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The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have brought a new term into our consciousness: the IED - or improvised explosive device - has claimed the lives of hundreds of coalition soldiers, and injured many more. And the bomb disposal experts who, time after time, stare death in the face to tackle these devices have now become heroes.

One such man is Captain Kevin Ivison. In 2006, he was 24 years old and serving with the British Army in the dangerous Iraqi territory of Al Amarah.

The soldiers' base was under nightly rocket attack and Kevin and his team were repeatedly called on to put explosives out of action.

On 28 February 2006, he took what the bomb disposal experts call "the longest walk" towards an unexploded device in circumstances that would change his life forever.

His actions on that day won him the George Medal for bravery, but they also brought to an end his army career.

Kevin comes from a military family, grew up in army barracks, and from an early age he wanted to become a soldier.

When Kevin Ivison came into the Outlook studio, Matthew Bannister asked why he first decided to train as a bomb disposal expert.

Captain 's book about his experiences, Red One, is published by Orion Books.