Before we left for Sangin DC, Teddy gave me a letter to pass on to his loved ones, just in case he did not make it, while I gave him a similar letter for Annie. We promised to pass these on should the worst happen, smoked a cigarette together, shook and hands and then I boarded the Chinook for Sangin.
When we arrived, TT, Ghost Face and I were shown in to the room we would be occupying in the DC building. I then decided to go and find the FSG snipers and walked around looking for them. Sure enough, there in the corner was our platoon commander, Colour Sergeant ‘Fruity’ Faupel, OB, Jimmy and Donny. Jock had been repatriated back to the UK because of injury. Although it was nothing more serious than an injured ankle, he clearly could not even walk properly, let alone patrol, so he had been sent back. It was so good seeing these guys, listening to their stories and catching up with what they had been up to. They were due to move out on Operation PALK GHAR and were to clear the area around Jucelay as FOB Inkerman had now been properly built since we had cleared that area during Operation LASTAY KULANG. The Taliban really wanted to maintain a stranglehold on the top of Sangin. Even though we had cleared the area and build forward operating bases there, we had trouble maintaining it and had to sweep the ground again and leave more men there. Both C Company and A Company were involved in the operation, so they needed the towers at Sangin manned in their absence.
We kept back various guys who had suffered non-serious injuries to stay and help man Sangin. There was really good surveillance from the CCTV cameras covering the area and we logged any activity that we could detect. It was pretty uneventful but there were a few times when we supported various incidents. It was actually a bit of a relief to see the tracer rounds in the distance and realise that for a change it was not us on the receiving end. It was more like being a spectator, listening to the traffic on the radio net and monitoring what was happening in different areas rather than being in the thick of the action, on top of roofs, or shooting and moving while being shot at.
Ross Kemp came out again to conduct some interviews while I was with the other guys living in the tower and manning the sangars. 7 Platoon meanwhile was living in the old mortar area that was in the other part of Sangin on the opposite side of the canal where we all used to swim and wash. We all went over there with Ross and organised a barbecue. OD set it up and we sat around it with Ross and his camera crew. We baked some bread after managing to get some bread mixture from the chefs, and caught some fish from the canal to grill. We talked through what happened and how we felt about the blue-on-blue. You could tell that Ross really did actually care about us guys and in a way felt that he too had lost some friends.
CHAPTER 18
Sniper Ops
Fruity came back from PALK GHAR and told me something that made my day. I was not going back to Kajaki, but was to accompany him to Camp Bastion. I said, ‘Really?’ He replied, ‘Yes, we are going to be doing sniper ops.’ I was so chuffed and asked what this involved. Fruity said he was not sure but the entire Sniper Platoon was going to operate as one unit. The CO had not used the platoon as an entity up until now but we were now entering the last four weeks of this tour, so he went for it. Teddy was to get a flight back from Kajaki to Camp Bastion, so it was all spot on – in fact absolutely brilliant. I gave the rest of my MRE ration packs to Ghost Face and TT and readied myself for a life of luxury at Camp Bastion: hot showers, fresh food, laundry service and air conditioning. It was like moving to a five star hotel.
The other guys were so jealous. I told Sergeant Woodrow about the move and he said, ‘No worries, have fun.’ After the formalities were over, he called me a lucky, cheeky bastard. I remember thinking, ‘Yep, happy with that.’ Nothing was going to bring me down as I was going to meet the entire sniper platoon in the luxury of Camp Bastion. It was a great day.
I waved Ghost Face, TT and the rest of the guys off as they flew away towards Kajaki and then remained waiting at the flight line until another Chinook arrived. Within five minutes I was in the air over Sangin and on my way to Bastion.
On arrival, I was met by Sergeant Major Terry Taylor who was in command of the Reconnaissance Platoon which was back at Bastion at the time because its vehicles had broken down. As there were only a few weeks left of the tour, there was no major hurry to repair and redeploy them. The major operations for this tour had all finished and, as we were now into September, with the next unit due to arrive at the end of the month to begin its tour, things were now finally beginning to wind down for us.
