By Patrick Gower
The commander who fought alongside Willie Apiata when he won his Victoria Cross has been in battle again, and shot.
3 News has been in contact with Major Craig Wilson, and gained exclusive insight into last week's battle in Afghanistan.
Although the Defence Force is playing it down, it seems another push for medals is on.
Major Wilson says he was only saved by what he describes as an extraordinary bit of soldiering.
Out training late last year, getting his unit ready for deployment to Afghanistan, Major Wilson said his team "want to train hard and we want to train for the likely situations we're going to find ourselves in".
That turned out to be a firefight in Afghanistan, where New Zealand troops were killed and injured.
Major Wilson was the commander and in the thick of it, shot in the shoulder near his neck and dragged to safety by Lance Coproral Rory Malone, who died going back to save another comrade.
In a statement from his hospital bed in Germany, Major Wilson praised the bravery of his soldiers.
"This initially came from our mates on the ground, who in some cases risked their own lives to get us out of immediate danger and provided immediate first aid."
L/Cpls Malone and Pralli Durrer were killed in a vicious three minutes of fighting.
"This battle was very fast, very complex, and came down to a pitched gunfight where the insurgent force had many advantages over us at that moment," says Major Wilson.
He is certainly qualified to comment. He already holds the New Zealand Gallantry Decoration from his time in the SAS. That has been secret until now; he won it as commander in the same battle where Willie Apiata won the Victoria Cross.
Major Wilson once described that battle like this: "The crucial thing was to win the firefight… as I opened fire they were firing back at me, and we later found that one armour-piercing round had actually passed between my legs and penetrated the fuel tank.
"I applied the old adage that the only way to make danger go away was to shoot at it."
Major Wilson is a career soldier, who in another role led the army's response to Christchurch's first big earthquake, and he suggests the brave deeds of the soldiers in the latest battle could be on a par with that of the SAS battle.
"I will continue working for my soldiers now and over the next while to ensure that they are accredited the respect and recognition that their actions in Bamyan deserve," he says.
It's clear Major Wilson believes his soldiers have once again done New Zealand proud.
3 News