Richard Bradley

I look down and a blossom of blood sprouted from the arm of my suit.

I was petrified because it seemed almost benign.

But at the same time, with the training you have, I knew that what I had was an incredibly complex wound.

That was the full awakening of a fight or flight moment.

I was absolutely pumped, full of an immediate cataclysmic load of adrenaline.

The pain was nothing compared to the survival instinct that just took over my body.

It was what I imagined being shot would be like.

I took the full blast off from the nozzle at point blank into my forearm.

The whole forearm just had this massive voluminous injection of everything in its path.

Sometimes you end up in these situations and you switch off and you just act.

And if fate is on your side, then you're coming back.

If fate's not on your side, you're not.

It doesn't mean anything if you don't do it with good blokes.

And I've had the great privilege of working with all sorts of people, the good, the bad, the ugly, the wild, the rangy.

But I can say that amongst all of them, there is this really amazing streak of just bonding together and getting it done and getting hard things done in trying situations.

The gun, which I'd checked in the dark and, you know, I had a good check, but still, you know, on hindsight, I'd say maybe I was a bit too cursory.

Our particular part of the work scope is that there was a turret mooring buoy.

We were clearing all the paint and stripping it all off, ready for some non-destructive testing.

So essentially just checking for cracks in the welds and getting it all ready.

I'd taken my fins off because as somebody who, even when I'm working mid-water, I like to spider-man around.