UK:Marines who lost legs step up to collect service medals

Marines who lost legs step up to collect service medals
Paul Lewis The Guardian, Thursday May 15 2008

May 15 2008.

Two Royal Marines from Plymouth who lost legs in Afghanistan yesterday walked across a military parade ground to collect their service medals in front of thousands of supporters.

Helped by their prosthetic limbs, Mark Ormrod, 24, who lost both legs and his right arm, and Ben McBean, 21, who lost a leg and an arm, drew huge cheers as they declined to use their wheelchairs and walked 30 metres across the parade ground to join some 700 colleagues from 40 Commando during a ceremony at Norton Manor Camp in Taunton, Somerset.

The unit lost three men during its six-month tour of duty - Lt John Thornton, 23, and Marine David Marsh, 22, in a car bomb blast in March, and Cpl Damian Mulverhill in February.

After the parade McBean, who received his injuries in a landmine blast in Helmand in March, said it had been "the proudest [day] of my life".

Ormrod's terrible injuries came after he stepped on a mine on Christmas Eve while serving in Helmand province. He said that collecting his medal was "the driving force" during three months of training to use new bionic legs unaided.

"It was awesome," he said. "It was one of the biggest targets I had set myself - and to be walking for this has been such an achievement. I really had to work hard to receive my medal."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/15/military.afghanistan