Goodbye to Blighty

The next time I write will be from Afghanistan. It seems like a lot longer than three months that I left civvy street behind to become a full-time soldier, but it's also flown by. Anyway, at last me and the other soldiers of Corunna Company and 1st Battalion, The Rifles are ready to go. Training's complete, kit is packed and all we now have to do is throw ourselves upon the mercy of the RAF to get us out to Helmand.
It's about a six-hour flight (although it could take a lot longer, because just like Heathrow Airport, there's a lot of waiting around involved), which is a long time for those of us who are on our first tour to sit in an aeroplane seat wondering what's going to greet us when we get to Camp Bastion. We'll spend a few days acclimatising before we get on with the job - a friend of mine currently out in Helmand Province tells me it is scorchingly hot there at the moment - so we'll be fully settled in by the time we go out on the ground.
It's pretty exciting, and even though I'm a little nervous I can't wait to get on with things.
Even better, I've just found out that I'm being made acting Captain for the tour, which has got me puffing my chest out and standing a couple of inches taller. And of course, Captain sounds much more dangerous and dashing than Lieutenant!
So here's looking forward to posting from Afghanistan, hopefully with plenty of interesting stuff to tell you about. And a better suntan. See you on the other side.

Medical notes Part 2

a) My Achilles is feeling much better thanks to the horse pills handed out by the medical centre.

b) The malaria tablets are VILE.

c) The vaccination has given me man flu. Please send sympathy!

In the spotlight

The BBC has published a story about Corunna Company's deployment to Afghanistan - click on the link below to view it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7601838.stm

If you are a Facebook user, you can keep up to date with progress by looking at the group "Support Corunna Company in Afghanistan"

Medical notes

Less than eight hours to go until I have to start taking my anti-malaria tablets, in case Taliban-trained mosquitos come and bite me in the night. Apparently the pills make you go mad and bald, which for me is just hastening the process. And I've been stuck with more needles to vaccinate me against some sort of screaming heebie-jeebie disease or other. Oh, and I'm on super-strength painkillers because the doctor tells me I've got titus omni vitus or something in one of my Achilles tendons. Apparently that means I've got an inflamed sheath. But apparently it will go down in a couple of weeks, so I will be fighting fit, hurrah!

Nose back to the grindstone

THREE weeks’ holiday, like I’ve already said, was a bit of a luxury, but it was surprising how much I needed it after two and a half months of non-stop activity. It was great to be able to wake up in the morning (ok, sometimes the afternoon!) and not have to worry about anything. No parades, no cleaning filthy kit and weapons, to timings to stick to, just plain old relaxation.
Even so, it was still a busy holiday. I managed to get around the country and see quite a few of my relatives, and spend some time with my girlfriend. What was really good was that she has passed her driving test, so I could get her to chauffeur me around for a change!
It wasn’t all great fun though, because sadly my grandmother died after a long illness, which unfortunately meant that I got to see even more of my family and other relatives, but not in circumstances which I’d really wanted to.
But now I’m back on duty and everyone is ready for the flight. In fact, we’ve mostly got to the stage where we just want to get on with it rather than waiting. All of our training is complete, down to the final few briefings on the situation in Helmand, the latest drills and tactics we need to know and all our kit packed and stowed for what’s likely to be a six-hour flight into Kandahar before we move on to Camp Bastion.
The anticipation is certainly mounting and there’s an atmosphere of determination and even some excitement around camp, that we finally – after months of training – get to go and do the job. How do I feel about it? Well, I’ve been experiencing mixed emotions. I think that after seeing home and my girlfriend and family I’d been feeling some trepidation about it, because as we all know it’s ain’t a pleasant place, but as soon as I got back to camp and was able to get into the swing of things again, all that evaporated and now I’m champing at the bit. And of course, the British Army is the best in the world, so there’s nothing to worry about! By the way, my kit did fit into those bags in the end.

Explosion in the quartermaster's stores

It might still be another week and a half until I have to report back for duty, but when I woke up this morning I thought it would be a really good idea to start packing my kit.
After forcing open the door to my spare room, my first thought was to call the police and report a burglary, because the great big pile of desert camouflage-coloured stuff lying all over the place looked exactly like the title of this post, a massive, unfolded, mish-mash of trousers, shirts, combat jackets, boots, string, water bottles and all the other assorted paraphernalia which the British soldier gets thrown at them in the QM's store, rather like those scenes in the films.
After forcing the door shut again, going away, drinking several cups of coffee, reading the paper from cover to cover, going out for a run, having lunch, reading the paper again and generally using all the tactics one employs to avoid having to tackle a big job, I reluctantly returned to the spare room, in the vain hope that in my absence, the magic tidying up elves had done their job.
Alas, they had completely failed to help me, so I am writing this while the European Army Surplus Mountain sits there, staring at me in a challenging sort of way.
Suggestions on a postcard please, as to how I can fit this lot into a rucksack and holdall.

We're all going on a summer holiday

I don't think I've ever had three weeks' holiday from work before! The only problem is that after the intensity of everything that's happened since I mobilised in June, I'm a bit worried that I might get a bit bored... So I'm planning to fill my time with catching up on all those things that I just haven't had the time to do for the last two months (seeing my family being the most important one of them!).
It's also giving me time to reflect on what we've done, what we've achieved and the size of the job ahead of us. The thing is, while I always expected to be involved in operations either in Afghanistan or possibly Iraq when I joined the Territorial Army, I never expected to be involved in the role I've now been given, that of training the Afghan National Army. In some ways, it's one of the most important roles the British Army is performing there, because we can fight the Taliban and charities and aid organisations can hand out food, tools and equipment all day long, but if there is nothing there to take over the security of the country when our work is eventually done, then things could return very quickly to square one.
That sounds like a lot of self-praise! The best bit of news Corunna Company has had is that the powers that be have been very impressed with our efforts over the past few weeks, so it looks like we might get used for some more interesting tasks away from Camp Bastion.
In any case, we're all looking forward to our leave, time to recharge our batteries ahead of a long flight out to Afghanistan and the real beginning of our adventures.