Injured soldier fights back to front the Poppy Appeal

The Times Online (UK)
Thursday, October 25, 2007

Injured soldier fights back to front the Poppy Appeal

By Michael Evans: Defence Editor

From The Times October 25, 2007
 
A young soldier who was grievously wounded while fighting in Iraq seven months 
ago has struggled back to health in time to be the face of this year's Royal 
British Legion Poppy Appeal. 

Lance-Corporal Craig Lundberg, who is 22 and known as "Freddie" after the West 
Ham footballer, was blinded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack and so badly 
injured in the left arm that it was could be saved only by extensive surgery. 
It is fully functional, although with a steel plate embedded in it. 

He is determined to stay in the Army but he admitted with barrack-room humour: 
"I realise there's not much scope for a blind sniper, but perhaps the enemy 
could be persuaded to wear bells so that I could trace where they are." 

He served with the 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment and his 
superiors are considering his future. He has lost his sight except for the odd 
flash of light in one eye. 

He was hit while taking part in a rooftop operation at a house near Basra. He 
was struck twice by rocket-propelled grenades, and was the only one of his 
platoon who was wounded. 

The Royal British Legion relied on the inspiring humour and motivation-al 
spirit of Corporal Lundberg, a Liver-pudlian, to help to launch its appeal for 
service personnel like him. It revealed that since January 2003, when Britain's 
military campaign in Iraq, began, the number of servicemen and women under the 
age of 35 seeking welfare help from the charity had risen by 211 per cent - and 
by 30 per cent in the past 12 months. 

Corporal Lundberg, who is now working with the Legion and several voluntary 
organisations including his own, called the Freddie Fund, admitted that before 
he was injured and needed help he thought that the Royal British Legion was "a 
boozer for oldies to tell their war stories". 

He added: "It's great to know that the Legion is there to help people like me 
throughout my life. I'm not political, I'm not against the war in Iraq, but 
it's important that people remember the sacrifices being made. 

"Within two weeks of my injuries, I lost two of my closest friends from my 
platoon. I would never say that I feel lucky to be alive because I think of the 
grieving families of my two friends. But you have to be positive about the 
future. I'm going to run the London Marathon next year." 

His story and that of Tina Thomp-son, 36, who is fighting for a full war 
widow's pension after her husband, an Army sergeant, was killed in a traffic 
accident in Cyprus two years ago, served yesterday as a stark reminder of the 
private battles faced by members of the Armed Forces after serious injury, and 
by the widows left to cope without their husbands. 

More than 100 soldiers from the 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Worcesters 
and Foresters) returned home yesterday from Afghanistan. They were reunited in 
emotional scenes with their families at their barracks in Hounslow, northwest 
London, after six months of fighting the Taleban in Helmand province. 

Last month the Legion launched a campaign to remind the public and the 
Government of the importance of honouring the "military covenant" with the 
Armed Forces. 

- Prince William attended the funeral at Canterbury Cathedral yesterday of 
Major Alexis Roberts, 32, an Army colleague from the Royal Military Academy 
Sandhurst who was killed in a roadside explosion in southern Afghanistan on 
October 4. 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/men/article2733470.ece
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