Results tagged “Fus Paul Dorell” from Birmingham Mail - Band of Brothers

Under the cover of darkness we boarded the rear ramp of the C130 "Hercules" from Kandahar Air Field to Camp Bastion Afghanistan. The rest of the company had already left on an earlier flight that evening and were settling into the Bastion transit accommodation.

Donning body armour, wearing our helmets and ear plugs in order to drone out the roar from the four massive engines, we prepared for the short flight over Helmand Province.

The tactical advantages of flying at night are invaluable to our forces as the risk of surface to air attacks by the Taliban is severely compromised with the reduced visibility. It's unthinkable what damage to our morale and boost to Taliban propaganda the downing of a British flight would cause.

Stepping off the rear of the flight-line onto the tarmac of Bastion's runway, we were quickly ferried by bus to the transit accommodation where the rest of Normandy Company, 4 MERCIAN were already sleeping.

Quickly settling on a bunk in the overcrowded hanger full with approximately 100 male and 50 female beds, only separated by a thin screen down the centre, it was apparent we were going to be living on top of each other for the next few days; literally! The gonk (sleeping) bag was quickly deployed and the iPod earphones went in to drown out constant crescendo of snorers in the room and it started to dawn on us that we had now arrived at our final staging post in Afghanistan.