I haven’t slept properly since Iraq – to become a sergeant major is beyond my wildest dreams, says hero Johnson Beharry
HE is Britain’s most decorated serving soldier, the proud holder of the Victoria Cross for outstanding bravery.
Now Johnson Beharry has reached a new high, with promotion to Sergeant Major, an achievement he today describes as “beyond my wildest dreams”.
The Iraq War veteran — who performed two feats of outstanding bravery and survived a near-fatal injury — has reached one of the highest ranks a non-commissioned Army officer can achieve.
It comes just days before the 20th anniversary of the start of the conflict which saw Johnson, 43, win his VC.
Proudly showing us his new rank slide — the cloth sleeve worn on his uniform’s shoulder strap — he told The Sun: “To join the military, serve in Iraq as a private, get injured as a private, not be able to do the job I used to do and still get promoted all the way up is beyond my wildest dreams.
“The military has moulded me as a man and changed me for the better as a person.
“When I first joined the Army I was a gobby, enthusiastic kid but now I have gone to one of the highest ranks I can get to. It’s a real honour.”
Despite suffering horrific injuries while fighting in Iraq, he says he has “no regrets” and adds: “I am the happiest I have been.
“Yes, I’m in pain, I have flashbacks, I have nightmares.
“Every morning when I wake up the bed is soaking wet from sweating.
What a blessing
“I’m constantly running in my dreams.
“I’m scared to go to sleep.
“Most of the night I am up.
“Since Iraq I haven’t had a full night’s sleep.
“But I’m in a good place and I am not complaining.
“I am here on this earth when others didn’t think I would be, and I get to see my wife and kids every day. What a blessing.”
The Victoria Cross is the nation’s highest military honour, and in 2005 Johnson became its first living recipient for nearly 40 years.
A year earlier he saved nearly 30 comrades in his two remarkable acts of bravery in Iraq, but he suffered life-changing injuries in the second — losing 40 per cent of his brain.
Now, almost 20 years later, Johnson is about to begin his new role, also known as Warrant Officer Class 2.
He says: “I’m still smiling about it.
“I have given my life to serving the military and they have given me so much too.
“To achieve this rank will not change the person I am, though.”
Johnson, who came to the UK from Grenada in 1999, joined the Army as a 21-year-old in 2001 after a brief period in a London gang, where he admits carrying a gun in his car.
He says: “When I first joined it was just a job.
“I had no military background.
“I was constantly challenging my superiors, which is a big thing to do.
“I wanted to use my initiative to do things.
“I realised the way to learn is to ask questions.
“It was a steep learning curve.
“It has shaped the man I am today.”
On March 20, 2003, Britain and the US put boots on the ground in Iraq as the war against Saddam Hussein was ramped up.
Dad of three Johnson, who has been married to Mallissa for nearly ten years, says: “When going to Iraq became an option, I was excited.
“I had spent time in Kosovo and Northern Ireland but that was a peacekeeping operation and I wanted to go.”
Within weeks Johnson was on a flight to Iraq with his comrades from the 1st Battalion Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment.
He says: “When we arrived it was hot.
“I could hear gunfire and knew that is what I’d be going into soon.
“I remember asking, ‘Is that what we’re going into? Wow, I can’t wait’. Some of the guys would say, ‘Are you crazy?’
“After a period of acclimatisation we joined patrols.
“I never wrote a letter or spoke to family or friends from home because I wanted to be fully focused on my job.
“I knew that if I spoke to my mum about what had been going on the tone of her voice may change, and the next time I was on the ground I would reflect on her reaction, and that would put myself and other soldiers’ lives at risk.”
Johnson’s first act of bravery came on On May 1, 2004.
He was driving the first in a convoy of five Warrior armoured vehicles in a group trying to rescue two injured British soldiers.
Multiple rocket-propelled grenades hit his vehicle, setting it on fire and knocking out his commanding officer.
Although he had been shot in the head — his helmet taking the blow — Johnson forced the Warrior through a barrier blocking the road and drove over a mine that failed to explode, then accelerated away to get seven others to safety.
He says: “The next thing I remember is someone saying, ‘Harry, Harry, stay with me’, and pouring water on my head.
“A few hours later I ended up in a camp where the sergeant major and my sergeant came to see me in the medical centre.
They said, ‘You are the luckiest person we’ve ever met’.
“I had no clue what they were talking about. They then showed me my helmet — it had a bullet in it.
“It’s now in the Imperial War Museum. That’s my last real memory of Iraq.
“I was told I had heatstroke and had also broken four vertebrae. They wanted to send me back to the UK.
“But apparently, I was telling them I wanted to stay and that I do not want to go back and leave my comrades behind.
“I have no memory of what happened after, but was told they let me stay.”
Six weeks later, on June 11, Johnson was driving a Warrior through the streets of Al Amarah when his company were ambushed and a rocket-propelled grenade hit his vehicle, exploding inches from his head.
Terribly wounded and barely conscious, he drove backwards at high speed to reach safety.
Despite his injuries, which included a fractured skull that was to leave him in a coma for weeks, he saved the lives of all his fellow soldiers in the Warrior.
Goose bumps
Johnson says: “They told me two bullets were fired at me, followed by a rocket-propelled grenade which detonated a few inches from my face.
“Somehow after that I managed to reverse out of the contact.”
Johnson was flown back to the UK for life-saving surgery. He had lost 40 per cent of his brain.
Remarkably, he has since had chance meetings with three of the heroes who saved his life.
He says: “About six weeks ago I met the nurse on that RAF flight home.
“She was speechless when she saw me.
“She said she couldn’t believe I was speaking and walking.
“She is now a warrant officer in the Air Force.
“She was in tears and asked if she could give me a hug.
“She told me, ‘The last time I saw you no one thought you were going to survive’.
“Just thinking about that now gives me goosebumps.
“It’s a miracle I am still on this earth.
“I also met a British Army surgeon general who was the doctor at the time.
“He resuscitated me at the scene while someone else held my head so my brain didn’t fall out.
“And at a function at the Dorchester Hotel I met the man who held my head — he was physically holding me together.
“He came up to me and couldn’t speak and just hugged me.
“Words cannot describe how I feel towards them.
“I owe them my life.
“They held me together — they kept me alive.”
He also credits Mallissa and their kids Ayden, nine, Aniyah, five, and Amari, 21 months, with helping him to keep going.
He says: “I’m happy and in a good place because of my family.
“I look forward to coming home, being with the kids.
“Forget the noise and the messiness, I love them so much.
“When I’m home, I’m happy, I don’t want to go anywhere.
“When I first became a father with Ayden it was the best thing that happened to me.
“When I see the kids I say, ‘This is what I fought for. This is what I work for — the kids’.”
This summer, Johnson and Mallissa plan to renew their vows, possibly in his birth place, Grenada.
He says: “It will be very special for Mallissa and me.
“My wife and my kids know who I am more than me.”
Their tenth wedding anniversary on March 19 will also mark 18 years since Johnson received his Victoria Cross from the Queen.
He says: “She would be proud of my promotion, I’m sure.
“It makes me happy, the idea of her knowing.”
Johnson, who lives in Hertfordshire, says his children don’t fully understand what his promotion means — but his brothers, Corporal Jade, Sergeant Jeffon and Lance Corporal Jeffery Beharry, who has now left the services, definitely do.
Johnson says: “They can’t believe it. They understand the great honour.
“They were joking, saying, ‘Does it mean we have to call you Sir now?’”