Afghan Rumblings 7,
from near the Front, 30 Sept ‘10
Hello from Patrol Base Shahzad, Nad e Ali, again, and more inane rumblings from me, in the Green Zone. (But not for long now).
Well this looks like the last one from Afghan, things have slowed up slightly as to be expected. New blokes for Herrick 13 are starting to arrive and filter in to Shahzad, all looking very smart in their un-sun bleached uniforms. One Para seemed very happy to be here, he said he was getting away from his messy divorce. The rest of us are comparing our leaving dates and counting down the days. I am on the 1st Burma chopper out of Shahzad and get to spend a week at Bastion in the admin office as the rest of Burma roll in, prior to leaving for Cyprus/Catterick/Nottingham/home. Anyway over to the current affairs desk.....
As I was passing Lambys Signals room I heard a voice call out “Terts”, doing the usual looking around trying to work out where the voice was coming from as the signals room was pad locked. “Terts” the voice went again as I then sussed that is was coming from the signals room, “Terts, get Lamby, he’s locked me in”, ah, it was Colour Sgt Willis looking at me through a small hole in the door requesting my assistance. I don’t know why/how he ended up being locked in the signals room, but it was very tempting to leave him in there for a while, you may remember that bricks kept appearing in my bergan. Hhhmmm, what goes around, comes around.
CSgt Willis on his release
Today marked the end of something special, I waved off 3 of my friends from the Londons TA as they finished their tour and climbed into the back of a Merlin helicopter. In the next few days they will back in the UK to de-mobilise and start their leave. The remaining TA soldiers have signed on to stay to the end and switch the lights off when we leave, having cancelled the milk, papers and put the cat out. So it’s a few more weeks to grind out.
We have some American civvies working here now. They “fly” and maintain a tethered “barrage balloon” which has CCTV rigged up under it. The strange thing is, that they are all “large chaps” and I wondered if it’s part of the job application that they have to look like the balloon aswell, I’m not kidding, there’s not a single anorexic one between them, it took 2 Chinooks just to fly them in.
The struggle continues; well the battle of the air bed that is. Whilst on R&R, I bought an air bed from Tesco’s, thinking this is going to make bed time far more comfortable. We have the issue canvas camp beds, which are fine for a night or two, but after a while the urge to have a good night’s sleep takes over, so hence the air bed. The trouble is that it’s been prone to punctures, it now has 5 patches on it, but took about 3 weeks to find puncture No 4 and then I didn’t have any glue to fix it. It’s thanks to Ann for sending me, 2 inner tube puncture repair kits, 1 pack of air bed patches and a tube of super glue. It’s now big and hard (the air bed, you dirty minded lot) and it just needs to stay up for another few weeks (yet again, the air bed!). Luckily I have a decent pump here, so if gets a bit soft, I can get it back up again with a few moments hard pumping, (oh I give up).
It’s nice that the odd one or two of you e-mail or e-bluey me back, not that I’m saying you’re all odd, just one or two of you are that is, but anyway, it’s handy to find out what’s happening, going down etc back in old Blighty. So I need to take up insurance selling as Mandy (cousin) & Bev (mate) both shed blood from accidents in their homes and with me now wondering if it’s safer here than there, other than I did manage to prick my finger on a rather sharp map pin the other day, it went right under the nail! Talking of accidents, (though I doubt it was) congratulations to Amanda & Paul!
Thinking of accidents, I watched our new CSM (Company Sgt Major) drive the Quad through a gap in the Hesco wall, forgetting that the trailer was wider than the quad and of note the trailer was wider than the gap aswell! So the whole lot came to sudden stop with him nearly flying over the handlebars! I wish I had been filming it.
The continuing struggle; yes I’m now up to 6 patches on my air bed. I am competing with the American balloon next door, every time they send it up; someone takes a few pot shots at it. I have noticed all these little black crosses on it from the gaffer tape repairs.
I took this picture prior to its morning launch; it reminded me of a bride we saw from another wedding who were at the same Hotel when Paul & Amanda got hitched.
Back to the war: My last Monday in Shahzad. As usual I was on HLS duty, booking in some new arrivals, as the Merlin took off it was shot at, but this time they were spotted by the rear Sanger, who put down fire and subsequently was shot at back in return. The Gurkha Sanger joined in and it was also shot back at. Meanwhile reinforcements made their way to the Sangers, yes me! To the Gurkha Sanger by foot, huffing & puffing, (I attempted running in full body armour & weapon & mags & grenades) whilst the insurgents had the s**t shot out of them. An Apache had joined in and was firing off loads of 30mm at them as well. I managed to record the battle sounds on my camera and I was directly under the Apache when it fired! From the Gurkha Sanger we watched them recover a casualty by tractor & trailer which was then intercepted by our Mastiff patrol. Score: Taliban, 2 dead & 1 wounded/captured (hit 4 times), nil hits on ISAF. So that looks like my war is over with a bang, I am now down to leave here on Friday 1st and spend my remaining time in Bastion.
That’s it for Herrick 12, as of 1 Oct it will be Herrick 13. Look out for Rumblings 8, after de-mob.
Laters,
Tomsk
