{"id":34675,"date":"2013-11-13T12:34:03","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T12:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=c24f6b2c94baec31e90ade691d22fba5"},"modified":"2013-11-13T12:34:03","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T12:34:03","slug":"news-story-olympic-gold-medallist-returns-from-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=34675","title":{"rendered":"News story: Olympic gold medallist returns from Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

British Army officer Captain Stanning, and her teammate Helen Glover, won Team GB\u2019s first gold medal, in the rowing women\u2019s pairs, at the London 2012 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

Following her Olympic success Captain Stanning returned to her career with the Royal Artillery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After completing intensive pre-deployment training and specialist training working with the Royal Artillery\u2019s unmanned air systems, her chosen specialisation, Captain Stanning deployed to Afghanistan in April this year. She said:<\/p>\n

\n

I am extremely proud to have deployed with my colleagues and as a serving officer this was my chance to be tested on operations; it is what I joined the Army to do.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As the battery operations officer, she was responsible for planning and managing the sorties and tasking of British Army \u2018eye-in-the-sky\u2019 unmanned aircraft, which provide vital intelligence for British, International Security Assistance Force<\/a> and Afghan troops on the ground. She said:<\/p>\n

\n

To be in Afghanistan and to see what has been achieved and to be a part of that is really important to me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Captain Heather Stanning in Afghanistan<\/h4>\n

VIDEO: Captain Heather Stanning at work in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite being based at Camp Bastion, in the middle of the desert, Captain Stanning has worked hard to continue her training. As well as her busy job, she has maintained a punishing regime in the gym in preparation for GB rowing trials later this month, with her eyes firmly set on Rio 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019m now really looking forward to getting back into a boat and the challenges I will face in earning my place in the British rowing team for the 2014 season,\u201d said Captain Stanning. \u201cI am going to have to work hard but I can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\"Captain<\/div>
Captain Heather Stanning at work on military operations in Afghanistan (library image) [Picture: Sergeant Dan Bardsley, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Peter Wall<\/a>, said:<\/p>\n

\n

The Army is about people who work hard and play hard. Heather Stanning is the ultimate example: Olympic gold last year; on the front line this year. Amazing!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Captain Stanning commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 2008 and, after 18 months as a troop commander, her potential as an elite rower became increasingly apparent. After a 2-year career break spent training for the London Olympics she was keen to return to the Army.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Captain<\/div>
Captain Heather Stanning with her Olympic gold medal (library image) [Picture: Corporal Steve Blake, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Captain Heather Stanning has recently completed a 6-month tour as part of the British military force in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}