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

The other vehicle based tasks involve local patrols to the North (past Highway 1, the M6 of Afghanistan) and South visiting compounds, gathering intelligence off the local population. As well as these patrols we provide ground cover for most incoming flights into Bastion.

Because most flights come in at night, we are usually tasked for 12 hours a night to provide over-watch on the flight-path, ensuring that no opportunist enemy forces try and take a pop at one of our Herc's laden with troops.

In the main these patrols are generally not very eventful, more as provision of a deterrent than actually combating enemy ground forces on a day-to-day basis.

As briefed by the RAF Regiment (who have recently been attached to Normandy Company and integrated into our rotations as a 4th platoon), these patrols, although generally quiet, need maximum attention of every soldier as it's "sods law" that the time you switch off is the time that a lucky Taliban opportunist gets the chance to fire of an RPG into the direct flight-path of an incoming C-17.

One such night time TLZ patrol stands out in my mind as being more memorable from the rest.

We had patrolled the local area for a few hours and had just picked a spot by the flight-path on some high ground south of Bastion, ready to sit and observe our arc's.

Whilst observing the terrain through the green glare of our night vision glasses, to the south east, in the notorious Taliban controlled area of Nad-e-Ali we all watched in amazement as a spectacular firefight broke out.

Often before we had seen Illume most probably fired from forward operating bases but on this occasion the sky directly above the horizon was ablaze with tracer fire, darting backwards and forwards in bursts for several hours.

Exchanges of gunfire were met by gasps of awe and shouts of "did you see that" resonating from vehicle to vehicle as we sat back and took in the spectacle of the real life battle unfolding before our eyes, albeit a good few miles in the distance.

Instead of taking our turn in "stagging on" (providing cover while the rest of the team rested) as usual, the whole section stayed awake to watch the display for several hours before it finally subsided as dawn broke.

Although several miles away, the battle reminded us all of how close to the fighting we actually are and our thoughts were with our boys who were down there. Some of the lads in the section were excited.

"Let's get down there and smash em!" someone said, even though it's miles out of our area of operations, but although I myself have a yearning to get down to the green zone and do some of the good infantry stuff, I think that night we were all glad to be taking a rear seat and only observing the show rather that being active participant.

The title of our task as Camp Bastion Force Protection Company gives a good combat indicator to the type of duties we would be carrying out.

Charged with protecting the camp and perimeter, patrolling the surrounding areas, providing cover for incoming aircraft, manning the front gate, acting as quick reaction force and accompanying the incident response team aboard a Chinook to various places over Helmand province to collect the wounded, these tasks vary on weekly rotations.

My 8 man section started working first on QRF. Led by Corporal Bird (Birdy) with Lance Corporal Jones (known by all as ginge) as 2ic (second in command) we are made up of soldiers from across 4 Mercian with 1 attachment.

Ginge and I are the only ones in our section from A Coy Fusiliers, Sheldon, whereas Birdy, Privates Savage (Sav), James (Jamo), Wright (Wrighty) all hail from B Coy based in Widness. Private Jowett comes from F Coy, Burton and we have a regular reservist driver Private Philpott, who comes from Kent and is ex-RLC (Royal Logistics Corps).

As the RIP (Relief in Progress) was still underway when we began our tasking, mornings started around 0430hrs in preparation for clearing the ranges and providing cover for the 100's of troops passing through the mandatory range package of the RSOI.

We would pick up a dog handler and sniffer dog then accompany the troops and ensure the ranges were checked for any possible roadside bombs or un-exploded ordanance that may have been left the previous night by any enemy forces under the cover of darkness.

Once all the ranges were cleared we would either be put on standby to be called out to any disturbances / incidents around the camp or re-tasked to provide cover or support to anyone that may need it.

Other tasks we have carried out to date include escorting prisoners off the camp and dropping them outside the front gate, setting up road blocks and escorting engineers outside of camp to survey the area in preparation for the building of a new, high-tech $40 million MEP.

The latter duty was especially interesting for me personally as on 'civie street' I am a surveyor and have carried out the same task on many a building site across the Midlands.

It seemed strange at the time to be doing the task in a war zone, providing top cover for the surveyors in a Snatch Land Rover wearing Osprey body armour, helmet and carrying my minimi fully automatic machine gun in blistering 40 degree heat.

Next - a firefight with the Taliban

As Normandy Company prepared to move its men and personal equipment from Bastion's transit accommodation to the new company lines, anticipation was rife amongst the troops as to the condition of our new living quarters.

