# Two George Crosses given



## John A Silkstone (Mar 19, 2010)

His hands steady despite the danger, Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes reached out and defused the bomb that lay close to a wounded soldier before crawling forward through long reeds and disabling six more. 

His performance, described as the single most outstanding act of bomb disposal in Afghanistan, earned him the George Cross yesterday. Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, another bomb disposal expert, who was killed in Helmand province last year, was also given the award. The two men will go down in history as “the bravest of the brave”, said Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, Chief of the Defence Staff. 

More than 150 other servicemen and women, most of who served during Britain’s bloodiest summer in Afghanistan last year, are due to be recognised for their efforts in an honours list that will be published this morning. 

Staff Sergeant Hughes, 30, who embarrassed Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, last year by asking for more troops, shrugged off his efforts, which almost certainly saved the lives of four seriously wounded soldiers when they became stranded in a minefield on August 16. “When you look back on it, you realise what you’ve achieved and what you’ve done,” said the high-threat bomb disposal specialist of The Royal Logistics Corps. “Me and my guys were tasked to get in, clear the guys, recover the fallen and it was just a task we got on with.” 

Staff Sergeant Hughes, who was with the Royal Engineers Search Team at the time, was called to help troops from the 2 Rifles Battle Group. A soldier had been injured after stepping on a pressure-plate bomb as part of a dawn operation to clear a route southwest of the town of Sangin in Helmand province. As two stretcher bearers tried to rescue the victim, they triggered a bomb. The injured soldier and one of the stretcher bearers were killed and five other troops wounded. One later died from his injuries. 

With men in urgent need of medical attention, time was of the essence. Not stopping to put on specialist protective clothing, Staff Sergeant Hughes crawled into the minefield, searching for more bombs. The first one that he spotted was less than one metre away from the nearest injured trooper. Knowing that a slip of the hand would prove fatal, Staff Sergeant Hughes made the device safe. He then inched forwards along what became clear was a line of devices, defusing two more to let other soldiers to follow in behind and extract the wounded and the dead. 

With shots being fired to keep the Taleban at bay, Staff Sergeant Hughes made four other bombs safe in an intense, painstaking operation. 

It was a particularly exceptional display of his skills, which have disabled more than 80 roadside bombs during his six-month tour. 

Staff Sergeant Hughes said that it was amazing to be selected for distinction, particularly as he was receiving the honour alongside the widow of his good friend, Staff Sergeant Schmid, also 30. “To be honoured, to be sat here with Chrissie, to know that I’ve achieved the award and Oz has achieved that award, is out of this world, to be honest. It’s really good.” 

He said that every soldier who ventured out of a frontline base in Helmand deserved some sort of recognition. “It’s horrendous over there. You can’t explain what it’s like over there without physically being there yourself.” Asked whether he would return, he said: “If I was asked to go back out I would go out.” 

Staff Sergeant Hughes made the headlines last October when he put Mr Ainsworth on the spot during a visit to troops in Helmand. The Defence Secretary asked what he wanted most of all, to which Staff Sergeant Hughes replied: “More troops on the ground.” 

At a ceremony in London yesterday, he and Christina Schmid, Staff Sergeant Schmid’s widow, each accepted a framed citation for the award. The Queen will present the George Cross at Buckingham Palace later in the year. 

The George Cross, which can also be awarded to civilians, is on a par with the Victoria Cross. Awarded to military personnel for acts of heroism not in the presence of the enemy, it was created by George VI in 1940. Only 161 have been awarded to civilians and military personnel. 

Only two other servicemen have received a George Cross from the Afghan campaign. Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, of the Royal Marines Reserve, was awarded it two years ago for saving the lives of his comrades by throwing himself on a grenade. He survived when his body armour and rucksack took the shock. Corporal Mark Wright, of The Parachute Regiment, was posthumously given the award in 2006 for entering a minefield in an attempt to save the live of other soldiers.


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