Fruity, Donny, OB, Jimmy and I all jumped into Sergeant Major Taylor’s Pinzgauer and before long I was off loading all my stuff. I soon saw that everyone in the platoon was there – Teddy, Robbo, Tom, Kingy, Mo, DG, Sarge, Cas and the rest. It was so good to see everyone in one place and soon we were all shaking hands and talking about our experiences. The atmosphere was fantastic and it was like an old school boys’ reunion, which was great after all that we had been through. Sergeant Major Taylor then told us what was going to happen. The Sniper Platoon was going to be doing OP work, which was our bread and butter role, with the Recce Platoon deploying with us as a quick reaction force (QRF).
While the head shed planned what we were going to be doing, we took advantage of life in Camp Bastion. While most civilians are used to having time off at weekends, for us it was paradise to have a few days with nothing to do because weekends and bank holidays do not exist on operational tours. Our weapons were cleaned, to the point that they may as well have been new, before being stowed away. We showered and put our clothes in the launderette, which for us was just absolutely brilliant, and played cards and drank cans of ice cold coke. Having a shower in the morning and another in the evening was also just sheer luxury, as was being able to have a chocolate bar that was solid and not a fluid mess. Silly things like that meant so much to us. We also had a Pizza Hut open up, and even had a Play Station 2 and a television so everything just felt like a whole world away from the last six months. Furthermore, I found that I was actually able to sleep because the air conditioning was really working, so we had to zip up our sleeping bags and could sleep, really sleep, for the first time in what seemed an age.
This wonderful interlude was only to last for three days and soon we were preparing for the last operations of the tour, which would throw up some real surprises.
The first operation that we were to carry out involved an enemy sniper operating in the Nowzad area where the Taliban had, for all intents and purposes, freedom of movement around the area doing what they wanted while our guys were largely confined to the DC. Although we had pushed the buffer zone out from where the Marines had left it, the Taliban could still re-infiltrate the area. It had been decided to put out an OP screen around Nowzad. We established this on the outside of the DC while a third OP was set up in one of the sangars on the corner of the district centre. A QRF was formed of eight guys from the Recce Platoon, under the command of Sergeant Major Terry Taylor, its role being to react swiftly to any threat outside the wire. We had received orders that this operation was going to last around four days with the aim of disrupting any Taliban activity.
We had a lot to squeeze in within a short amount of time so, with all our orders sorted and all the kit we needed squared away, we flew out to Nowzad by Chinook and established ourselves in the DC. A platoon from C Company was in Nowzad and it was good to see a couple of faces that I had not seen for a while. The Recce Platoon had managed to acquire a large inflatable thing like a large paddling pool and filled it with water, so at any one time there would usually be a few guys in there trying to cool themselves off in the intense heat.
We reported to the briefing room and were given our final orders. Fruity was to be in charge of his section, with Donny as the 2IC, OB and JL. We were left with twelve snipers as we had lost Alex and a few others had been injured, while Robbo had been sent home early to do some courses. In our section there was Mo, Teddy, Kingy and me. We split up into three groups of four. In the second OP there was our Platoon Sergeant
, Tom, Cas and DG.
We carried out a patrol round the outside of the DC, just to familiarise ourselves with the surroundings, and looked into various buildings. That night the Recce Platoon went out in a couple of WMIKs while we deployed into our respective OPs. We established ourselves in our sangar where we remained for four days. Being inside the wire, we had the luxury of being able to have a cigarette if we went down the ladder right to the bottom of the sangar. The guys on the outside had to do the stint on ‘hard routine’ with no cigarettes. At night, we avoided the use of torches or lights completely for obvious reasons.
