Saturday, June 17, 2006
The story of the photo
The reason that there are only three British soldiers in the picture is because the fourth team member,Colin,the driver was in shaiba feild hospital when this photo was taken,the day after the contact.He had sustained multiple fractures of the left leg and was lucky to be alive-As we all were!We kidnapped him from hospital a day later and brought him back to camp for a piss up!
The story of the photo-On the sixteenth of June 2004 my section,two section,five platoon(Royal Green Jackets)Messines Company,The London Regiment(TA) was tasked to escort several ATO(Ammunition Technical Officers-Bomb disposal nutters!)to two ex Iraqi Army ammo dumps to check if the Royal Engineers,who had allegedly blown them,had done the job properly.The dumps were located ten to fiften Kilometers north of Basra,just off route six.The intelligence on the area was sketchy at best,with no major threat to where we were going(Apart from the usual "Islamalunes" trying to kill us!),so we all thought it would be a bit of a "jolly"-Take a camera,get some lairy pics of bits of ammo and blown up shit and "large it"about what heroes we were when we got back.We were wrong-Intellegence was bollocks!
We set off first thing in the morning,two "green vehicles"(Wolf landrovers,unarmoured and totally useless for the job)and two "whitefleet"(Civie four by fours-even more unarmoured and totally bollocks for the job!)Matt,the section commander,took the lead in "Green one",with "White one" and "two" behind and my wagon "Green two"bringing up the rear.I was section second in command and also the only Team Medic.
We hoofed it through the north of Basra,hard,fast and aggresive as were our SOPs(Standard Operational Procedures)and made good time to the first "ammo dump" however it was not what we expected!It was approx. three hundred meters of a main road,near civvie houses and was basically a load of sand berms,bulldozed into crude squares with every conceivable bomb,bullet,grenade,rocket,shell scattered about in a "Have'nt realy been blown up very well by the Royal Engineers stylee!"It was completely deserted so any would be bad guy could happily come and shop for things that go bang whenever he wanted,unmolested.This did not impress me!
There was no real track plan so the ATO nutters,who had been there before,took the lead using their Gps(Global positioning system-I can't be arsed to explain,google it!) to navigate.We spent about half an hour trundling around "Bombs-R-Us"with the ATO lunnies marking plots on their gps and us posing for various "Lairee"photos whilst standing near several thousand tons of unstable,extremely fucking dangerous bang things.We then moved on to "Bombers Homebase" number two.
We carried out the same procedure for about half an hour again and then,with the ATO nutters leading,started to make our way out.There was a gap in the outer berm which the first two vehicles cleared ok and then it was Matts' turn.I was about thirty meters behind when Green one struck the Anti-Tank mine.
It struck left and forward,lifting the Wolf completely off the ground in a huge black cloud.Matt was thrown out of the right hand passenger door and there was a lot of black smoke.Fuck!"Green one's hit a mine!"I screamed into my radio"Everyone stay where you are"I don't know how I knew it was a mine,I just did.This all took only seconds.I got out of my wagon and told my team to stay where they were and watch their arcs for any bad guys,it was then I realized that I had to take command and go forward.I didn't know if Matt was alive or dead ,but I had to assume the worst, it was obvious that there would be casualties and I was the team medic.It sounds corny but I actually thought"This is where you have to earn your pay"I was shitting myself,"Why me?What sort of injuries are up there?Which of my friends are dead?Who's badly injured?Oh Fuck,this isn't happening"!All these thoughts happend in a heartbeat as I was getting out of the wagon.
I moved forward into the smoke and the first person I saw was Matt staggering back towards me-He was ok,Thank fuck for that!Next came Micky and Sean,the two rear topcover,looking extremely pissed off and shocked but also ok.I asked them if they were alright and sent them back to my wagon.I could hear someone screaming in agony-Oh fuck,Colin, the driver!He was sitting above where the mine struck!I moved round left to the drivers side and saw Rob,my driver,was already there.He didn't have to come forward into the danger zone but he chose to,putting himself at risk,it wasn't his job,(I had to be there,I was the medic and second in command)I was very impressed to see him there.
When I got to the drivers cab Rob was attempting to pull Colin out,but with little success(Too many pies Col!)I lent a hand and between us we pulled him out and carried him forward to "White two" and layed him in the boot where I checked him over.He wasn't in a good way but a lot better than I was expecting-he still had all his bits but his left leg was obviously fucked!(Army medical term!)I immobilised his leg and sent Rob forward to cover one of the ATO nutters who was doing a "John Wayne" with a mine probe,prodding the ground ahead for any more nasty surprises and clearing a way for us out of "Dodge City".
While this was happening Matt had successfully managed to contact help on the radio in the form of a Danish callsign who happend to be passing by,and they arrived shortly after to assist.
One funny incident occured when the casivac chopper was inbound I had a heated argument with Matt over who would throw the signal smoke grenade to call in the chopper(It's every squaddies dream to "Pop smoke" for real)I won by saying I was his medic,he was in shock,so fuck off I'm doing it!
We were shown how realy lucky we were when the ATO nutter cleared the strikezone he found another Anti-tank mine and two anti-personell mines right where we all had been walking,just to the left of Colin's cab-Fuck!Also it didn't exactly impress me when he told us that the last two times they'd visited these ammo dumps they'd struck mines! Could have fucking meationed it before we left camp!!!
That's the story of the photo,my first contact,two years later Colin's leg is still fucked(Army medical term for not better yet!)Matt's now a sergeant,Micky's a civvie and Shauns a nutcase(licking a window somwhere),Rob-who I recomended for a medal and didn't get one(Tight-arssed senior rank tossers!),is still in the TA,me I'm studying to be an alcaholic(not quite there yet but willing to learn!)and also a civie.
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Thanks for the window licker remark john. Atleast you spelt my name right the second time. hope your ok mate.
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