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James McKie - Source: BBC -
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A New Zealander serving in the British Army is being hailed as a hero after he put his life on the line in Afghanistan.
Rifleman James McKie saved two of his colleagues' lives when the Taliban threw a hand grenade in front of them.
The 29-year-old Kiwi from Wellington is in his fifth month of fighting for the British Army in the Afghanistan province of Helmand but six days ago he came under fire from Taliban militants on three sides.
The Kiwi was with two other soldiers engaging the enemy in a firefight from a compound roof when a hand grenade hit his platoon commander and landed at his feet.
"I saw the grenade there and I just thought 'oh I hope it doesn't hurt too much.'
"I knew that I had to get it away from us and as I picked it up I thought that if this doesn't come off, or if I hadn't done this, the result is going to be exactly the same....because we had lost Corporal Green the day before and I wasn't prepared to see another guy from my platoon get hurt, even if that meant I got hurt myself," McKie says.
He then threw smoke to cause a distraction, so the group could escape to safety.
His commanding officer, Captain Graeme Kerr, says he owes his life to McKie.
"Bearing in mind you only have three seconds when (the grenade) lands by your feet and half a second to make a decision and another three seconds to throw it, that's pretty heroic in my book," says Kerr.
Fragments from the grenade explosion cut into McKie's right arm and face when it exploded in mid air. Kerr's injuries were more serious.
"(I have) four or five large parts of shrapnel deep in (my) calf. (My) left leg should be a lot worse," Kerr says.
McKie's actions saved the lives of his platoon leader and the other soldier.
"Standard operating procedure when a grenade is thrown at you is to leap away from the grenade itself and put as much distance as you can between the grenade and yourself. The thing with McKie is when he saw the grenade next to me he saw it and threw it back," says Kerr.
McKie joined the New Zealand Army fresh from high school, where he served for seven years as a medic before moving to the British Armed Forces.
"He's one of those very brave people that has a complete disregard for his own life and a high regard for other people's," says Kerr.
Mckie's father Andrew McKie says he is incredibly proud of his son's "brilliant and courageous act".
"I think he understates everything but he has been in the reconnaissance platoon, been at the forefront of a lot of really fierce fighting, and just reading his letters, we're very proud of him," he says.
McKie is now in line for a bravery award and is already back in action on the front line.
