Bill Edwardes recounts his experience as a stretcher bearer during D Day after joining the army as an adventure seeking 16 year old that didn’t want to miss out on the action. Despite his age, Bill chose to train to become an infantryman; his mother and army officer both believed him to be mad but he enjoyed every minute of it. Unfortunately, an injury forced him to switch battalions and become a stretch bearer six weeks before D Day, essentially wasting his nine months of training. It was ingrained in the stretcher bearers to be constantly moving between each casualty, causing Bill to begin feeling relieved when a person was dead as no time had to be wasted on them. When he was in between helping casualties and no longer distracted by his job, his fear and doubt would begin to fester but the fact people were relying on him kept him going. Unlike some of the other stretcher bearers, Bill was able to just get on with it, which he credits to his father also being a medic.  Bill felt satisfied with his contribution during D Day so left the army as soon as he was able; he had no regrets but still wanted to check up on some of the people he had helped. He later chose to return to the beaches of Normandy to see how the area had changed and the poignancy he felt being there again left him speechless. Bill had never experienced PTSD until he started doing battlefield tours for work and began to have nightmares about his time serving in the army. 

Dave Buck joined the Cheshire Regiment in 1997 and transferred to the Royal Logistics Corps after completing training. His first posting was to the 5th Airborne Brigade, which became the spearhead for NATO’s KFOR peacekeeping mission, and Dave talks in detail about military life in Kosovo, the destruction he witnessed, and the role – and frustrations – of a peacekeeping force. He shares memories of decompression in Cyprus and exercises in Canada, before recalling the moment he realised he’d achieved everything he’d wanted to do in the army, and left. After intense difficulties adjusting to civilian life, Dave volunteered for a six-month tour of Iraq as a reservist and worked predominantly in force protection, escorting convoys from Basra to Kuwait. After returning home again, the effects of PTSD began to manifest in earnest and Dave hit rock bottom. Eventually, after several years without help and stuck in an ever-downward spiral, Dave received support from Combat Stress who enabled him to recognise his illness, and provided him with ways to cope with and manage the condition he knows he’ll carry with him for the rest of his life.