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.