Old Colwyn RAF ambulancewoman returns from Afghanistan

Nov 25 2010 by Richard Evans, North Wales Weekly News

A BRAVE young woman who has returned home safe from Afghanistan is already planning her next trip to the frontline, but says she will take the horrors of war to her grave.

Siobhan Hoskins is now looking forward to a family Christmas after returning home to Old Colwyn from Camp Bastion in the Helmand Province where she served with the RAF’s ambulance response team.

Former Eirias High School pupil, Siobhan, 21, was responsible for treating soldiers brought back to camp from the frontline. In the busiest months she was treating as many as 50 soldiers a day.

Despite now enjoying the comforts of home, Senior Air Craft woman Siobhan is already planning to one day return to Afghanistan, but admits she will never forget the horror of treating maimed and fatally injured troops.

“In the armed forces we are given a lot of training; the amount of trauma you are going to see and how you are going to deal with that trauma, so I had worked with amputees before,” said Siobhan.

“But nothing will prepare you for what you see, they are horrific scenes, and how frequent they are. A lot of people remember the fallen soldiers, but there is a lot more that get injured. You only hear about the soldiers that die.

“From the start you are thrown into it and expected to get on with it. It’s so horrific, and I don’t want to put that [image] into anybody’s head, it is the worst thing you could ever imagine hearing a grown man scream for his life, it’s something you will take to the grave.

“I’ve performed CPR on a lot of fallen soldiers.

“You know some are not going to make it.

“I’m a sensitive person but your head takes over, adrenaline takes over. It is hard when you see soldiers wearing wedding bands, or Help for Heroes bands, but you take your head elsewhere, you can’t get emotionally involved.”

Siobhan says her Afghan experience started before she had even landed in Kandahar in June.

“The most scary thing was having to drop into Kandahar on a C17 RAF aircraft, you literally drop down from 30,000ft instead of descending, into the country, it’s pitch black as you can’t have any lights, it’s not a normal plane you are used to, it’s very frightening,” she said.

“You are wearing body armour and the biggest threat is when the aircraft is stationary, it is a big rush to get everyone shipped off so the aircraft can get away, they don’t like to keep on the ground for long.”

After four months living in the desert sleeping on a camp bed in a tent, Siobhan says she is delighted to be back at the family home at Tanlwyfan and reunited with her dad, Steve, 52, sisters Sophie, 18, Phoebe, 13, step-mum Ann, 47, mum, Carol Crowther, 50, step-dad, Phil, and nan Dillys. Siobhan is also back home with boyfriend Dean Keating, 25, who only returned from Afghanistan himself last year with the Navy.

“Obviously coming home is the only thing I’ve been looking forward to over there,” said Siobhan.

“It is nice to have even a normal glass of wine, or being able to pick up the phone and ring someone. If someone dies the whole camp goes into lock-down for two or three days, so you just look forward to normality.

“You get used to sleeping on a camp bed for four months, and living in a tent.”

Far from being put off by the trauma she has seen, Siobhan, who is stationed at Newquay, is now planning on returning to Afghanistan with the RAF- this time to the frontline itself.

“I would like to go back to work in a different role to what I did, it was good for experience, but I would rather work more on the ground and do more frontline stuff. It is risky, but going to Afghanistan is risky, you get really close to the lads in battalion and they take you out and they trust you as their patrol medic.”

So inspiring is Siobhan, her younger sister, former hairdresser, Sophie, 18, has now signed up for the army to train as a dog handler. Sophie is already relishing basic training: “Siobhan has done a brilliant job. I was a bit shocked she volunteered, she is my hero. I’ve seen my sister do so well, so I would like that for myself,” she said.

richard.evans