Poised for action

I've only just realised how long it's been since my last post - more than two weeks! But what an exciting two weeks it's been. First of all, we carried out a four-day exercise in Norfolk, which was designed to put us in situations we might encounter "in theatre" (that is, in Helmand). The most difficult aspect of it was that in Afghanistan, we may well have to switch from fighting the war to dealing with civilians in a peacekeeping-type role and back again at the drop of a hat, which means we've all got to be very switched on to what's happening around us. But the exercise, in which we worked with lots of other branches of the Army, from the cavalry to the engineers and the artillery, was brilliant and we were all buzzing by the end, which was a company-level operation to clear an area of woodland of "Taliban" fighters. I've never seen such a wet, boggy, muddy and desnse bit of countryside in my life, and trying to walk along normally was difficult enough, let alone fighting our way through it carrying weapons, webbing, radios and all the other bits and pieces we need! Suffice it to say that no-one, from the most senior officer to the most junior rifleman, got away clean and dry.
Last week, we descended on the spiritual home of the infantry, the army training area in the Brecon Beacons. Wet, muddy, usually windy and often with sideways rain, it's the sort of place where you go expecting to get soaked and it's a bonus if you don't. It sorts the men from the boys.
We had five days of live field firing, where we practise fighting with live ammunition and grenades. This is the pinnacle of infantry training: it's realistic, tough and it begins the process of inocluating us to the volume, chaos and stomach-jolting power of explosions, bullets flying around and the exhaustion of battle. And it's awesome fun! The exercise culminated on Friday with live platoon attacks up a steep-sided valley, with targets popping up to simulate enemy positions. Crawling through a river with a weapon, webbing and a rather large radio is no joke, but you come out of the other end really buzzing.
So this weekend, we've been relaxing over a barbecue and a few beers and preparing for the next exercise, which is two weeks on Salisbury Plain, with thousands of troops rehearsing our mission in Helmand Province. It's going to be yet another busy time, but it will mean that we are good to go.
Sadly though, this is my last weekend with Corunna Company. I and three other soldiers from the company have been selected to join 1st Battalion The Rifles, one of our regiment's regular battalions, to work in a team which helps train the Afghan National Army. While it's a wrench to leave the guys behind (we've all become very close in the past five weeks), this task is an exciting new challenge which we're really looking forward to. So tonight I'm off to Chepstow to meet my new colleagues and start preparing to help the Afghans develop their learning of how to protect their country.

Home on the ranges

ONE of the most important skills for a soldier is shooting, so we’ve been getting lots of time on the ranges over the past week and a half, starting with our personal weapon, the SA80 rifle, and moving up to the big guns: light, medium and heavy machine guns and grenade launchers. Because we fire our rifles so much in the course of our training, it’s always exciting for us to get to grips with the bigger weapons and the lads and lasses of Corunna Company have been enjoying this longer period of skill at arms training. It began with a week on the ranges at Salisbury Plain before we moved to Kent for more specialised training, which included our first real exercise.
The scenario is simple: my platoon of three sections of riflemen was tasked to occupy a building which replicated a Forward Operating Base of the type we may occupy in Afghanistan. We had to perform a reconnaissance, occupy the building and then fight off a series of Taliban “attacks”.
Although the Taliban fighters are only metal pop-up targets, and the incoming enemy fire is just sound effects and smoke, the realism of the exercise was a brilliant test of not just my command skills but also the shooting skills of my riflemen, the skills of my three section commanders (Corporals who are in charge of seven other soldiers) and the organisational skills of my Platoon Serjeant.
It’s very intense, very noisy, very hot and great fun! When the smoke and dust finally cleared and the range safety staff called a halt to the exercise, we had knocked down 551 targets (miles ahead of the other platoons, I was pleased to find out!) and we were “threadders” – absolutely knackered. I looked at my watch and we’d only been in the building for an hour and 20 minutes – it felt like hours and hours. It just goes to show how fierce and fast our operations in Afghanistan can be. It was a wake-up call to all of us that what we’re going halfway round the world to do is pretty serious stuff!
This week, we’re going to Norfolk for a four-day exercise which will rehearse us in more operational scenarios, both defending buildings and on mobile operations on foot and in vehicles, preparing us to face the task in hand. Although it’s hard, intense work, everyone is having the time of their lives – even if we are only getting a few hours’ sleep each night!