Surgeon Captain Rick Jolly OBE, Oficial Orden de Mayo

"SURGEON CAPTAIN Rick “Doc” Jolly saved the lives of hundreds of British and Argentine troops during the Falklands War and was the only person to have been decorated for distinguished conduct by both Britain and Argentina.
The Royal Navy surgeon, the senior medical officer of 3 Commando Brigade, ran the field hospital at Ajax Bay where 1,000 troops, including around 300 Argentines, were treated in freezing and basic surroundings as war raged outside for three weeks.
Two unexploded bombs remained lodged in the roof as surgical operations went on below.
When HMS Ardent was devastated by Argentine fighter bombers on May 21, 1982, Dr Jolly was lowered from a helicopter to pluck a drowning sailor from the sea.
“I tapped my crewman on the arm, leant across and shouted ‘Me – down’,” he said.
Plumes of smoke poured from the frigate as he was lowered into the near-freezing water and bearhugged the sailor as they were winched to safety.
Moments later he saved a second man. Every British soldier whom he treated at his improvised hospital in an old refrigeration plant, nicknamed the Red and Green Life Machine, survived, including veteran Simon Weston who called him an “incredible man”.
Weston said: “Without his organisational skills the surgeons and medics would never have functioned.
I can only thank him for saving my life and many others.”
Following the conflict, Jolly was appointed an OBE by the Queen and in 1999 received the Orden de Mayo, one of Argentina’s highest honours, to reflect “the nation’s gratitude”.
Born in Hong Kong, Jolly was educated at Stonyhurst College before studying medicine at St Bart’s, London.
He qualified as a physician in 1969 and joined the Royal Navy, serving in Belfast with the 3rd Parachute Regiment. He retired from the Navy in 1996 and launched a campaign to highlight the problems of post-traumatic stress disorder among Falklands survivors."
www.express.co.uk/news/obituaries/914031/rick-jolly-obituary-falklands-hero-surgeon