Sniper in Helmand: Six Months on the Frontline
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I started my own legal proceedings to obtain my unpaid wages. In the meantime I contacted SSAFA, the Soldiers Sailors and Air Force Association, which is a charity exclusively for the armed forces. Pam from SSAFA obtained help for us from the Royal British Legion and the Royal Anglian Association. I spoke to Jay who was now working as the recruiting sergeant for Peterborough. He told me he could get me back into the Royal Anglians in no time. I thought hard about that and, in the end, it was my brother who talked me round. He said he could not let me rejoin the infantry to be killed, and then have to look my daughter in the eye and tell her he did not do everything he could to stop me. He was right, my priorities had changed. I could no longer be how I used to be and go off to wherever the Army sent me. I had to stay and look after my family, but also have a military job. That’s when it hit me. I knew of part of the Army that provides armed security in the UK. It never goes abroad and works shifts. My next-door neighbour, Rick, has a brother in it and he told me all I needed to know. I phoned the careers office and, in less than four months, I was starting my second career in the Army in the MPGS, Military Provost Guard Service.
I eventually received my unpaid wages through the county court ten months after I walked out. All my belongings are still mine and not the bailiffs.’ I am employed in a familiar job but it has to be said a lot calmer version of it. Finally, after a year of being a civilian and nearly wrecking my life, my feet are back on the ground. I have my family and my life to look forward to.
When I think back to my time in Helmand, I remember the good as well as the bad things. Like when you have a tattoo, you know it hurts a little while you are having it done but you cannot remember exactly how much it hurts until you’re back in the chair having another. I know that physically and mentally Afghanistan was very hard on me and every other soldier who fought in Op HERRICK 6 but I doubt I will ever again truly appreciate just how hard it was. Now, though, when I read or watch something about the First or Second World War, and any other conflict in the twentieth or twenty-first century, I feel a lot closer to those people who fought in them. I know from first-hand experience what it feels like to be there waiting to launch into battle. To be shot at, and to shoot at someone. To hear the sound of incoming mortar bombs and cries of ‘Man down!’ and worry whether it is a close friend. Instead of feeling worry or apprehensive when I recall the summer of 2007, I now embrace it and accept that it is just part of my life history.
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