A 25-year-old private soldier born in Grenada, Johnson Gideon Beharry, who enlisted in the British Army less than four years ago, yesterday became the latest member of the most exclusive club in the world after being awarded the Victoria Cross for exceptional bravery and become the first appointed holder of the accolade since two posthumous VCs were awarded in the Falklands War in 1982. Pte Beharry was born in Grenada on 27 July 1979. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1999 and enlisted in the Princess of Wales¹ Royal Regiment (PWRR) two years later. He is married to Lynthia (23) his childhood sweetheart and fellow Grenadian. His parents still live in Grenada. He deployed to Iraq with C Company 1 PWRR in April 2004. Prior to this he spent six months in Kosovo and three months in Northern Ireland Pte Beharry carried out two individual acts of great heroism by which he saved the lives of his comrades whilst based in Maysan Province, Iraq, in 2004. Both were in direct face of the enemy, under intense fire, and at great personal risk to himself (one leading to him sustaining very serious injuries from which he is still recovering in the UK). Beharry was the driver of a platoon commander¹s Warrior armoured fighting vehicle, a 30-tonne behemoth, when his company were ordered to replenish an isolated Coalition Forces outpost in the troubled city of Al Amarah. It did not look good. It was a night mission into intensely hostile territory, and every front-line soldier as well as every general knows that the best-laid battle plans rarely survive contact with the enemy. Beharry and his convoy of five other Warriors were heading into the unfriendly city when new orders came over the radio: they were redirected to rescue a foot patrol that had become pinned down under small arms, heavy machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade attack. Their route lay through a succession of potential ambushes. Streets empty of pedestrians and traffic alerted their suspicions. As the platoon commander stopped his vehicle to assess the situation, it was immediately engulfed by violent explosions. The vehicle¹s commander and most of its occupants were concussed or wounded, and the radio was rendered useless. Private Beharry, sitting at the controls unable to communicate with either his own snior officer or the other Warriors around him, and not knowing whether his commander and gunner were dead or alive, took the initiative in the confusion; he closed the hatch and drove the vehicle forward, only to suffer another intense rocket attack which set his vehicle on fire and filled it with intense and noxious smoke. Forced to open the hatch again, he drove through further intense fire, believing that the only way to save the lives of his crew, and those of the five other Warriors following him, was to drive through the ambush whatever the dangers. Further attacks destroyed his periscope, and he was forced to drive 1,500 metres under enemy fire with his head exposed out of the vehicle¹s hatch. Still under small arms fire, he stopped the vehicle and in three separate missions at great danger to himself he rescued the platoon commander,the wounded gunner and the remainder of the soldiers in the vehicle, leading them all to a place of safety. He eventually collapsed from physical and mental exhaustion and was himself evacuated but not before he had been hit by a 7.62mm bullet which penetrated his helmet and remnained lodged on its inner surface, a few short millimetres from his brain. Returning to duty after medical treatment, Private Beharry once again found himself driving his Warrior through the mean streets of Al Amarah on the night of 11 June when his vehicle was again ambushed from a series of rooftop positions. He sustained a serious head injury when a rocket-propelled grenade scored a direct hit on the vehicle¹s armour six inches from his head. Several others of his crew were injured. With blood from his injury obscuring his vision, Private Beharry managed to retain control of the Warrior, reversing out of the ambush to a comparatively safe area, enabling other nearby Warrior crews to rescue his wounded crew including himself. Only then did Private Beharry finally lose consciousness. As a result of his head injury he lapsed into a coma, from which he subsequently recovered. He is alive to tell his tale and so, as a result of his actions, are the crewmen of two Warriors who would otherwise have perished under deadly enemy fire. Beharry had lost none of his well known sense of humour. Asked what was going through his mind when he was trying to rescue his comrades under rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack from Iraqi insurgents in the early hours of May 01, 2004, Private Beharry simply replied: ³RPG.² Nor had he lost his modesty. ³Maybe I was brave,² he said. I don¹t know. I think anyone else could do the same thing. ³If I had to go back to Iraq, I would and if I found myself in the same position I would do it all over again.² Beharry only heard he had won the highest award for bravery from his commanding officer at six o¹clock on Wednesday evening. His parents, who still live in Grenada where he was born, remained in blissful ignorance of their son¹s elevation to the most exclusive club in the world. Now, as well as his humour, the courage of Private Beharry will remain embedded forever in the annals of his regiment. The announcement of the first VC since Colonel ŒH¹ Jones and Sergeant Ian Mckay of The Parachute Regiment won theirs posthumously from action in the Falklands War, provided the Army with an opportunity to demonstrate with pride the other side of the story in Iraq. Private Beharry whose wife was by his side when the Ministry of Defence announced the VC and 148 other operational awards, made it clear what he thought about the British Army. Standing quietly and modestly before the cameras, with the scar from his operations clearly visible across his scalp, he said it was his wish to stay in the Army, despite constant pain in his head, shoulder and back. He admitted he had been ³speechless² when Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Maer, his commanding officer, called him in to tell him of the VC award. Colonel Maer is also included in the gallantry awards. He won the Distinguished Service Order, two of his sergeants won the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross (one below the VC) and seven other members of the regiment won the Military Cross. General Sir Mike Jackson, Chief of the General Staff, summed up his feelings about Private Beharry and his other comrades awarded medals in Iraq:"I can't remember feeling as proud of the Army as I do today." Private Beharry is easily the youngest holder of the Victoria Cross. Twelve VCs have been awarded since the Second World War but six of them were posthumous. The VC that will be presented by the Queen at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace later this year, has already been made. When Colonel Jones and Sergeant Ian Mckay won theirs posthumously in 1982, Messrs Hancocks & Co of London, the Court jewellers who have been responsible for making the medal since its inception in the 1850s, produced 12. The VCs were made from the bronze cascabels (knobs) of two Chinese cannon captured from the Russians at the siege of Sevastopol, the last great battle of the 1854-1856 Crimean War. There are 358 ounces left for future VCs. The first VC was won on June 21 1854 by Mate (later Rear Admiral) Charles Lucas of the Royal Navy in the Crimea. (Adapted from a story by Michael Evans, Defence Editor of the Times newspaper in London, Friday March 18.) From the Grenadian Voice