One night, during one of my stags, I was sitting in the chair with a bottle of juice by my side while looking through the night vision equipment. I put the bottle to my lips only to recoil from the most disgusting taste, almost like lead or graphite. I spat it out trying my absolute hardest not to throw up as a horrible oily liquid ran down my chin. Teddy heard the quiet commotion and asked what was wrong, only for me to explain that I had just taken a mouthful of Britain’s finest gun oil. In the darkness, my juice bottle felt identical in shape and weight. The guys just killed themselves laughing and proceed to take the piss nicely. It was so very good to be back in amongst the platoon again and it felt like old times before we deployed when we were together on exercise. Obviously where we were and what we were doing was a whole different world to exercises, but it felt great to be with my fellow snipers and share a few laughs with them, even if this one was at my expense.
After four days, we withdrew the OP screen. It had all been somewhat uneventful but we did identify two sniper locations that looked directly into the sangars. The Taliban had been somewhat unprofessional by leaving some empty casings on the ground in the positions. We could see that this particular casing was likely to be from a Dragunov sniper rifle and we marked the positions on our maps, so that the next time any of our guys came under fire they would know where to hit first. We moved back to Camp Bastion to prepare for an operation in our next location, which would be Sangin. We had another few days sitting around, chatting and playing poker while the head shed planned the operation. Around this time, Scotty flew back into Afghanistan after being out of action for a long time as a result of accidentally shooting himself in one of his hands. Fruity took him to one side to have a word with him, as he was massively annoyed that there had been a negligent discharge. As a punishment, Scotty spent the last few weeks of the tour working out of Bastion sorting mail and things like this, which must have pissed him off no end.
After being in Afghanistan for so long now, we noticed that our bodies had become acclimatised to the heat because we were not sweating all the time any more but only when we were running around or were wearing our helmets. In any case, we were now in the middle of September when, although it would still be unbearable for those who had not acclimatised, it had cooled slightly and was not that bad for us.
We had to be aware of the enemy at all times although, as the summer came to an end, the pace seemed to change for us and we knew that a lot of the Taliban were now retreating back to the relative safety of the mountains for the winter and to tend the poppy harvest. This did not mean that there was a sudden peace and no enemy were active, far from it, but I guess we just felt it was a little quieter.
In due course we received our orders and deployed to Sangin where we were accommodated in the old mortar compound, the same place as before when Ross Kemp had been with us. I looked at the rooms and it took me back to when it was just so hot that we could not sleep inside. There were a few guys who still preferred to doss down under the camouflage nets, but I preferred to sleep in the building. Dan, Mo and I all slept in the same room and in the evenings would sit around an open fire and chat away. One night we found some old ammunition tins with the extra charges you can clip on to mortar bombs, so I found a piece of plywood and placed some grains of cordite on it, spelling out ‘Snipers’, and then lit it. This worked really well, the burning grains leaving the word in scorched lettering, so we hung the piece of wood up so everyone around knew who we were.
We received orders to move down to Patrol Base Waterloo for about a week to carry out night standing OPs. This is where we would wait until the sun went down and it was pitch black before going out and setting up two main OPs and a third in reserve to watch the rear. Then a few hours before sunrise, we would withdraw, patrol back to base and sleep during the day. We would become nocturnal creatures for a week. We loaded up the Vector vehicles, which were a newer version of the Pinzgauer, and together with the Recce Platoon in some newly acquired WMIKs drove towards Patrol Base Waterloo. When we arrived, we met the guys relieving the OMLT. They had recently arrived in Afghanistan and seeing their pasty white faces made us realise that it really would be home time for us soon. They asked loads of questions about the tour and what to expect. They had a number of Afghan National Army under them, the OMLT’s role being to teach the Afghans how to fight and be professional soldiers. The ultimate aim was for the ANA eventually to take over and fend for themselves, looking after the safety and security of their country.
When we went out for the first night, there was a graveyard on top of the hill that overlooked the 611 road. There was to be a convoy coming through soon, so we were going to spend every night that week watching out for any suspicious activity and ensuring that the Taliban were not coming out under the cover of darkness, planting IEDs and mines or doing anything else which might jeopardise the convoy’s safety. On the first night we were in the rear OP on the edge of the graveyard, allowing ourselves only gentle whispering about what we would do when we got home as we kept our eyes to the rear. The hours ticked past before we eventually packed up and withdrew back to base. This continued, with us rotating through the two forward OPs watching the road on subsequent nights.
