Queen meets Australian soldier awarded Victoria Cross

(18 Nov 2011)
++Wrong Story Number on Tape++
TRUE DATE CREATED = 15-11-2011
1. Australian Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith walking with partner
2. Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith talking with reporters
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith:
"Yeah, it's been very surreal, particularly today obviously. Her Majesty was gracious enough to extend an invitation to the palace. I felt very privileged and it is something obviously that I'll remember for a long time."
4. Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith talking with reporters
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith:
"It was about a ten hour gunfight, our blokes had been pinned down for a number of hours, we'd moved my patrol, decided to move around and try and flank an enemy position in the green belt in a series of compounds. The position we thought held a machine gun. As it turned out, about 80 metres away from the position we got hit very hard, with six of us with fire, and it turned out there were about three machine guns and about ten insurgents in that one position. As we approached we just got bogged down so much by fire that we couldn't continue to move forward so we crawled forward until there was essentially an opportunity where the other guys, they just couldn't move. So I just saw an opportunity, I was able to luckily move to the position and neutralise the remaining two machine guns and then, when the other lads came up, we cracked on and mopped up the rest of the position."
6. Close of medals
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith:
"It's obviously is a great privilege and it is very humbling because I am a soldier and I was part of a team so yeah, I think the most important thing for me to take away from it is that I am here representing everyone else back home, you know, the whole ADF (Australian Defence Force) and importantly my team who were with me on the day."
8. Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith talking with reporters
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith:
"I think we have learned those lessons the hard way in the past, but nowadays I think people understand that you can't say I am a soldier doing their job, they're doing what is right and they all want to come home to their families. It's just like everyone else so I think it is extremely important that we continue to support them in all facets."
10. Close of medals on Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith's chest
STORYLINE:
An Australian SAS corporal, awarded his country's highest military honour, said he was "privileged" and humbled to have met Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.
Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith was invited to London to recognise his role in a 2010 operation in Afghanistan's Shah Wali Kot region, for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia earlier this year.
During an intense gunfight, the 202cm (6 foot 7) father of two charged a Taliban machine gun position.
"I just saw an opportunity, I was able to luckily move to the position and neutralise the remaining two machine guns, and then, when the other lads came up, we cracked on and mopped up the rest of the position," he said after meeting Queen Elizabeth in London on Tuesday.
From Perth, Western Australia, Roberts-Smith said the meeting with the monarch was a "surreal" experience.
"It's obviously is a great privilege and it is very humbling because I am a soldier and I was part of a team so yeah, I think the most important thing for me to take away from it is that I am here representing everyone else back home," he said.
Australian and British troops have been fighting a ten year long war in Afghanistan after a US led invasion in 2001 ousted the Taliban regime who continue to fight as insurgents.
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