February sapper mag:Layout 1 21/1/09 16:18 Page 40
On the ground with the Afghan Nation
LCpl Dave Abbott
59 Cdo Sqn 24 Cdo Engr Regt
1
3 members of 24 Cdo Engr Regt joined 1 Rifles Battlegroup to
make up the Engineer OMLT (Operational Mentoring and Liaison
Team) for Op Herrick 9. This involved small teams of soldiers mentoring
the Afghan National Army (ANA), and carrying out every task from close
support to an ANA advance to contact, building patrol bases (PBs), taking
down old ones and getting existing ones winterised. The Engr OMLT has
really been in the thick of the action and all in just two months!
After arriving in theatre mid September, we moved to Camp Shorabak,
the home of the ANA’s 3/205 Bde. Here we completed further training,
familiarising ourselves with the extra equipment we would use, including
TACSAT radios, the M16 and the new 60mm mortar. Once completed, we
were told we had twelve hours to prepare to deploy to a PB in NAWA,
south of Lashgar Gah.
We flew in by Chinook, skimming low over the desert before cutting
in over the narrow green zone south of Lashkar Gah. As we came in to
land, our goggles and mouths filled with the dust kicked up by the down-
draft. Disorientated and lugging our kit, we stumbled out of the aircraft,
now fully aware of why such a landing is referred to as a ‘Brown Out’.
We were met on the ground by Capt Baker, the Team Commander and our
Team Sergeant, Sgt Khadkha QGE, and quickly settled in to the camp and
the little area which would be home for the next five weeks.
We quickly got to know our ANA soldiers and by patrolling with them,
we also got to know the local area and its people. These patrols would
occupy much of our time over the next few weeks and were a vital part of
letting the locals know that ISAF, but more importantly the ANA were
there to protect them. As we got to know the ANA, we
found that some of them spoke some English and by
the end of our stay we were able to hold broken con-
versations with them in a mixture of English, Pashtu
and Dari. Special mention must go to our two main lin-
guists, Sgt Khadkha, who put his Hindi and Urdu to
good use and to Spr Rudge, who quickly built on his
ten week Pashtu course and was soon giving orders to
Sgt 'Khad' Khadocal liaising
the ANA in their own language.
Despite the main emphasis on infantry patrolling with local farmers
we found a number of opportunities to put our Sapper
skills to good use. Various demolition tasks were car-
ried out, including clearing fields of fire, destroying
known enemy firing points and destroying a road block
to allow locals to use a road to get to the market. The
various checkpoints were frequently contacted by the
Taliban and so we used our expertise and what defence
stores we had to provide them with increased protec-
tion. After six weeks in NAWA, we joined one of the
convoys heading out towards FOB Delhi, ready for
whatever job the OMLT would throw at us next.
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