Page 136 - MERCIAN Eagle 2011

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Hadrians Wall Challenge supporting the Forces Childrens Trust & 3 MERCIAN
On the 14th of April a small force of 20 men gathered at Lichfield social club, to make their way to Hadrian’s Wall, to undertake an 84 mile trek across this iconic route.
The team consisted of former Staffordshire Regiment soldiers from the Regimental Association, Lichfield branch, friends, and four serving members of the 3rd Battalion Mercian Regiment (STAFFORDS), who had freely given up their time to take part. The event raised in the region of £3,000 that will be split equally between
the Children’s Trust and the 3rd Battalion Mercian Regiments Welfare funds.
The event
Earlier a small advance party had left to set up the first nights camp ahead of the main body.
We were joined on the car park at the social by one of our old friends, Paul Cretella, (ex 2 Para) who had flown all the way, for a second year, with his friend Justin Johnson
a bar tender from Seattle in America. Paul’s wife had recently contacted the branch without him knowing, as it was a surprise
for his 40th birthday. We all boarded the mini buss with serving Sergeant Major Paul (Tommo) Thompson at the helm. On arrival, Gary Brooke, formerly 1 STAFFORDS, guided us into our camp site, and Dennis smart (ex STAFFORDS), Brian Terry (former drum major), LCpl Ganderton (Ghandi)
and Cpl Motteram (Eric) serving 3 Mercian, greeted us with a well received cup of tea, and a few beers. Gaz Brooke, our very own man mountain, decided to stag on for the whole night so that no kit went missing.
Morning broke to the sound of pots and pans clanging. We all had a great British
fry up for breakfast, prepared by our admin team, who later proved to be the back bone of the whole weekend. We all boarded the mini bus, and once seated started towards Bowness on Soleway.
Day 1 Trek
The walk started with great enthusiasm, and spirit; in the back of our minds this was the part most of us dreaded from reading up on it before we started, it consisted of some twenty six miles of roads, which as we all knew would rip the feet to pieces.
We approached our first check point some ten miles in, denoted by the flying of the Branch Standard put there by the admin team. A new type of saying was about to be unleashed, ‘Compeed, has anyone got any Compeed?’ Paul Thompson said “I have heard it all now, water stop, medic, and now Compeed!” Already blisters were forming and feet were becoming sore.
The admin team had, before our arrival set up a superb RV with everything our guys needed to be able to continue on, and Gaz Brooke was busily buzzing round playing mother hen and making sure everyone was ok. We set off again onwards towards the end of our first day. The first casualty was, Dave Hancock who somehow had managed
to trip and either dislocated his toe, or had a minor break in it. We bandaged him
up, with a bit of sniper tape strapping the toes together, and continued. The second casualty was Carl Ashfield, who had never done anything like this before in his life,
and was suffering from dehydration and exhaustion. We were about 5 miles from the end when we had to get him on the ‘jack wagon’, and sent him back to base.
The rest carried on to the end with a few hobbling their way back onto the bus. Back in camp, Dennis, Gaz, and Brian, along with Eric had prepared a good meal, with the great British afters, the can of lager. We all necked a few before the foot inspection, where blisters the size of small oranges were appearing. It was now becoming apparent that not all of us would
finish the full 84 miles.
he also could not go on but changed his mind and put back on his boots, to give it another go before Eric and his ‘jack wagon’ came into their own and ferried Colin back to base camp.
Steel Rig, is probably the hardest portion of the wall, with hills that just go on and
on with the wall winding its way around
the top. Casualties were becoming
too frequent, Carl (Egg Banjo, former 1 STAFFORDS) Newbold, looked like he was carrying two roll mats under his arms and swayed side to side with Dave Hancock propping him up. At the Trig point on
the top I found Pete Dillon (former Royal Artillery) on top hobbling on. I stopped and we had a look at his feet, again, they were shot but he vowed to continue; this was just
Again we were up early
for breakfast, before
setting out. It wasn’t
long before our first
casualty of the day,
Dave Rodwell (Mercian TA) suddenly pulled up with a groin strain and could continue no further. The ‘jack wagon’ was called upon again as we left him by the roadside ready for pickup.
typical of the effort and pain that a lot of these guys went through over the weekend. Behind Pete, Paul and Justin Johnson were plodding on, but in a lot of pain.
Paul is currently undertaking a thousand
mile challenge, for the Wounded Warrior project in the United States, which is similar to our Help for Heroes, and along with
our challenge he has clocked up some
700 miles over the last few months raising money for his charity. An act which I think should be commended, especially as it only counts while he is carrying a 40 pound load.
Again Brian Mcmulkin and Ghandi were flying, getting to the check points 1 hour
20 minutes in front of anyone else; we
all agreed they should be tested when
they return to Lichfield to see if they were human. The second group contained Darren Stewart, and Dave Rodwell who, undeterred had rejoined the group after
his groin problems. Next was me, Paul Thompson and Adam Wright, who again had defied the grips of Eric and his ‘jack wagon’ for the second time that day. Behind us was Jase Allen (former Stafford’s TA), who had been amusing the troops with his massive collection of jokes and mick taking of Justin’s American accent.
Slowly, again we lost sight of the remainder of the groups, finally losing Adam Wright at Haydon Bridge, the third time we had called the ‘jack wagon’ to this lad, and it was to be his final few steps before getting picked up, but again, he showed great courage and determination. By the time me and Paul Thompson had reached the last but one check point of the day, it had been decided that the remaining few lads were too far behind to continue as it would have been too dangerous to continue into the darkness. They were reluctantly rounded up by the ‘jack wagon’ once more. I made a phone call to Brian Mcmulkin who was some way in front to find out where they were. They were about 50 minutes in front of us, followed somewhere by Darren and Dave Rodwell. As it became dark me and
Day 2 Trek
It was now becoming apparent that not all of us would finish the full 84 miles
Slowly throughout the day, the men’s feet were getting worse and it looked quite grim on how many would eventually make the end. Some 50 patches of Compeed had already been used in the first 2 days; with
a call for a Compeed stop now being the norm. Slowly the main body of the group was being whittled down and separated with small groups forming. Communications between the groups now required keeping in touch by mobile phones. At the front was Brian (Forest Gump) Mcmulkin and Ghandi who were disappearing into the distance. We hit the check point at the old quarry,
just before Steel Rig, which is the 10 mile mountain stretch of the wall, supposedly one of the hardest stretches in Britain. Here we lost another member to blisters, Colin Lear, had feet that looked like an aliens
skin and he was unable to stand, let alone walk again. Also Adam Wright decided that
The start
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