Basic canvas 8 men tents with 'roll a trac' plastic flooring, 3 pin power outlets and noisy air conditioning (a godsend when it works) were the extent of our facilities. A fridge that was in our room, brought previously by the departing 4 Rifles, was quickly snapped up by our section for $100 US along with various other bits of personal kit that was exchanged for a few dollars.

Over the next couple of days everyone set about making their bed-spaces' their own by erecting mosquito nets, draping ponchos, sheets or flags (Villa & Blues flags in one room make for some interesting banter!) between sections and knocking up makeshift tables out of scavenged bits of pallets and timber that could be found around the camp. After hanging up our fabric stacking shelves we were able to finally unpack all our kit, equipment and clothing and for the first time it actually felt like we had arrived when we could finally organize our belongings in preparation for the next 6 months.

next - Patrolling Helmand's dangerous road network

Day 1 and the start of the RSOI (Reception Staging Onward Integration) package that is mandatory for all British troops arriving in theatre. "Death by Powerpoint" was the order of the day and it covered everything from enemy activity & tactics, briefs on our equipment, weapons and vehicles etc. to personal health & hygiene and STD prevention.

The evening was the first chance we had to check the internet for emails and facebook updates etc... (as almost everyone now uses the site to stay in contact with one another) and phone home using the 30 minutes per week of allocated call time. After speaking to Steph and briefly to the folks we made a b-line for the naffi and had a coke outside whilst taking in the surroundings.

You can acknowledge immediately that Bastion has been a British affair from day 1 and the similarities with the Americanised boardwalk of Kandahar Air Force Base cease at the Pizza Hut adjacent to the Naffi. The cookhouses are also very British however the 'scoff' (food) is a great deal better than the standard UK equivalent. The one thing that is instantly recognisable is the fact that the place is huge and is just going to keep getting bigger. With Bastion 1 almost pushed to capacity, Bastion 2 almost complete, Bastion 3 under construction and Camp Tombstone (for Afghan National Army troops) adjacent, our tasking as the force protection company will no doubt cover an immense area of operations.

Mothering Sunday was spent zeroing personal weapons on the ranges just outside of the wire. It was the first time everyone started to appreciate the terrain and environment as being stuck out in the middle of the desert with its hot, dry, sandy and dusty conditions bearing down is hard enough (even in late March) carrying no equipment at all not to mention hauling body armour, webbing, daysack (backpack containing supplies, ammunition and a minimum of 4 litres of water) your helmet and rifle around as well.

Finally the day had arrived - we were going to Afghanistan. A culmination of 9 weeks training started at the dawn of the new year and finished just before we were due to fly.

Both physically and mentally demanding, as an infantry company tasked with securing Camp Bastion and the surrounding area, we needed to be trained and proficient in the most basic of infantry and soldiering skills and our training package delivered this.

As well as being trained in a variety weapons systems available to the modern British Army (GPMG, Minimi, 50 cal.) members of the company were also trained to drive various vehicles (WIMIK, Snatch, Vector) which we will be using on operations.
Add to this a week of mandatory "All Ranks Briefings" in Dover and the mandatory 2 weeks at RTMC (Reserves training and Mobilization Centre) in Nottingham, a week-long team medic cadre, live firing exercises and a final confirmation exercise to ensure all the training and knowledge gleaned had been retained, you may appreciate we have been quite busy.

After a final weekend spent in between my girlfriends and parents houses, I waved goodbye to Steph and left for Swynnerton Training area for the final time to regroup with the rest of Normandy Company, 4 Mercian in preparation for the journey to RAF Brize Norton and ultimately Afghanistan.

Its hard saying goodbye to loved ones as anyone who is or has served in the forces will know and all my fellow fusiliers from Barrows Lane, Sheldon share the same dilemma however it is even worse for some as some will be leaving families of their own. Ade Booker, Dale Burgess, Chris Burden, Matt Ruff, John "Big Mitch" Mitchell and Tom "Ozzy" Osbourne all have children at home and the 6 month separation will no doubt be just as hard if not harder for them.

The Tri-star from Brize Norton like many military flights was inevitably delayed, we were told due to problems with the hydraulics.
Albeit behind schedule we took off and less than 7 hours later were donning body armour and helmets for our descent into Kandahar Air Field, in Afghanistan, ready for our connecting flight to Camp Bastion

NEXT - Drama in Afghanistan