Patrick Hennessey
Page 29
Col David and Col Carew for being benign, understanding and tolerant commanding officers, thank you both.
The officers’ mess has been a wonderful home: Slothy, Sidney, Gabs, Foxy, Henry, Rupert S, Will, Kuks, Worthers, Neil, Jim, Piers, Ben, Paddy R, Greavesie, G-L, Eddie P, Rupert K-E, Fozzy, Chow, Tom, John, Alex, James, Chips, Joe, Bernie, Skid, Dave, Saxby, L-P, Hartley, Harper, Holtby, Thorold, Andrew, Guy et al., a wonderful if occasionally dysfunctional family.
To Olly Holcroft and the next generation I pass the baton.
From that strange and foreign body of ‘civilians’ I somewhat apprehensively find myself joining, thanks must also go to the following:
Charlie Bartlett, Louise Rogers, Quintin Fraser and Charlotte Bird for a perfectly timed stay in France so that we can pretend one day I wrote this somewhere suitably beautiful and pretentious and not in assorted overpriced coffee shops around central London.
Olivia Breese and Laura Roberts for unfailing support and ideas; Ned Williams and James Boylan for (questionable) help with the tricky issue of titles.
Viva, Katie, Alex and Jo—the Nuns—and Charlie and Francesca, for looking after Jen while I was off playing soldiers and then putting up with a smelly boy crashing around their nunnery in the middle of the night making coffee to try and hit deadlines when I got back.
Dr Maggie Mills, for just about keeping me from smashing up the new refrigerator.
My mother and father, to whom I owe everything and apologize for all the smoking and swearing.
And to Jenny Dean, my amazing girlfriend, who has supported me above and beyond, without whose advice this would be a lesser book and without whom I’d be a lesser person.
GLOSSARY OF MILITARY TERMS
A-10: the A-10 Thunderbolt II, a US Air Force close air support (i.e. primarily engages targets on the ground rather than other planes) aircraft, aka the Tankbuster or Hog (its guns make a noise like a warthog)
AGS-17: Soviet automatic grenade launcher (Automat Granatmyot Stankovyi : automatic grenade launcher, mounted)
AK-47: Soviet semi-automatic rifle (Avtomat Kalashnikova obraztsa 1947: Kalashnikov’s automatic rifle 1947)
APOD: air point of disembarkation, the airport that is the main troop entry point into the country
Banner: UK operations in Northern Ireland (1969-2007)
BMP: Soviet amphibious tracked vehicle (Boyevaya MashinaPekhoty: fighting vehicle of infantry)
BSU: Baghdad Support Unit, British HQ in the Green Zone
BTR: Soviet amphibious wheeled vehicle (Bronyetransportyor: armoured transporter)
C17: Boeing C17 Globemaster, US and UK giant military transport aircraft
Casevac: emergency casualty evacuation
CIMIC: civilian-military cooperation
Corporate: UK operations in the South Atlantic (1982)
CP: checkpoint
CWS: common weapon sight, a primitive night-vision device
D-Fac: dining facility, US slang for a mess or cookhouse
Dragunov: Soviet semi-automatic sniper rifle (7.62mm) designed by Evgeny Dragunov
DTDF: divisional temporary detention facility: the British prisoner of war camp in Southern Iraq which didn’t contain ‘prisoners’ because we weren’t fighting a ‘war’
E- bluey: mail sent by Internet to soldiers serving in theatre, printed and distributed via the traditional military postal system
81s: 81mm mortars
Endex: end of (military) exercise
F15: F15 Strike Eagle, US fighter plane specializing in long-range interdiction of ground targets
.50-cal: technically the ammunition used in the .50 (12.7x99mm) Browning heavy machine-gun, but used as frequently to describe the gun itself
FLYPRO: flying programme, daily and weekly schedule of helicopter traffic
FOB: forward operating base
FUP: forming-up point, the final administration and preparation area just before the Line of Departure crossing which would be the no-turning-back moment of the start of an assault
GMG: grenade machine-gun, a modern UK equivalent of the AGS-17
GPMG: general-purpose machine-gun, the venerable ‘general’ Granby: UK operations in the Persian Gulf (1990-91)
