NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2011
It took a month to transfer the helicopters, equipment and personnel from the Commando Helicopter Force the 3,500 miles from Camp Bastion to their base at RNAS Yeovilton – with a little help from the RAF. The Junglies of 845 and 846 Naval Air Squadrons completed their four-and-a-half-year mission over Helmand at the end of September, after which the helicopters were readied for the long journey home. The helicopters were dispatched to Afghanistan in 2007 to support ground troops, since when they’ve ferried more than 80,000 personnel to various bases, carried 700 tons of supplies and clocked up some 12,500 hours in the skies of Helmand. With the mission over, the team at ‘HMS Little
Heathrow’ – the self-styled home of the Fleet Air Arm at Camp Bastion (there are still ‘eye-in-the- sky’ Sea Kings flying over Helmand) – began the challenging task of moving all the relevant kit and caboodle home.
SEA King air and ground crews have completed the mammoth task of moving their squadrons home from Afghanistan.
Tight fit by moonlight...
Some of the detachment’s vehicles, as well as their offices and infrastructure have been handed over to remaining Joint Helicopter Force (Afghanistan) units, but otherwise it was a case of ‘return and stow all gear’ in good Royal Navy tradition. Given the size of the task, it demanded the time and energy of every member of CHF based at Bastion. Each helicopter had to be specially prepared for transport in the back of a giant C17 transporter and the ten-hour flight back to the UK. A team of seven personnel spent two days on each Sea King removing the tail rotor blades and antennae, fuel was drained and any secret kit aboard removed. Finally, each six-tonne Sea King was ‘bug bombed’ – decontaminated to ensure that any of the micro organisms native to Helmand didn’t make the leap from Afghanistan to Blighty and cause havoc with the UK’s ecosystem. With the aircraft safely stowed, the nice folk from
the RAF flew them back to Brize Norton, where there was a specialist team to re-assemble the Sea Kings with all the relevant kit removed or stowed during transport. Finally, CHF crews jumped back in the cockpit and flew the helicopters on the final 70 miles of their marathon journey. Now back at base, the Sea Kings are resuming
their more usual role as the airborne workhorses in support of 3 Commando Brigade, which itself has just returned from Afghanistan. Picture: PO(Phot) Mez Merrill, CHF
Bangor’s duty done
AS HMS Liverpool enjoyed a thunderous welcome in Portsmouth, her erstwhile companion through the second half of Operation Unified Protector was also homeward-bound. With the Libya mission declared completed as of October 31, HMS Bangor too began the journey back from the Med after 120 days and 12,000 miles on patrol.
Under Commanding Officer Lt Cdr Neil Marriott, the Sandown-class ship scoured miles of seabed off Libya as the battle between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces raged.
Her painstaking work led to her finding a 2,400- pound (1,100kg) mine and a torpedo lying on the ocean floor off the key port of Tobruk in eastern Libya. Both were safely destroyed using the ship’s Seafox
underwater drone, armed with explosive charges. “We were hunting for mines from June, working from port to port, and a success like that meant shipping into Libya is that much safer,” said Lt Cdr Marriott: “To find two pieces of ordnance and destroy them
safely was a great result for my ship’s company.” Bangor did not lose a single day’s work to defects or breakdown during the summer, despite sailing hundreds of miles at a time and working round the clock.
She was bound for NATO tasking in the North
Sea at first, but reacted quickly to the higher-priority mission in the Mediterranean. “When we’re minehunting we have several people
watching the screens for any contact,” said ops room supervisor PO Steve ‘Stirling’ Moss. “On the Tobruk task we saw several items which looked about the size of a mine, and two of them turned out to be real. “It’s not a regular thing to happen, so we’re really pleased we found them and we were able to destroy them.”
After Colonel Gaddafi fell, the operational pace dropped, and Bangor was able to complete the final minehunting task into Sirte – the last bastion of forces who sided with the deposed dictator – before beginning the long road home to Faslane. She stopped in Gibraltar off southern Spain last
weekend, where sailors were invited to run to the top of the Rock ahead of a remembrance service where a wreath was laid at the territory’s Cenotaph. “For many of the ship’s company it has been their
first deployment and the first time away from home, friends and family,” said Lt Cdr Marriott. “Each and every one of us is looking forward to a
warm welcome in base port and to being reunited with loved ones before spending Christmas at home for some well-deserved rest and relaxation.”
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