Vincent Strafford

Major Vincent Strafford QGM* (born 18 May 1973) was an ammunition technical officer with the British Army's Royal Logistic Corps who was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal for Operations in Afghanistan in 2007 and was then awarded a second Queen's Gallantry Medal (Bar) for Operations in Iraq in 2008. Strafford was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, (his father served for 23 years also as an Ammunition Technical Officer) and joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (which later amalgamated into the Royal Logistic Corps) as a private in 1991. He reached the rank of Corporal before attending the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and commissioning back into The Royal Logistic Corps. He was promoted to Major in 2007 and retired in 2009.

Queens Gallantry Medal
A captain at the time, he was the sole UK WIS officer based within the HQ ISAF Weapons Intelligence Cell in Kabul, Afghanistan. Supporting specialist ISAF operations, he was presented on a number of occasions with viable suicide devices that required immediate neutralisation. A year later whilst serving as the Heli Team IEDD operator supporting the Australian battle group in Northern Iraq, he was tasked to a number of devices. Delivered by helicopter, and without the use of an RCV, he was faced with multiple RCIEDs; which had to be neutralised by hand. Subsequent analysis showed that there had been attempts to detonate the devices remotely whilst neutralisation was being undertaken.