Herrick: current UK operations in Afghanistan
Hesco: steel cage boxes filled with rubble and hardcore to form defensive fortifications
Humvee: HMMWV high mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicle, US troop carrier i-com: radio scanner
IED: improvised explosive device
I-Law: interim light anti-armour weapon, UK version of the widely used AT-4 anti-tank rocket
IRT: Incident Response Team in Helmand, specifically the Chinook-borne medical crew probably engaged in more daily heroics than anyone else in theatre
ISAF: International Security Assistance Force, NATO mission to Afghanistan
JDCC: Joint District Command Centre
KAF: Kandahar airfield
KBR: Kellog Brown Root, US contracting firm
LAV: light armoured vehicle
LE: late-entry officer, the most senior and often best soldiers, commissioned at the end of their twenty-two years in the ranks
LoE: line of engagement
Loggy: logistician, an officer or soldier of the Royal Logistic Corps
LUCIE: light-intensifying night-vision binoculars
Mastiff: armoured six-wheel patrol vehicle
MRE: meal ready to eat, US version of our ORPs
NAAFI: Navy, Army, Air Force Institute cafeteria and shop
9-liner: standard format to call for medical assistance
NVG: night-vision goggles
1-bit ammo: ammunition mix which is one tracer round for every one ball round
ORP: operational ration pack or ‘Rat Pack’, 24-hour supply of boil-in-bag meals, etc.
Palk: the last major operation of 12 Brigade’s tour, September 2007
PCD: platoon commanders division, fourteen-week course for Infantry second-lieutenants
Pinzgauer: 4x4 and 6x6 military utility vehicle
PKM: Soviet medium machine-gun (Pulemyot Kalashnikova Modernizirovanniy : Kalashnikov’s machine-gun, modernized)
PRR: personal role radio, platoon-level communication
PSYOPS: psychological operations, propaganda, etc.
Recce: reconnaissance
RiP: relief in place
RPG: rocket-propelled grenade (Ruchnoy Protivotankoviy Granatomyot: hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher)
Sangar: defensive position
SF: special forces
SITREP: situation report, basic radio call detailing the time, your current location, your current activity and your future intentions—usefully remembered as ‘when, where, what, what, what’
SO2: staff officer level 2, a major
Snatch: the Snatch Land Rover, a protected patrol vehicle originally developed for rural patrolling in Northern Ireland
SPG-9: Soviet 73mm recoilless gun (SPG-9 kopye: self-propelled gun, ‘the spear’)
Stag-rotas: staggered rotations; schedule for standing watch
SUV: sports utility vehicle
T2: T for triage system: T1 immediate medical attention, T2 high priority, T3 walking wounded (T4 is a euphemism for dead)
T72: Soviet main battle tank
teeth arm: quasi-official Army shorthand for ‘Combat Arms’ (Infantry, Cavalry and Army Air Corps) as distinguished from ‘Combat Support Arms’ (Artillery, Engineers, Signallers, Intelligence Corps) and ‘Combat Service Support’ (Royal Logistic Corps, Adjutant General’s Corps, Royal Army Medical Corps, etc.)
Telic: current UK operations in Iraq
tracer: rounds modified with a small charge on the base, ignited on firing so that the bullet is visible, especially in the dark, usually loaded one in four (4-bit) or every other round (1-bit)
UGL: underslung grenade launcher, a grenade launcher fitted to a standard rifle
UNSCR 1456: the resolution passed on 20 January 2003 by a me
eting of the UN Security Council which specified (among other things) the rules governing the handling of detainees in Iraq
VCP: vehicle checkpoint
Vector: variation of the Pinzgauer utility vehicle
WMIK: a weapons-mounted installation kit: a stripped-down and up-gunned Land Rover
Patrick Hennessey was born in 1982 and joined the British army in January 2004. His five years of service as platoon commander and company operations officer encompassed tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he was promoted in the field to become the youngest front-line captain in the army and earned a commendation for gallantry. He lives in London.