SINCE 2003, the conflict in Afghanistan has made front-page news, on most days, and often for all the wrong reasons.

But one story that rarely made the headlines has been the behind-the-scenes work at Strensall Barracks, where thousands of regular and reserve medical staff trained at the ward-for-ward replica of Camp Bastion’s hospital.

Now that Bastion is about to close, Strensall’s ‘class of 2014’ will be the last to graduate. They join hundreds of men and women who, over the years, have been the unsung heroes in a war that claimed too many lives. Thanks to them, though, there has also been more than a 90 per cent survivability rate.

We salute all the medics who have passed through the gates at Strensall Barracks.