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Painting the Sand

Page 27

by Kim Hughes GC


  In preparation for the operation, elements of A Company deployed early to secure an Emergency Helicopter Landing Site and isolate compounds to the south of the route as part of the inner cordon.

  Whilst conducting these preliminary moves the point section initiated a Victim Operated IED (VOIED) resulting in a very serious casualty.

  During the casualty recovery that followed, the stretcher-bearers initiated a second VOIED that resulted in two personnel being killed outright and four other very serious casualties, one of whom later died from his wounds.

  The area was effectively an IED minefield, over-watched by the enemy and the section were stranded within it. Hughes and his team were called into this harrowing and chaotic situation to extract the casualties and recover the bodies.

  Speed was absolutely essential if further lives were not to be lost.

  Without specialist protective clothing in order to save time, Hughes set about clearing a path to the injured, providing constant reassurance that help was on its way.

  On reaching the first badly injured soldier he discovered a further VOIED within one metre of the casualty that, given their proximity, constituted a grave and immediate threat to the lives of all the casualties.

  Without knowing the location of the power source, but acutely attuned to the lethal danger he was facing and the overriding need to get medical attention to the casualties rapidly, Hughes calmly carried out manual neutralisation of the device; any error would have proved instantly fatal.

  This was a ‘Category A’ action only conducted in one of two circumstances: a hostage scenario where explosives have been strapped to an innocent individual and a mass casualty event where not taking action is certain to result in further casualties.

  Both place the emphasis on saving other people’s lives even, if necessary, at the expense of the operator. It was an extraordinary act. With shots keeping the enemy at bay, Hughes coolly turned his attention to reaching the remaining casualties and retrieving the dead.

  Clearing a path forward he discovered two further VOIEDs and, twice more, carried out manual neutralisation. His utterly selfless action enabled all the casualties to be extracted and the bodies recovered.

  Even at this stage Hughes’s task was not finished. The Royal Engineers Search Team (REST) had detected a further four VOIEDs in the immediate area and stoically, like he has on over eighty other occasions in the last five months, he set about disposing of them too.

  Dealing with any form of IED is dangerous; to deal with seven VOIEDs linked in a single circuit, in a mass casualty scenario, using manual neutralisation techniques once, never mind three times, is the single most outstanding act of explosive ordnance disposal ever recorded in Afghanistan.

  That he did it without the security of specialist protective clothing serves even more to demonstrate his outstanding gallantry. Hughes is unequivocally deserving of the highest level of public recognition.

  Glossary

  AH – attack helicopter

  AK47 – Kalashnikov automatic rifle

  ANA – Afghan National Army

  ANFO – ammonium nitrate and fuel oil – form of home-made explosive

  ANP – Afghan National Police

  APC – armoured personnel carrier

  bang – plastic explosive

  Bergen – Army rucksack

  C-17 – transport plane

  camp rat – Army slang for someone who never leaves the base

  collapsing circuit – a secondary monitoring circuit designed to detect a change in a primary circuit and then to respond with an electrical output.

  Counter-IED – counter improvised explosive device

  det – detonator

  det-cord – detonating cord

  ECM – Electronic Counter Measures

  EOD – Explosive Ordnance Disposal

  FOB – forward operating base

  helo/heli – helicopter

  Hercules – RAF transport aircraft

  Hesco – wire-mesh containers filled with sand, soil or gravel that may be stacked up to form a wall

  High-metal pressure plate – a pressure plate consisting of high-metal-content electrical contacts such as hacksaw blades. Easily located with an in-service metal detector

  HLS – helicopter landing site

  HME – home-made explosive

  Hoodlum – handheld metal detector

  HQ – headquarters

  ICP – incident control point

  IED – improvised explosive device

  IEDD – Improvised Explosive Device Disposal

  ISAF – International Security and Assistance Force

  KIA – killed in action

  Low-metal pressure plate – a pressure plate consisting of low-metal-content electrical contacts such as bare wire. A device that proved challenging to detect with an in-service metal detector

  Mastiff – armoured vehicle

  MERT – Mobile Emergency Response Team

  MFC – mortar fire controller

  needle – EOD weapon used to cut wires

  No.2 – second-in-command of the Counter-IED team – usually a corporal

  OC – officer commanding

  PB – patrol base

  PE – plastic explosive

  PP – pressure plate

  PPIED – pressure-plate IED

  PTI – physical training instructor

  QRF – Quick Reaction Force

  RC – remote control

  REMF – rear echelon motherfucker – Army slang for someone not in the front line

  RESA – Royal Engineer Search Advisor

  REST – Royal Engineer Search Team

  R & R – rest and recuperation

  RIP – relief in place

  RMP – Royal Military Police

  RPG – rocket-propelled grenade

  RST – Role Specific Training

  SA80 – standard issue British Army rifle

  SAT – Senior Ammunition Technician

  snips – pliers

  SOP – standard operating procedure

  SSgt – staff sergeant

  STT – Specific to Theatre Training

  Terp – interpreter

  Terry – Army slang for Taliban

  UXO – unexploded ordnance

  watch-keeper – NCO or officer who monitors the radio within an HQ

  WIS – Weapons Intelligence Section

  WO – warrant officer, can be Class 1 (WO1) or Class 2 (WO2)

  List of Illustrations

  1. Light scales kit – we only took what we could carry, and nothing more.

  2. Working on a PPIED buried just in front of a small bridge. This was the first and last occasion in which I used the remote controlled robot called Dragon Runner, shown here on my left. My metal detector is positioned on my right. Note the stones, which were placed by the Taliban to warn locals that IEDs were laid in the area.

