A SOLDIER who served alongside her fiancé dodging landmines and delivering supplies to troops has spoken of her experiences on the Afghan frontline.
Corporal Lisa Cracknell, 26, based at Dalton Barracks in Abingdon, spent six months on tour in Afghanistan dealing with life and death situations on convoys ferrying essential supplies to troops.
She spoke of her terror when her convoy detonated five landmines on one trip, but carried on through the explosion to make the delivery.
Since arriving home, she has married Lance Corporal Karl Cracknell, 24, who served in the same regiment, 4 Logistic Support Regiment.
The couple’s experiences on the frontline were captured for an ITV documentary, Road Warriors.
She said: “I’m not going to lie, I was really scared.
“Every time we left the camp I thought ‘What’s going to happen today?’ “I was driving along and saw the truck in front of me go up in a massive plume of smoke after going over a mine. It seemed it was always the truck in front of me that got hit, and I was just waiting to be next.
“I don’t have parents, so when things like that were going on I would think about Karl, or my little brother back home.”
On another occasion, an Afghan national army soldier travelling with Mrs Cracknell’s convoy died in an explosion.
Her then fiancé carried the dying man on to a Chinook helicopter to be taken back to camp.
Cpl Cracknell, originally from Cardiff, joined the Army when she was 16.
She has served in Bosnia, Iraq and Northern Ireland, and said her experiences let her act as a ‘mother hen’ to her squadron.
She added: “I especially felt that with the other women serving I could offer help.
“I’m quite straight talking and would answer their questions, and tell them what to expect.”
She returned home last September, marrying LCpl Cracknell in Ipswich in December.
The couple were inundated with texts and phone calls when the ITV documentary about their relationship was screened last month.
Cpl Cracknell said: “No one knew how bad it was out there so when they saw it they were in shock.
“Some rang me in tears.”
Now she is planning to leave the Army and start a family.
“I love the Army but I don’t think it’s a good environment to raise a child because you’re always moving around,” she said.
The Road Warriors DVD is out today.
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