Spoken from the Front (32 page)

I was [pleasantly] surprised at what the ANA could do.
Prior to leaving, we were led to believe we were going over
there and they were people running about with guns. They
do have an idea, more than a bit. If you have a strong company
commander then that company will know what they're
doing. The structure relies heavily on the company
commander. If you've got a bit of an idiot as a company commander,
then the blokes won't care. There are around a
hundred ANA in a company. You will have six in your
[British Army] team: so six mentors to a hundred ANA. I was
lucky. Throughout the seven months, I had the same
company commander so I had the same troops all the way
through. You have to trust them. If you don't trust them, you
can't go out with them, especially up in Musa Qa'leh. That
was the most kinetic fighting that we did. If I asked them to
do something they would go and do it. If we were in contact
and I asked them to do something, there was trust that they
would go and do it. But there are different kinds of trust.
Would you go out and leave your iPod sitting on your bed?
The answer would be no. But when it comes to trusting them
out on the ground, I would.

The co-ordination, the fire-power, and the planning that the
Taliban put into their attacks is unbelievable. I don't think
they've got the resources to waste them. And they're very
good fighters. It's the commanders who know what they're
doing; the blokes just do as they're told. And the insurgency,
with their IEDs, are getting better every day, which is a scary
thing. I would never go out on the ground without an exact
plan of what I was going to do because when they do hit you,
they hit you hard. And they know exactly what they're doing;
there's no rushing them. If it means them waiting for you to
move to where they want you – to the ground of their choosing
– then they'll wait. That's the way they are – and then
they'll hit you as hard and as fast as they can until their
ammunition or their IEDs are expended.

McNab:
It is revealed that Captain Simon Cupples, who returned
to the battle zone three times under enemy fire to rescue three
wounded comrades, will receive the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross –
an award just below the Victoria Cross. Cupples, twenty-five, led a
handful of men five times to recover casualties after almost a third
of his platoon from the Mercian Regiment had been shot when a
force of some thirty Taliban ambushed them from a distance of only
twenty metres. Sergeant Craig Brelsford, twenty-five, was awarded
a posthumous Military Cross for trying to retrieve the body of
Private Johan Botha in the same incident. Furthermore, Corporal
Michael Lockett and Private Luke Cole, who was seriously
injured, were both awarded the Military Cross (MC) for their
conspicuous bravery. The Mercian Regiment, who lost nine men
in their six-month tour, were awarded thirteen bravery medals.

The courage of several members of 1 Battalion The Royal Anglian
was also officially recognized. They included those who had fought
on 13 April 2007, when Private Chris Gray, nineteen, lost his life
in a fire-fight. Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Carver, the commanding
officer, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for the
way he led his troops. Major Dom Biddick and Corporal Robert
'Billy' Moore, who was injured during the fire-fight, were both
awarded the Military Cross (MC). So, too, was Captain David
Hicks, but his award was posthumous. Captain Hicks, twenty-six,
was killed on 11 August 2007, during a violent attack on his patrol
base north east of Sangin. Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Carver later
paid tribute to the nine men from the 1st Battalion who died during
that single bloody tour. He said of his own DSM: 'Personally I see
the award very much as recognition of the whole battalion's efforts.
You cannot give a medal to all 700 members of the battalion, but my
medal is to recognize them all. I'm immensely proud of them. That
feeling hasn't diminished over time. The real test of our work will
come this summer [2008]. I look back and see that we made a huge
difference to the overall campaign. I'm not saying we won it, but we
changed the mindset from being defensive to taking the fight to the
Taliban.' Colour Sergeant Simon Panter, who killed three Taliban in
a single fire-fight, was Mentioned in Dispatches. He was honoured
in this way for his 'heroic actions, outstanding leadership, initiative
and aggression that sent a powerful message to the enemy that
British forces would attack to reinstate legitimate government
whatever the risk'. The gallantry awards were among 183 medals
announced for bravery largely in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Warrant Officer Class 2 Keith Nieves, The Royal Anglian
Regiment

Young Private Luke Nadriva, who got me out of the blown-up
Viking after it was hit by a mine strike, has been awarded
the Queen's Gallantry Medal [the QGM is the third highest
bravery award for courage not in the face of the enemy]. Luke
is a Fijian lad in his twenties. He was my 51 [mortar] man [in
5 Platoon]. He undoubtedly saved my life. My vehicle was
engulfed in flames, but he managed to get all the armour
[plating, crumpled in the blast] free so he could open the
door. He had to prise it open. There is no way I could have
got out of that vehicle [but for Nadriva's courage]. I will
always be grateful to him.

