14 NAVY NEWS, MAY 2010

Morning

SOME things come naturally to Jack.

Improvisation. Can-do spirit. Cracking on. Dit- spinning. Dripping. And some don’t.

Marching. Drill. Jumping out of the back of Land Rover hurling grenades. Still, needs must...

Regular commuters on the A3 will be no strangers to the goings on at Longmoor Camp, the bangs, the flashes, the smoke billowing across a muddy expanse, the crack of rifle fire, men and women in full kit spilling out of the back of a Land Rover.

And nor, too, are some 1,000 sailors and Royal Marines who go through four weeks of OpTAG each year to prepare for the rigours of Helmand. Afghanistan has perhaps not featured as

prominently in these pages since 3 Commando Brigade returned from Helmand last spring, but there’s still a sizeable – and constant – Senior Service presence there. Aside from the very visible airborne sight of the Commando Helicopter Force ferrying men and matériel

from an aircraft, but I never picked up a rifle until four weeks ago. “From that to running around doing patrols, contacts in vehicles – it’s a steep learning curve.” It’s also physically demanding. Pilots wear a lot of kit. But they also spend a lot of time on their backsides in the cockpit – it’s the nature of the job.

“The hardest part of this was physically putting all this kit on and simply moving. Everything you do becomes quite slow and laboured – you soon run out of breath,” Lt Twigg adds.

All of which is anticipated by the Royal Marine trainers.

monitoring enemy movements and activity, there’s a substantial number of sailors and marines at headquarters and forward bases, a very active explosive ordnance disposal team. And lest we forget, naval medics risk their lives daily heading out on patrols with troops on the ground. In short, there are never fewer than 200 RN personnel in Afghanistan (plus a not inconsiderable number in Umm Qasr training the Iraqi Navy). No-one who goes to Helmand goes without IPDT – Individual Pre-Deployment Training; Jack still resolutely refers to it as OpTAG, but that’s an

Army phrase (and we can’t have that – Ed).

That means two weeks either at Raleigh or Excellent learning how to don full body armour and shoot an SA80, before a week at HMS Nelson in the classroom on the laws of war, rules of engagement, and introductions to the cultures and languages of the region. Finally, the students decamp (pun intended) to Longmoor for a week of intense in-the-field training: battlefield first aid, searching for home- made bombs, mines, conducting patrols, living in a forward operating base – basically everything that’s expected of them in theatre. Flash-bangs (the clue’s in the title) provide some of the realism, more comes courtesy of Amputees in Action – people who’ve lost limbs in accidents, from disease or in combat. They’ve provided ‘actors’ for Saving Private

around, and Bagger Sea Kings

mercifully, unlikely – task group under air attack, sea survival, submarine escape. IPDT is for the possible and, sadly, highly likely.

A lot of RN training is for the possible but,

“They start off at square one, working on a ship, and now we’re trying to transform them as best we can for land operations,” explains Sgt Phillip Camp RM.

“We’ve had guys who we’ve trained getting in horrendous situations: having to fire weapons, shooting people, dealing with casualties. The feedback on the training we give them has always been good.” It’s not all about fire and thunder, blood and guts. There’s the ‘light and sound’ demonstration... which demonstrates how far light and sound travels at night when you bivvy. So no camp-fire singalongs then... There’s practical advice on moving in sandy terrain courtesy of the ‘sandpit’ (the nickname’s not ironic...) and keeping your SA80 free of fine grains. There’s language training, teaching a dozen or so phrases which might come in handy on the ground.

And there’s jumping out of the back of a Land Rover with your rifle at the ready. In an instant. Sans cracking your legs on the door frame. (The last bit was especially tricky...)

Ryan, Gladiator and Band of Brothers.

At Longmoor, they simulate casualties of bomb blasts complete with horrific injuries and fake blood. Or, in the case of a group of marine engineers – dubbed the combat clankies – called upon to evacuate two casualties, a downed helicopter crew... with horrific injuries and fake blood “The medical make-up was amazingly realistic using amputees as casualties with false, damaged limbs – it looked like they had been blown up,” says Lt Cdr Helen Ashworth, who’s about to head to Iraq and the naval training team at Umm Qasr. Such ‘rescues’ don’t come naturally to clankies – or most matelots passing through Longmoor on the 12 courses run every year. Harrier pilot Lt Neil Twigg has completed two tours of duty in Afghanistan supporting ground troops. Now he’s on the ground as the vital liaison between fliers and soldiers, directing aerial operations.

grenades, flash-bangs. I’m just a small boy,” says Lt Twigg. But aside from that youthful enthusiasm, he

realises the importance of these four weeks. This is the stuff of life and death.

Not everyone minded the odd bruise, however. “Getting in and out of Land Rovers, smoke

“I’ve fired lots of rockets and released weapons

stuff they’re saying for the sake of it – it’s genuine, life-saving stuff,” Lt Twigg adds. Mne Richard Fleming nods. He was last in Helmand in 2006 when there wasn’t quite the same threat from makeshift bombs. Now he’s returning to Afghanistan as an official driver. “If you get hit by an IED, you know what to do next instead of panicking and looking around at people. You crack on with what you’re doing and get out of the area,” he says.

“The little top tips they come out with, it’s not

Longmoor is, of course, not Lashkar Gah. Hampshire is not Helmand. There’s only so much you can replicate on an army training camp. “Although I’m fully aware that this is only a basic level of training, I feel confident that I’ve the skills needed to deal with situations in theatre should they arrive,” says Lt Cdr Ashworth.

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