RAF and USMC work the skies over Afghanistan together

27 September 2011

In the south and south west of Afghanistan, a team from the RAF is working with the US Marine Corps (USMC) on the daunting task of co-ordinating the use of some of the world’s busiest airspace.

Members of the RAF’s Aerospace Battle Management Team and the USMC Air Wing are colocated in a dusty, quiet and benign corner of sprawling Camp Leatherneck, a home from home for the US Marines serving in Helmand province.

Aerospace Battle Managers Corporal Bobby Howard, US Marine Corps, and Corporal Paddy Bonner, Royal Air Force, working together at Camp Leatherneck, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. Picture: Sergeant Ross Tilly RAF, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011

The detachment is parented by the RAF’s 903 Expeditionary Air Wing, only a short drive into adjoining Camp Bastion; however, all of the UK’s Air Surveillance and Control System (ASACS) personnel live, work and socialise with their US Marine colleagues at Leatherneck, further enhancing their operational experience.

Men and women of the joint RAF and US Marine Corps Aerospace Battle Management Group at Camp Leatherneck [Picture: Sergeant Ross Tilly RAF, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

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Medic sees changes in Helmand

A Military Operations news article

8 Aug 11

Busier with Marines' stubbed toes than bullet wounds on her latest Helmand tour, medic Major Jennie Johnston is now giving health advice to local Afghans. Report by Ian Carr.

Sergeant Tony Bewick and Sergeant Wayne Harrison don't let the Afghan sun stand in the way of hard training
[Picture: LA(Phot) Andy Laidlaw, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

It's been a traumatic start to the day for Major Johnston, the medic in charge of Forward Operating Base (FOB) Shawqat's hospital. Literally.

At dawn she was called from her bunk in the hospital's welfare area to attend to an Afghan policeman who had just done his best to split his skull open by falling from the back of a speeding police pick-up truck.

It's serious, but the soldier is lucky that treatment is so close to hand.

Trauma is something the Major doesn't see so much of these days:

"We've had a couple of road traffic accidents. Two weeks ago I treated an Afghan policeman who had a gunshot wound, and before that an Afghan soldier who'd fallen off a sangar," she said.

This is the Major's second tour. Her last, two years ago, was dramatically different:

"HERRICK 10 was very challenging, with multiple trauma incidents. When I finished that tour I was a little despondent. I found myself wondering if the sacrifices I'd seen were paying off. Would things turn out for the better? I was unsure about how I'd feel about coming back."...

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The Women of Gereshk

From NATO Channel

natochannel123 on Mar 16, 2011

Hundreds of women from all over Helmand gathered together at an event to celebrate Women's Day recently. There was singing, dancing and even the local police put on a performance.

Lt Nazar Mohammed at war from age 14

From UK Forces Afghanistan:

Afghanistan special report: Lt Nazar Mohammed at war from age 14

February 23, 2011

by Chris Hughes, Daily Mirror
Pictures by Andy Stenning

Behind enemy lines in Afghanistan: Day Two

THEY call him The Commander. And sitting on a compound roof raking Taliban positions with his PK machine gun this grizzled Charles Bronson lookalike is a master of the terrible art of war.

Lieutenant Nazar Mohammed is a near-legendary Tajik warrior who has been at war since 14 when he picked up a gun to avenge his brother’s death.

Then he was a mujahedeen fighting the Russians, now he is commanding a heavy weapons platoon of battle-hardened Afghan National Army soldiers on the Helmand front line.

These are the British and American-trained troops whose new soldiering skills will be the legacy our forces leave behind when they withdraw by 2015.

More than 12,000 are now fully trained in Helmand – just under half the 30,000 needed to secure the flashpoint province – once the Taliban heartland.

All over Afghanistan there are just over 157,000 trained ANA.

INSURGENTS

The lethal Soviet-made, belt-fed machine gun looks like an extension of the 35-year-old father of two’s arm as he calmly blasts the insurgents, his loyal men applauding every burst.

After 20 minutes he shrugs and climbs down, nodding at Lieutenant Rhydian Emlyn-Williams.

It’s as if he is telling his British adviser – 12 years his junior: “That’s how you deal with the Taliban Afghan-style.”

When RPGs go bang and bullets fly Lt Nazar doesn’t even blink....

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