A SOLDIER who survived the horrors of being shot at, severe sandstorms and a twister in Iraq is now safely back on British soil.

Combat medical technician with the Royal Medical Corps Wayne Dixon, of Valley Drive, Kendal, was sent via cargo ship to Kuwait on January 31. He arrived back in England two weeks ago but has been told he may have to return to Iraq in only a few weeks to collect equipment from the makeshift hospitals.

Mr Dixon was part of an advance squad sent to set up a temporary 25-bed hospital on the outskirts of Basra. Days later when a back-up team arrived, Mr Dixon was also involved in building a 200-bed hospital out of tents.

He said the first few weeks in Kuwait were "relatively" quiet but that nothing prepared him for what happened when war broke out on Thursday, March 20.

During the weeks of action Mr Dixon was shot at, saw a twister lift one of the casualties of war more than 40 feet in the air, and had young Iraqi children die in his arms.

"For the first month or so I slept with my body armour and helmet on with my respirator next to me. We had soldiers firing right into Basra next to us and it just felt like everything was shaking. I actually saw the twister heading towards us and it just carried off tents and anything in sight.

"You get thorough training before you go over there and it does help but nothing will ever prepare you for what happens and what you see when you are there. But I do think that everyone has been more worried about me cracking up than I have been about myself."

The intense trauma unit where Mr Dixon was posted was responsible for treating British and US soldiers alongside Saddam's loyal troops, the Republican Guard, and civilian casualties.

The former Queen Katherine School pupil said he had good and bad days during the war.

"If we lost one of ours then it would be a bad day but if we had someone that survived then it would be a good day. You have to create your own morale over there but there is always someone to talk to."

Mr Dixon, 25, said the first thing he wanted to do when he got back home was see his girlfriend, Gemma King, and his family.

"The support from my girlfriend and my family was brilliant. To get a letter or a parcel just kept you going over there, as you had nothing else.

"Being over there just makes you appreciate life so much more. Not for one minute do I regret joining the Army and if I have to go back I will."

Mr Dixon's parents, Helen and Gordon, and his brothers, Shawn, 27, and Christopher, 21, are throwing a party tomorrow night before he returns to his base in York in two weeks' time.

May 30, 2003 09:30