinary, placing himself in harm?s way to assist the badly wounded and traumatised survivors. This horrific incident represents only one of many examples of his persistent courage over six psychologically gruelling months. The demands on him have been relentless and daunting. His conduct has been humbling."

The Queen's Commendation for Bravery is awarded for bravery that involves risk to life and meriting national recognition. It is denoted by a silver spray of laurel leaves.

The announcement was made today with the release of the latest operational honours and awards list, which includes 106 personnel. The awards are for actions roughly during the period September 2011 to March 31 2012 during Operation HERRICK 15.