Afghan Rumblings 6,
from near the Front, 31 Aug ‘10
Hello from Patrol Base Shahzad, Nad e Ali, again, and more inane rumblings from me, in the Green Zone.
Timing No 4, (see previous rumblings) this is getting spooky, 1 day out of Omar and it’s having a contact. This is the 4th time I have left somewhere for it to be then shot at! Anyway I have been told that I am staying at Shahzad for the rest of the tour, which as I write this, is only 7 weeks away.
I have just spent the whole of the weekend on stag, with my mate Ash from MT. At one point we did 6 hours straight in the sangers, of which we now have a new one overlooking the river that runs parallel with the camp. 2 Lancs have moved in to Shahzad, made it their Battalion HQ and have taken over. Burma Company 1 Lancs is attached to them, so we have to do what they tell us now, which means the guard is trebled, so more time on stag! Mind you as the 2 Lancs don’t know me, they keep on calling me “Sir”.
I experienced the bird bath last night, when we got off stag at 0010, stinking & sweaty and with the showers closing at 2300, me and Ash went for a bird bath, which consisted of using 2 large washing up bowls filled with cold water, feet in one and bum & dangly bits in the other, but all at the same time. This was done in the dark as the lights had been shut off with the showers. It’s an eye brow raising thought of someone finding 2 blokes, naked in the dark standing in washing up bowls! There again you have to be careful when its Thursday here, as that’s “man love day”. Ann (the wife) had asked me about this in a letter previously and yes, you do have to watch out, as when I was at Washiran an ANP (Afghan Policeman) asked if I wanted “jiggy jiggy”, as they say in the papers, “I made my excuses and left”.....
We had another Mastiff hit by an IED at the weekend, no injuries though, but it’s leaving us short of vehicles. I understand we are now down to a pair of quads and a wheel barrow. It is also rumoured that the wheel barrow may be “up armoured” if the defence cut backs aren’t to savage.
It’s been a manic week here; Shahzad keeps being shot at, sadly a Gurkha engineer was killed as they were building a new sanger on our western side of camp. So after nearly 5 months of nothing, whilst I was on stag covering the HLS, 5 shots were fired at a chopper (Merlin) as it took off. We were unable to spot the shooter, so we couldn’t fire back. Later that day the same thing happen again and this is only a few days after the Gurkha was shot. The Taliban also shot at the chopper picking him up. So it’s getting a bit tense, with not so long to go.
Talking of which, I said to the Doctor, “one day I feel like I’m a tepee and then the next day I feel like I’m a marquee”, he told me I was just two tents. Anyway:
Those of you that do “facebook” will have noticed that I have met up with Chris Proud. For those who don’t, Chris was a sea cadet, prior to joining the army. He joined the artillery, but is in a DH3 unit, who fly the unmanned camera planes (model aircraft club, as I call them). They then seem to crash into anything whilst trying to land them. Trees, buildings, vehicles, water, aerials, just about anything other than an open space. So it all makes sense, an ex sea cadet, in the army, flying planes!
A step closer to coming home has been taken, which involved packing up a large box of stuff to ship back. How is it I can be so far away from the shops and still end up with 2 ton of stuff extra to the original ton that I brought out? If anybody needs to kit out a small army, then please give me a shout, as I seem to have it all. You should be careful at Christmas as you are opening your presents with that... “I wonder what it is” look upon your face, you could be getting some slightly second hand army stuff.
Woe, woe and thrice woe, the goal posts have been moved! Our flying out date has been put back 2 weeks to 14 Oct. I don’t know why, but it has. On the plus side (if there has to be one)! It’s an extra 14 days of Operational Bonus pay. We are now known Herrick (elastic) 12 or Herrick 12 and a bit or Herrick 12.1, have any of you ever seen the war film “Catch 22”, if you have, I now understand how they felt, perhaps I should order up some Christmas decorations now to beat the rush, just in case it stretches out a bit longer.
Birthday cheer! A big thank you for the cards, stuff and messages I received. Some of it arrived early, some of a few days late, (some not at all)! But we are reliant on the RAF to bring it in, so it’s just nice to have stuff turn up. I cut up and shared around the cakes Ann sent me, they didn’t last long! And I hung the cards up on string next to my mozzie bed net thing. The OC said that if he is sitting here in Afghan when he’s my age he will shoot himself! We were talking about tattoo’s and I worked out that I had the oldest tattoo in the Company, but then as the OC pointed out, I’m the oldest ****** here!!
My little corner of Afghan that’s home.
A 9 liner is a list of details required for a medical evacuation, two have recently happened of interest: first was for an army dog that had gone down with heat exposure, the medics at Bastion via radio, were apparently trying to confirm the respiration and heart rate of the “casualty” (hold your paw steady whilst I take your pulse) and the second 9 liner was for an injury to a soldier (not dog) who had hurt whilst carrying out an controlled explosion! (But not very well controlled), perhaps his tour had been extended aswell.
With this rumblings going over the Ramadan Period, the fighting has become a bit predictable, as in their timing, usually its early morning and late evening. I managed to record the sound of the morning clash whilst on stag, it lasted 45 minutes and involved three checkpoints and our 105 guns. When I got back in the main building one or two sleepy heads announced that they hadn’t heard a thing! I suppose it’s all about getting used to your surroundings.
“Made ready” In the “Gurkha Sanger”
When I started writing this I had 7 weeks to go; now I am down to 6 weeks to go, but it took 3 weeks to write! We have been given the dates of the replacement unit coming in, so the countdown has some reality to it now. It some ways it seems strange to be so close to coming back and leaving here, I suppose it’s the routine and you that you make your space your home, but I don’t think any of that will stop anyone from pushing to the front of the queue to board the plane back to the UK.
Well that’s it for this rumbling; I will start on No 7 which should be my last one “in theatre”, then its home for tea, toast and medals!
Laters,
Tomsk
