Surbiton: Five army volunteers from Surbiton have just returned from Oman where they provided medical support during the British forces biggest military operation since the Gulf War.

The 256-Field Hospital volunteers of the Territorial Army (TA) Centre in Portsmouth Road ensured round-the-clock assistance to some of the 25,000 troops taking part in Operation Swift Sword.

Posted to an RAF airbase in Thumrait, 50 miles from the south coast, where engineers had built an NHS-standard canvas hospital in six days, the recruits followed events in Afghanistan closely but there was never any suggestion they would be sent there.

Captain Jon Sions, 54, said: "It gave the whole exercise added realism and a sense of purpose. Everybody was really focused. It did sharpen your mind."

The exercise had been planned four years ago, between the British and Omani governments, to test the armed forces' capability to deploy in a desert environment.

But for Major Maggie Lane, Major Jane Morley, 50, Captain Sue Snaith, 32, Captain Sions and Private Jez Malins, 28, this was no exercise.

Describing the desert landscape Private Malins said: "It was like walking on a beach for three months and never reaching the shore."

For field hospital personnel, Swift Sword was an opportunity to put their training to the test in the most inhospitable of environments.

Major Morley, a health visitor from Oxfordshire, said: "The heat is oppressive and water is rationed. Dust gets everywhere and into everything.

"At first you feel dusty all the time but after a while you don't notice it."

With temperatures averaging 50 degrees Celsius and water scarce, most of the injuries were heat related and the volunteers had to deal with cases of dehydration and diarrhoea as well as road traffic accidents.

Captain Sions, a resuscitation officer at St Helier Hospital, added: For us it was for real. "We were working 12-hour shifts, providing round-the-clock medical support.

"We were working as if in war conditions."

For the 80 or so medical staff based at 22-Field Hospital in the middle of the desert, the working day was much the same as in any district hospital except for the occasional visit by a celebrity or two, to break the monotony.

Morale was certainly lifted with the visit of sassy former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell who signed patients plaster casts on the hospital ward.

Captain Sions said: "I found myself cutting out parts of the plaster where Geri had signed.

"We also had visits from Steps and Bobby Davro but we didn't see Prime Minister Tony Blair - he visited troops further north.

"The celebs provided a good boost for everyone."

November 20, 2001 10:00