  3. Brimstone 42 – Malley, Robbo, Lewis, Harry, me and Chappy relaxing in the Helmand river outside FOB Waheed, in June 2009.

  4. Marijuana was grown by farmers and sold to the Taliban. The illicit drugs market helped fund the Taliban campaign against NATO.

  5. Chappy and me on the only piece of grass we saw in our entire tour.

  6. Lewis and me on Operation Panchai Palang. The Danish vehicle in the background was our home for the first part of the operation.

  7. Bridge Micky – Day 2 of Operation Tufaan Dakoo. The hole in the foreground shows the position of the main charge, a 105mm illumination shell, of the command-pull IED. The bridge had been closed with rolls of razor wire, but the Taliban had managed to swim across and place the IED at the base of it.

  8. These two metal rings made up the firing switch. When the string is pulled, the two contacts are forced together, allowing current to flow and causing the device to function. On this occasion the device failed.

  9. Cutting off the Taliban’s line of sight with smoke.

  10. Briefing a journalist during a clearance operation
.

  11. Bomb-making equipment found during Operation Panchai Palang.

  12. The Taliban used a variety of commercial, military and improvised detonators.

  13. My search team clearing part of Pharmacy Road, one of the most dangerous areas in Sangin.

  14. The various stages of uncovering an IED. The pressure plate is sealed with a plastic bag to protect it from the elements. The actual explosives are contained within a British 105mm illumination shell.

  15. Painting the sand – the classic pose of an ATO using a paintbrush to expose an IED.

  16. Speaking with Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, and Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary. Little did I know that my brief chat would be headline news twenty-four hours later.

  17. Chappy and me checking a Taliban flag pole to see if it is booby-trapped. Taliban flags became popular souvenirs among the troops but the insurgents quickly exploited the situation and started to protect the flags with victim-operated IEDs.

  18. 26 July 2009 – the damage caused by an IED to a Danish armoured vehicle. The blast occurred when the vehicle drove over a PPIED at the Witch’s Hat near PB Barakzai.

  19. I was the only casualty, and a very reluctant one. Minutes after this picture was taken, I was airlifted off the battlefield by a US Blackhawk helicopter.

  20. Receiving the George Cross from Her Majesty The Queen, 8 June 2010.

  1. Light scales kit – we only took what we could carry, and nothing more.

  2. Working on a PPIED buried just in front of a small bridge. This was the first and last occasion in which I used the remote controlled robot called Dragon Runner, shown here on my left. My metal detector is positioned on my right. Note the stones, which were placed by the Taliban to warn locals that IEDs were laid in the area.

  3. Brimstone 42 – Malley, Robbo, Lewis, Harry, me and Chappy relaxing in the Helmand river outside FOB Waheed, in June 2009.

  4. Marijuana was grown by farmers and sold to the Taliban. The illicit drugs market helped fund the Taliban campaign against NATO.

  5. Chappy and me on the only piece of grass we saw in our entire tour.

  6. Lewis and me on Operation Panchai Palang. The Danish vehicle in the background was our home for the first part of the operation.

  7. Bridge Micky – Day 2 of Operation Tufaan Dakoo. The hole in the foreground shows the position of the main charge, a 105mm illumination shell, of the command-pull IED. The bridge had been closed with rolls of razor wire, but the Taliban had managed to swim across and place the IED at the base of it.

  8. These two metal rings made up the firing switch. When the string is pulled, the two contacts are forced together, allowing current to flow and causing the device to function. On this occasion the device failed.

  9. Cutting off the Taliban’s line of sight with smoke.

  10. Briefing a journalist during a clearance operation.

  11. Bomb-making equipment found during Operation Panchai Palang.

  12. The Taliban used a variety of commercial, military and improvised detonators.

  13. My search team clearing part of Pharmacy Road, one of the most dangerous areas in Sangin.

  14. The various stages of uncovering an IED. The pressure plate is sealed with a plastic bag to protect it from the elements. The actual explosives are contained within a British 105mm illumination shell.

  15. Painting the sand – the classic pose of an ATO using a paintbrush to expose an IED.

  16. Speaking with Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, and Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary. Little did I know that my brief chat would be headline news twenty-four hours later.

  17. Chappy and me checking a Taliban flag pole to see if it is booby-trapped. Taliban flags became popular souvenirs among the troops but the insurgents quickly exploited the situation and started to protect the flags with victim-operated IEDs.

  18. 26 July 2009 – the damage caused by an IED to a Danish armoured vehicle. The blast occurred when the vehicle drove over a PPIED at the Witch’s Hat near PB Barakzai.

  19. I was the only casualty, and a very reluctant one. Minutes after this picture was taken, I was airlifted off the battlefield by a US Blackhawk helicopter.

  20. Receiving the George Cross from Her Majesty The Queen, 8 June 2010.

  First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2017

  A CBS COMPANY

  Copyright © 2017 by Kim Hughes GC

  This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

  No reproduction without permission.

  All rights reserved.

  The right of Kim Hughes GC to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

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  Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4711-5670-0

  Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4711-5671-7

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