In April 2008, 16 Air Assault Brigade returned to Afghanistan and replaced
52 Infantry Brigade as part of Operation Herrick 8. The entire force totalled
around 7,800 servicemen and women. A great deal had changed in 16 Air Assault
Brigade's eighteen-month absence. UK forces in Afghanistan now used a large
number of forward operating bases all over Helmand, which had been built by
the Royal Engineers. These were designed to reinforce the platoon houses and
provide launching pads from which troops could patrol the surrounding area.

The pattern of life in towns such as Sangin and Musa
Qa'leh was far more normal than they had previously seen
and large-scale construction projects, such as the Kajaki
hydroelectric plant, were taking shape. However, the Taliban
had not gone away and in places the fighting was as fierce as
the Paras had endured in 2006.

The main combat power of Operation Herrick 8 was provided
by 2 Battalion The Parachute Regiment, 3 Battalion The
Parachute Regiment, 1 Battalion The Royal Irish, 2 Battalion
The Royal Regiment of Scotland, 5 Battalion The Royal
Regiment of Scotland and 7 Parachute Regiment The
Royal Horse Artillery. They were supported by the Royal
Logistic Corps, the Royal Electrical and Mechanical
Engineers and elements of the Royal Artillery. Helicopter
support was provided by the Sea Kings of 845 and 846 Naval
Air Squadrons, as well as the Lynxes of 847 Naval Air
Squadron and RAF Chinooks from 18 and 27 Squadrons and
Army Air Corps Apaches. Harriers of 4 Squadron Royal Air
Force gave air support, and Hercules from 30 and 70
Squadrons, and The RAF Regiment were responsible for
Force Protection

Ranger David McKee, The Royal Irish Regiment

Ranger David McKee, 1 Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment, is twenty. He
was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. The son of a steel welder, he has two
sisters and a brother. His great -grandfather served with the Royal Irish
Engineering Corps and he has an uncle in the RAF. McKee left school at sixteen.
He had grown up during the Troubles and had wanted a military career since
he was ten, having seen soldiers patrolling the streets and being supported
by the local population. He joined the Royal Irish in March 2006. His visit
to Afghanistan in 2008 was his first overseas tour and he worked for OMLT
[Operational Mentor Liaison Team] 2, B Company. McKee, who is single, is based
at the Royal Irish's barracks at Tern Hill, Shropshire.

Before we left [the UK], I was looking forward to the tour but,
then again, I was a wee bit frightened too. We'd obviously
heard the news about boys getting into contacts, roadside
bombs and all that. But when it comes down to it, you think:
It [trouble] can be dodged. It can be avoided if you go back
and do what you're taught to do.

When I arrived, I was part of the OMLT. Our role was to
train the ANA. We were training them in lots of different
subjects: basic field drills, patrolling skills, teaming through
their own weapons, and getting them converted from the
AK-47 to the M16, the American rifle. We went out on patrols
with them. We took them through IED clearance, mine
clearance, room clearance, compound clearance. Our aim was
that they would eventually be able to do it themselves without
the British.

Some of their skills were nearly there [to a professional
level] but the thing that confused them was having different
[British] regiments coming in with different perspectives. So
they ended up with one regiment training them to do something
in a particular way and then our regiment, or another
regiment, would do it completely differently. And then they
would have to try to adapt to it.

Some of the ANA's soldiers were average but many of the
new recruits coming in were absolutely terrible. We always
spoke to them through an interpreter. Our role was to turn
them into an effective fighting force. We knew it was going to
be a challenge.

