ACS News

Taken from the Hull Daily Mail on 6 February 2007

EX-SOLDIER PREPARES MEDICS FOR HORRORS

A Former solider is helping medics train to treat injured soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Amputee Ben Elton, 41, of Thorngumbald, is director of Action Amps ACS Ltd, a company that provides real-life training for the armed forces.

The company has been awarded a three-year contract with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and will train medics at the Army Medical Services Training Centre in Strensall, near York.

Mr Elton, who is married with two children, was medically discharged from the Army in 2005 after losing a leg in a water-skiing accident.

He said: "The Royal Army Medical Corps are a group of highly trained individuals.

"They are professionals, but they miss that added element of realism they could only get from amputees.

"All these medics will be heading to Iraq or Afghanistan, where they are likely to come across horrific injuries."

Mr Elton, who rose to the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major in the Royal Logistics Corps, said it was crucial medics and soldiers, who will also take part in exercises, are "de-sensitised" as much as possible before they reach war zones.

He said roadside bombs and mortar attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq often caused horrific injuries involving loss of limbs.

"People see amputees and panic," he said.

A spokesman for the MoD, which runs the Army Medical Services Training Centre, said: "Training for the medical forces in the UK is undertaken by the Defence Medical Education and Training Agency.

"The agency, with its colleagues in the medical forces, provides realistic operational and casualty simulation to the forces.

"To ensure scenarios are as realistic as possible, the MoD employs the use of former service amputees, who willingly give their time to enable the Army to learn about the injuries that can be sustained on a modern battlefield.