Not a lot happened, until one night we had withdrawn and were only around 100 metres away from the entrance to Patrol Base Waterloo when out of nowhere there was a sudden crack right over our heads, the familiar sound of incoming rounds. We sprang into action and ran over the bridge and took up firing positions. We waited and waited but nothing happened, which we thought was a bit strange. It transpired that one of the ANA guys inside the base had fired a warning shot over the top of our heads as he was not sure whether we were Taliban. As we ran over the bridge he had realised that we were British troops and apologised. We just thought, ‘What a prat!’
The other slight problem associated with the Afghans was their personal hygiene which was, let’s just say, not on par with ours. We had a nasty round of diarrhoea and vomiting which spread through the base. I came down with it really badly and even had to sit one of the nights out. I lay in my sleeping bag thinking that, if anything happened to my guys while I was not there, I would have let the team down. Fortunately, nothing occurred and they came back safely. We spoke to some of the ANA guys and gave them some dollars to go and get some locally made fresh bread. They also came back with some local Afghan crisps, which were basically a really cheap version of Wotsits, the cheesy puff crisps back home. You would put one in your mouth and it would evaporate instantly, so you only had a split second of taste and then air. The iPods did the rounds as people got bored of the same playlist over and over again, so we swapped so as to listen to something different. Listening to the music made me realise that I could sense I had changed as a person. I used to listen to the fast paced stuff, but now preferred the more calm type of music.
I was also thinking about Annie and settling down and knew that I did not want to lose her. I began going through things in my mind, having already decided that I was going to propose to her when I arrived home; maybe not straight away, but during something like a nice weekend break to Paris or somewhere equally suitable to pop the question. There was a general feeling of things coming to an end and I was thinking mainly about just making it through the next few weeks and staying alive. Fortunately, nothing happened during the remaining seven days of night standing OPs as there was no one to interce
pt. The convoy came through safely and there were no nasty surprises lying in wait for it. This was mainly due to Patrol Base Waterloo being such a domineering presence in the area and also that the ANA patrolled the area so effectively and contributed to keeping the Taliban away.
When we left the patrol base and returned to Sangin, the difference in the atmosphere was really noticeable. There were many more people, it was busier and had bustling streets, markets and cars like a proper thriving town. When we had first arrived, the place was almost like a ghost town and only people who were unable, or could not be bothered, to walk out of Sangin remained there. The Taliban were rife before we kicked them out and allowed the town to breathe again. There were even women walking around in groups at the market stalls in their burqas, which we had never seen before as they were always hidden away. It really seemed as though the people had been given their freedom back, which was good. We felt like that we were not wasting our time and were changing the lives of these people for the better.
On our return, we chilled out for a while and had another big barbecue with loads of fresh food and swam in the canal again. We made some fresh bread and had ourselves a bit of a feast before we loaded ourselves back into the vehicles and making our way to FOB Inkerman, better known as FOB In-coming due to the amount of attention it received from the Taliban. Diarrhoea and vomiting was rumoured to be rife there and I was keen to avoid another bout as I was only just getting over the former. I dosed myself up to the maximum on Imodium while also eating large quantities of the biscuits in our ration packs to try to block myself up again. In the meantime, a freshly arrived group of Marines had arrived and were asking loads of questions about the tour.
Everywhere we went, there were new people and new faces arriving. I was counting down the days as I was scheduled to arrive back in the UK on 6 October, which would mean that I would leave Afghanistan on around 1 and 2 October as we go to Cyprus first for decompression. I had to leave slightly over a week or two before Teddy as I had made the decision to leave the Army and, as part of my termination, had to be back in the UK for a couple of months before I could do so. I was not too chuffed about that, but they were the rules of the game so I tried not to dwell on it too much.
Sniper in Helmand: Six Months on the Frontline Page 19