Major Jonathan Hipkins, Royal Military Police (RMP)

Major Jonathan Hipkins, of 156 Provost Company Royal Military
Police (RMP), is forty. He was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
His father worked as a car designer, his mother as a PA to a
company managing director. Hipkins, who has a younger
brother, left school at eighteen. He hoped to become a fast jet
pilot in the RAF but failed a secondary hearing test and was
commissioned into the Supply and Movement Branch in 1988.
After nearly six years in the RAF, he left to become a civilian
police officer in Coventry from 1994 to 1997. During his time in
the force, he also became a yeomanry officer – a TA cavalry
officer. After a short-service voluntary commission with 9/12
Lancers, he transferred to the RMP in 1999. In the last decade,
he has done tours of Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Afghanistan.
Married to a police officer, he has two sons and is based at
Colchester, Essex.

The Royal Military Police does a traditional policing role for
the military – investigations into crimes, etc. But we also
provide Provost support – myriad military police tasks from
reconnaissance to route signing and from prisoner and
detainee handling to evidence gathering. If a British soldier is
killed in Afghanistan, that incident has to be investigated for
a UK coroner by the RMP.

The role of the Royal Military Police in Afghanistan is often
unsung but it is hugely important. There was an incident
when, in a convoy of vehicles, the first vehicle hit a mine.
Everyone in the first vehicle was killed. It was a Snatch
armoured vehicle and four service personnel died. In the
second vehicle, I had two members of the Royal Military
Police who then had to get out and conduct the preliminary
aspects of a murder investigation in a hugely threatening
environment. Then they literally had to pick up the bits of the
friends they had just seen killed and put them in their day
sacks. They were scraping up hands and feet – literally. These
lads were in their early twenties. On other occasions, I have
had soldiers who have had to take DNA swabs from the dead
body of their friend, take photographs of it.

It's hard to imagine more horrific circumstances and, for
me, the quiet courage of those individuals on that day was
something that is very rarely acknowledged, but is worthy of
recognition. It wasn't a case of an individual charging an
enemy machine-gun. It was just normal blokes doing a normal
job – or perhaps it's more accurate to say, doing an
extraordinary job in extraordinary circumstances. I think
there is a perception in Civvy Street that soldiers are to a
certain extent immune from what they see. But nothing is
further from the truth. I have had individual RMP guys who
have seen and done too much out here and I have had to take
them from their jobs and put them in less stressful areas to
give them some down-time because of the things they have
seen and experienced. These lads are so young and it does
affect them. I know it affects them. I certainly wonder in later
life what sort of impact the things they have seen and done
here will have on them. For me, this quiet heroism, this
unsung heroism that never gets talked about, is worthy of
note.

There is this kind of approach to life in the military where
it is all about machismo – retaining that manly, macho
approach to life. But you can see that some of them are hurting
through some of the things that they have seen whilst
they have been out here. Very often they won't talk to me
because I'm their boss. I'm the person who writes their confidential
report and any sign of weakness could be seen as
just that. But I would never look at an individual and consider
them weak in that respect. I would consider them an
individual who has seen a little bit too much and they need,
probably, a little bit of extra care to make them feel better
about themselves. The way they are treated will reflect that.
But I have plenty of people around here who are trained to do
that and have done it for some of my soldiers. People are
different. Some individuals will talk about it quite freely,
others will bottle it up. I'm not going to force people to talk
about their issues but we're there for them if they need us.
And as I say, to date, I have had a number of individuals who
are obviously in need of a rest.

It's blatantly obvious, because of a reluctance to go out or
the fact they are in some way, shape or form behaving differently
from how they were prior to an incident. In that respect
I have pulled people off front-line duty and put them back
into the police station in order to give them a bit of respite.
But they are also very young and, for most people who are in
a position of command/responsibility, it is something we're
very aware of out here – high stress, you know, a very fast
pace of life, a hugely dangerous environment for them to
work in. If you're any sort of decent boss you've got to be
acutely aware of that and to react on an individual basis
when your people have got something that they need, when
something is happening in terms of their normal approach,
which is not normal any more. Then you need to give them
the care that they require.

