As Ducky looked down at the body, it was missing a leg, and an arm, and half the torso had been blown away.

"My dear boy, what did you do to deserve this? I know you were only serving your country but to die in this manner. Mind you, any war has no happy ending. I just know that it was quick and you didn't suffer," as Ducky now began to examine what was left of poor Corporal John Jones.

"I must say this, and I mean this in no way derogative to your commitment and strength, but when I was a little younger," Ducky now laughed to himself, "I very stupidly sat on explosive….in fact I did it twice," as Dr. Mallard now looked up, and into space, remembering, "Not I may add on the same deployment, and I was young and very foolish in those days."

Ducky sighed to himself as he thought back to the days just after finishing in Edinburgh, he wasn't sure what to do with his degree, but the military seemed a good steady income and job. Dr Mallard began to clean what was left of the body and began to relate his tale.

"I was only 24, and just left Medical School. I joined the Army and entered the RAMC, with the Black Watch, oh yes the Royal Highland Regiment, it was called "The Forty Twa" you know, why? 42nd Royal Highland Regiment of Foot it used to be called, oh yes and "The Regiment," it was also known as "The Black Jocks" or the Ladies from Hell" due to the fact that their uniform was the kilt. It is now called the3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland. It was my first real job and well back in those days I was young and eager. You realise that the Vietnam war was beginning to escalate and your then President, Lyndon Johnston begged our Prime Minister of the day, Harold Wilson, to send what he called "a bagpipe band" a way of saying send in the Black Watch."

Ducky moved over to his desk and began to write down some notes, before turning back to Jones.

"The Black Watch was the last British military unit to leave Hong Kong in 1997, I was there, it was a very sad and moving day for the Empire, as mother always put it, but I digress. The British government didn't sign up to fight in Vietnam but much was done "under the radar" as they say. Covert aid from Britain," as Ducky now waved his hands about, "Included flights from England to Hong Kong, thus delivering arms, and especially napalm, along with five-hundred pound bombs."

"Britain did however supply training, in jungle warfare to your special forces, but all the same, British soldiers signed up in hundreds to fight. It was estimated that some 2000 were on the ground at some point. We simply resigned from the army and re-enlisted in the Australian or New Zealand units. Yes I did as I said I was young and foolish. Darwin is such a nice place. Some of our SAS soldiers were given civilian status in US units thus their British Military identity was lost. It was rumoured that United States night bombing raids over Laos, were flown out of a specially built British air base in Thailand, which is interesting as Thailand actually drive on the left side of the road as they do in Blighty. The Thai Government had looked at changing to the right, but as yet they have not. Now where was I, oh yes…..I didn't so much resign I was seconded to one of the Australian regiments and flown out to Hong Kong, and that my friend was the first time, I sat on a bomb."

Dr Mallard now placed the sheet over the body, just leaving the Corporals head showing. Ducky filled his kettle and plugged it in waiting patiently for the water to boil.

"Being in bomb disposal, the EOD, you will be glad to know have the bomb ant it has been examined and identified and will be used in further training, but in this instance corporal, it will not help you."

Ducky poured the boiling water into the teapot and allowing the tea to brew, continued his story.

"The second time I sat on explosives, was when I saw a notice for volunteers to work in Afghanistan, at refugee camps on the Pakistan border. I was back in the RAMC with The Regiment at the time, but felt I could do so much more there, so I asked my Commanding Officer if I could go….it was a very distressing time. I was still young and thought I could change the world. I couldn't but the outcome of my mission changed me forever. It would be years later that my actions, however kind I thought they had been be, came back to haunt," as Ducky now sipped his tea and thought of that fateful day he had been stabbed in the hand by the sister of the man, he had saved, saved in a way from death by the hands of one psychopath of an interrogator.

"Yes, it had been a hard day and I needed to sit and reflect. Had I done the right thing, I thought I had, so I sat on what I thought was a pile of stones, what we call a cairn in Scotland only to be shouted at and this man came running towards me and pulled me onto my feet. I don't know what he was shouting but I got the gist, I had been sitting on a unexploded bomb and the stones were covering it. They had been waiting for the EOD, someone very much like yourself Corporal to defuse. I was lucky or I could have ended up as you are."

As Ducky drained his cup he stood and walked back to the body, "It was after that terrible work I decided to move into autopsy and become a medical examiner. But I remember it was Bosnia 1993…" Dr Mallard began to smile as he now covered the head of Corporal Jones, and prepared him for the drawer for the night.

The End