Paratrooper Jaco van Gass and his buddies were nearing the end of their second tour of duty in Afghanistan and spirits were high.
The superfit bunch were exercising hard and Jaco ran circuits of their mountain camp with his pistol strapped over his kit “in case anything happened”.
It was the eve of his 23rd birthday and he recalls: “Coming to the end of the tour, we started to think about looking good for going home.
“Tanned, muscles twice as big. We called it Operation Massive.”
But there was serious work to do first. That day, at 11.30pm on August 19, 2009, a team was dispatched by helicopter to capture the head of a Taliban terror cell.
Men from 1 Para abseiled on to the target’s roof while Jaco provided cover.
They were, he says, “kitted out in really cool gear – night-vision goggles that made us look like we were in a movie”.
The mission itself was a success... but danger still loomed. As Jaco and his team were heading back to meet the helicopter, “AK-47s crackled into the night” and an intense firefight broke out.
Suddenly, a rocket-propelled grenade lit up the corner of Jaco’s night-vision goggles. Exploding on impact, it tore off his left arm and part of his leg – yet his instinct was to keep firing on the enemy.
Jaco says: “It was when I was trying to hold my rifle in the correct position that I realised something didn’t feel right.
“Where my left arm should have been there was just empty space. Although I understood at once that I had lost my arm, the only thing I wanted was to be able to return fire.
“I let off a few loose bullets, not really aiming anywhere apart from the general direction of the enemy, the rifle jammed against my hip.”
Jaco knew he had to lie down to have any chance of survival. In their shoulder pockets, the Paras carried morphine and $1,000 to use if they got trapped and needed to buy their way out.
A comrade grabbed the morphine pen from Jaco’s pocket and jabbed it into his right arm.
Amid the chaos, colleagues lay over him to stop debris getting into his wounds. One medic stood on the stump of his arm to stem heavy blood loss.
Bullets ricocheted off the helicopter as the Paras escaped. By the time he reach an American field hospital, Jaco had less than a pint of blood in his body.
His heart stopped twice during surgery, but his “Operation Massive” fitness levels helped him survive.
In a new book, Jaco tells his incredible journey from near death to Paralympics glory, world titles, an assault on Mount Everest, meeting the Royals, receiving the MBE – and finding love.
He reveals how doctors cut him open and “lifted my internal organs out to remove shrapnel from them one by one”.
Days later, he woke in Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham – then the UK’s main military hospital. His mum Aloma had flown in from South Africa – where Jaco grew up – and his sister Lizanne, who lived in the UK, was there too. A long road to recovery lay ahead and he was transferred to Headley Court, Surrey, a former military rehabilitation centre.
Jaco says: “The small things that I once took for granted were hugely significant, like the day I managed to squeeze toothpaste on the brush with one arm or buttered a slice of toast on my own.”
Frustrated by using a wheelchair, he vowed to walk again – and did so, by Christmas that year. And a colostomy performed during emergency surgery in Afghanistan was reversed. In 2010 he signed up for Exercise Snow Warrior, a ski trip in Bavaria for injured servicemen. Despite never having skied before, he was tackling a black run after just a week.
It was the first of a series of achievements which gave Jaco a renewed sense of purpose. In April 2011 he joined the 13-day Walking With the Wounded expedition across the ice cap to the North Pole to raise money for wounded veterans. Prince Harry, then serving with the Army, joined the trekkers for part of the way. He had previously met Jaco in hospital. After the expedition Jaco still needed a new buzz.
He explains: “My life was empty and I had no distraction from the painful process of losing the Army, the career I had loved more than anything in the world.”
He found two new passions. First, he learned to climb, with a pickaxe fitted to his left upper arm. He scaled 26,781ft Mount Manaslu in the Himalayas – the world’s eighth highest mountain – and in 2012 joined the Walking With the Wounded ascent of Everest. But after setting off from base camp, an avalanche struck and Jaco’s party ran for cover behind rocks.
He recalls “an enormous wave of ice and snow and everything it had dragged with it ripped past us, heading down the mountain at terrifying speed”.
Exhausted and frozen, the climbers reached Camp 2, but the weather was so unforgiving the assault on Everest had to be abandoned.
Back home, a rekindled passion for cycling kickstarted a new chapter.
Jaco became a full-time racer. In 2014, with an aerodynamic prosthetic arm, he won two golds at the Invictus Games for wounded veterans.
Further glory followed with three world titles in 2020. And last year, at the Tokyo Paralympics, Jaco landed two gold medals and a bronze. There was joy off the track too. Jaco had once asked himself “who is going to want to be with someone like me?”
He met web developer Kathryn Pringle, 28, and they wed in February.
She, too, has a love of sport and they live in Sale, Gtr Manchester.
And though cycling remains Jaco’s key focus, there’s summit else that won’t go away. He says: “There’s Everest. I still want to tick that off.”
Trek bond with Harry and dates with the Royals
Jaco's recovery was boosted by a visit from Prince Harry – and he also got to meet King Charles and the late Queen Elizabeth.
Of the late monarch, who he met at Buckingham Palace after his North Pole expedition, Jaco says: “She was wonderful, very friendly and engaged. She asked how cold it was and was interested in the particular challenges we faced and how I managed with one arm.”
Harry has written a dedication for Jaco’s book, calling him “one of life’s most inspiring people”.
They first met when the prince visited Selly Oak Hospital – and later for a David Bailey photoshoot for GQ magazine before the North Pole trek.
Jaco recalls: “Harry put us all at ease, telling us to call him ‘H’ and getting very close to us on David’s request. For one picture we almost had our faces in Harry’s armpits!
“By end of the day we were all laughing and joking together. Harry slotted in just like one of the boys.”
Harry joined the North Pole trek for a few days. Jaco adds: “He was always, popping into our tents to say hi in the evenings, often bringing snacks. He wore this monkey-head beanie hat that we joked about.
“Harry was down-to-earth and easy to be around. He had a great love for the Army. It’s always had a special place in his heart.”
The Prince also presented Jaco with two medals at the Invictus Games in 2014. Jaco adds: “Harry had seen me at my worst and best – he had visited Selly Oak, been part of the team that walked to the North Pole and now I was facing him as a professional athlete. It was a very special moment for both of us.”
Jaco has met King Charles three times – and received the MBE from him at Windsor Castle in June.
Jaco van Gass Unequivocal, published by Mirror Books, on sale now. Get £3 off (RRP £16.99) with offer code RB5 from mirrorbooks.co.uk
