Page 9 - RSDG Year of 2013

A SQUADRON
The road ahead is clear. There are three sharp, metal- lic cracks. In the centre of the six-man patrol the ser- geant inexplicably drops to the ground. To the rear right of the fallen man the patrol commander sees that his weapon has been disabled, the magazine distorted and ruptured. A pause, comprehension. ‘Contact. Rear. Man down.’
The patrol scatters to cover, turns. Meters away their assailant is kneeling, struggling with his weapon. He rises, satisfied, moves forward, brings the rifle to his shoulder. Another rapid, rasping succession of gun- shots. This time the attacker falls, the weapon clat- ters across the tarmac. The team move to the threat, a weapon is made then safe thrown to the side of the road. A med pack is opened the injury examined and tourniquet applied.
A kilometer away is the squadron operations room. The team are around the waist high central ‘bird table’ which depicts the city, the university campus and in detail the camp. The second-in-command, Captain Rupert Grinling, updates the reinforced team, ‘Our patrol is in contact, there is a casualty.’ The attacker is an Afghan soldier, the implication of that fact that a risk is presented to the seventy other mentors across The Afghan National Defence University campus. The Squadron Leader, Major Fraser McLeman, gives his direction and priorities. Individuals return to their workstations and their roles in the incident manage- ment process. Captain Ash Zimmerlie, the Australian Battle Captain, is speaking to the Turkish duty officer at Kabul’s Regional Command Capital Headquarters. Not owning any aviation the Kabul headquarters must request American Air Rescue Service assistance from
Trooper McKenna looks over the Afghan National Defence University Site
EAGLE AND CARBINE 7