Soldier receives Queen’s bravery award for Las Vegas heroics

A BRITISH soldier who rushed to the aid of those injured in the Las Vegas massacre has been decorated in the latest round of military honours.

Trooper Ross Woodward, from 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards, has received the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery – something he said has come as a “total surprise”.

He had been enjoying a trip to the US gambling capital following a desert training exercise in Nevada when gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on festival-goers at the Mandalay Bay Hotel.

As bullets rained down, the 24-year-old from Beeston, Nottinghamshire – who was off-duty and had been nearby – turned towards danger, and despite the chaos guided people to safety and tended to those who had been injured.

“Anyone in the military would have done the same,” he told the Press Association.

“To me it just felt like the right thing to do, because people were there and needed my help, I just did not want to walk away and leave them.

“If I ever need help, I hope and pray that someone would help me.”

Just weeks before being deployed on the training exercise, Trooper Woodward said they had undertaken a team medic course, meaning the skills were fresh in his mind.

The father-of-one said there were people “screaming, shouting, looking for loved ones” and that there was “a lot of chaos”.