Afghan Rumblings 5
From near the Front, 5 August ‘10
Hello from Patrol Base Shahzad, Nad e Ali, again, and more inane rumblings from me, in the Green Zone.
I think I was missed! The Sgt Major wants me back at Shahzad, as he’s fed up with doing the clerking! So my time at CP Washiran has run out and I will have to take my so slightly pink (see last rumblings re Operation Lobster), not quite so white body back down to the land of wearing trousers and day time work.
It’s been an interesting 3 & ½ weeks at the sharp end. Like; filling jerry cans of water from the local well, whilst a gun battle takes place just a short distance away on the other side of a wall. Having a “show of force” Mirage jet fly so low over the CP, you could see right up into the engine tail pipe. Cooking dinners as bullets flew overhead from another contact nearby. It’s funny watching others duck as the bullets zipped over, I didn’t, not that I’m trying to be brave and strut around explaining that “I love the smell of napalm in the mornings”, (I have the T shirt at home), it’s just my reactions weren’t as quick and by the time I’d realised, the bullet had gone, so what’s the point of ducking? Anyway Shahzad should be a bit of a sleepy hollow now in comparison. An emergency there is when the milk for the tea runs out.
And I’m now back in Shahzad and have been reunited with the internet. We patrolled back Sunday afternoon (11 July) with the jackals carrying the kit, so it’s back into the world of paperwork & stagging on. I didn’t get to see the World Cup Final as I was in bed at 2200 and the start was 2300. It was 33 degrees in my room last night, I’m already missing Washiran!
Last minute volunteer: - “Those with nothing better to do stand still, where you going Turton”? I was added to a Mastiff crew on a small convoy to FOB Shawqat, don’t worry, its straight there and straight back I was told. I knew I shouldn’t have believed it! We ended up staying the night as all patrols were stopped, never mind it got me out of a 2 hour stag at Shahzad. But on the plus side, in the morning I bumped into my London Regiment mate, Ed Broadhurst, who I haven’t seen since March. We had a man hug moment and then he was back on his convoy and away.
I got back to Shahzad late morning and straight away we had a serious problem, the Ops room tea bar had run out of sugar. I took a few tips from the Special Forces and managed to track down a bag in the OC’s secret stash. There were no witnesses!
Timing! (No 1) I have been out of Washiran 3 days and they have a contact, a Taliban stood on a compound roof about 250 metres away with an RPG, so the Soldier in the sanger shot him! 3 & 1/2 weeks I was there, in that sanger and nothing! A bit of a contact kicked off after that and I missed it all! Some may consider this a good thing.
After the excitement of gunfights and running low on sugar, life has gone a bit quiet as I thought it would. The day time temperature still hits close to the 50 mark and at night it’s 25-30 ish. Two of the lads were up early working outside and felt cold, one of them who is Fijian had goose pimples, they took the temperature and it was 21 degrees and they were cold! It’s going to be weird when we get back to Yorkshire in September. From frying pan to freezer.
I was in the ops room when a interpreter (Terp) & 2 ANP came in, one armed with an AK47. They chatted to the 2i/c for a few moments who then asked me to go with them as they needed help. The ANP had lost 2 sheep on the HLS area and could I assist in finding them? We did and shepherded them back to the ANP post, they weren’t too happy to go (the sheep), but they managed to avoid the Ghurkhas we have here otherwise they could have been in the curry pot! (Yet again, I mean the sheep). Mind you we had Goat curry the other night, I’ve never had goat before, it was quite good and the Ghurkhas loved it, I can’t see it being in a Tesco’s back home though!
Off on my travels again, I am now at CP Omar for a few weeks. It’s getting rough now as they don’t have electricity here. These are the times you appreciate what you don’t have. When you see on TV, Camp Bastion, please don’t think that’s what it’s like for all the troops as Bastion is a 5 star holiday camp compared to a check point. I’m glad I only have to do a bit of time in one; a lot of lads spend the whole 6 months in a CP. I heard on the forces radio the other day that they had to stick a sign up in the Bastion cookhouse requesting that soldiers took a maximum of 2 pieces of fruit! Bloody hell there was nearly a riot at Omar, where its ration packs to eat and warm water to drink! We stick a bottle of water in a sock, which is then soaked in water straight from the well to cool it down. I can understand why the front line troops get the arse with REMF’s. 2 bits of fruit, my arse!
Anyway time in the checkpoint is away from the “bull” of Shahzad which is now bursting with extra troops from 2 Lancs. We are counting down the weeks to go, everyone keeps coming up with different dates in September for us to finish, so I am counting down to the end of September.
Incoming! As Omar CP is “self catering” with on suite well and poo bags. We often knock up something from tins, for dinner; I went to heat up a couple of tins of baked beans in the tried and tested, boil them in a mess tin method (re Mark Jacobs), but was overruled and they were put direct on to a hexi cooker. As with all the best planned military catering adventures, a large amount of gunfire from/at another nearby checkpoint caused a bit of a distraction. To the point of the beans being forgotten about, well, until one of them exploded. Young Woody was just about to walk past the tins, when he stopped to talk to me, at the precise moment the can went bang. Had he not stopped, he would have been fragged! The resulting sound of the explosion caused some concern in our ops room as they thought the nearby contact had moved into our CP, it was the sound of me laughing that gave it away, well I’d never seen beans move that fast before, or cover such a wide area.
Timing! (No2 & 3). Whilst at Omar, I had to pop back to Shahzad for a day and missed the contact when the Taliban banged off half dozen rounds at the CP. I then got back to Omar and Shahzad got shot at when a helicopter took off from there. That’s 3 times, do you think they are following me?
I am now back in PB Shahzad again, having done 2 weeks at Omar. I have been told I am here for the rest of the tour, which is less than 2 months now. I went on R&R at the end of May and have only been in Shahzad for 9 days since. I would like to say thank you again to those of you that have sent parcels and letters and blueys. I have a big box in my tent full of stuff, so sadly it may be time to ease off now (with the food stuffs). If you still feel like sending, you can always address it as “welfare” and it will be passed on to a check point and shared around.
A big “Happy Birthday” to my brother Mike – 6 Aug. I have a small selection of slightly used combat clothing for you. Handy for gardening without being noticed.
That’s it for rumblings No 5; I can start on No 6 now! Please feel free to email back!
Laters,
Tomsk
