I Threw Myself On To An Exploding Grenade

I had perhaps four or five seconds until detonation, and I counted them down in my head.' Photograph: Mark Chilvers for the Guardian

Experience: I Threw Myself On To An Exploding Grenade -- The Guardian

'There was a pinging noise, familiar to anyone who's ever pulled the pin from a grenade. I had walked into a tripwire'

I joined the Royal Marines when I was 16 – I'd grown up wanting to be a soldier, to be part of an elite force. I'd served two tours of duty in Iraq before I was sent to Afghanistan, where the sense of ever-present danger – of actually being at war – was far more intense.

While there, I was involved in some of the fiercest fighting. But the one point when I thought, "This is it, I'm about to die", when there was no doubt in my mind, came in the early hours of 9 February 2008.

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My Comment: To be willing to sacrifice one's life for your fellow soldiers .... and to survive while doing it .... that makes this soldier special beyond all measure.