Ranger Jordan Armstrong, The Royal Irish Regiment

Ranger Jordan Armstrong, 1 Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment,
is twenty. He was born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone. The son of a
computer worker, he is the second of five brothers. Armstrong
was an Army Cadet until he was seventeen when he decided to
pursue a military career. He joined up in May 2007, when he was
eighteen. He enlisted because he specifically wanted to go to
Afghanistan, which he saw as a great challenge and an
opportunity to gain experience of battle. During his time in
Afghanistan, he kept a daily diary about his thoughts.
Armstrong, who is single, is based at the Royal Irish's barracks
at Tern Hill, Shropshire.

I joined up just as our boys were starting to go to Helmand
province. I wanted to go and experience the fighting. I knew
before signing papers in the careers office that I would go to
Afghanistan. I had seen videos of the boys in Afghanistan. It
definitely looked mad but I still wanted to try it. I always got
a nervous feeling just thinking about it.

We flew to Afghanistan for my first tour on 25 March 2008.
I had been abroad once before – to the South of France for
holidays – and that was it. We flew out from [RAF] Brize
Norton [in Oxfordshire] to Kandahar. I was thinking: This is
it. I'm going to do whatever I have to do and hopefully I'll
come back. I had butterflies when we were on the runway at
Brize Norton. I thought: I have a long six months ahead of
me.

My first impression when I arrived in Afghanistan was of
the heat and dust – and how flat it was. It was flat in Camp
Bastion. I'm an LMG [light machine-gun] gunner. That is my
weapon. I'm trained to fire it. I was in Corporal Harwood's
section. There were eight of us in it.

April 7 was a bad day. The ANP [Afghan National Police]
came back from a patrol to Sangin DC. We were supposed to
go out at the same time that they came back in – around 3
a.m. But the FSG [Fire Support Group] boys were firing off
Javelins [anti-tank missiles]. One got fired and instead of
going off into the distance it actually landed in the camp
[Sangin DC]. But it didn't explode so they cordoned it off.
This meant our patrol was delayed. It was good for us
because we were then still at the base to deal with a major
incident.

An RPG, being carried in a bag by the ANP, went off inside
the camp. I think it was dropped by mistake. They had been
carrying the RPGs in a bag on their backs. It blew up seven of
them. Two of the men were killed, others lost limbs. It had gone
off at the back of the base – Sangar Two. It was an ND – negative
discharge. I don't know if it was bad drills or bad luck.

We were nearby unloading. I ran over with the others. I
saw a lot of boys with their guts hanging out. There was one
being carried away with both legs blown off above the knees.
He wasn't screaming. He was quiet. We got them [the
injured] on stretchers and took them over to the med centre. I
had to pick up one of the dead boys. His back was blown out
and I had to throw him up in the truck. It sounds a bit rough
to throw him in the back of a Land Rover but that was what
I was told to do.

I hadn't seen anything like that before [Armstrong was
then just nineteen and only two weeks into his first tour]. I
was actually all right when I saw them [dead and maimed
bodies]. I wasn't sure whether I was going to be sick but, as
soon as I saw them, I was all right. I thought I would have
been faintish, but I wasn't. We had a good platoon sergeant.
He took control and said: 'Get a grip, boys. Just get the
job done.' Some boys were sick, though – they couldn't
handle it. You don't know how it's going to affect you until
you see it.

McNab:
Some deaths inevitably capture the public's attention
more than others. This was one: Senior Aircraftman Gary
Thompson, fifty-one, became the oldest serviceman to be killed on
operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. He died with a comrade, Senior
Aircraftman Graham Livingstone, when their Wolf Land Rover was
blown up during a patrol outside Kandahar airfield. He left a widow
and five daughters, aged from sixteen to twenty-four. His family said
that Thompson, who was the ninety-third British serviceman to die in
Afghanistan, 'touched the lives of everyone that knew him'. In
February 2008, he had told the
Rutland and Stanford Mercury,
near his base at RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire: 'I have five
daughters, three of whom are at university. I want women in
Afghanistan to be given the same opportunity as my daughters have
had.' Thompson and Livingstone served with the Royal Auxiliary Air
Force Regiment.