Page 65 - Mercian Eagle 2014

Whilst the KLT pretty much ran their
own lives, the DLT was dependent on
the Company for RLS and for transport from the QRF. This became the main stay
of the QRF taskings along side other things. We were quite restricted in what we could achieve as the QRF, as we were mainly viewed as the Manoeuvre Battle Group reserve. When tasked as a Platoon we
were able to deploy as a 3 vehicle MASTIFF packet to recover vehicles from IEDs, escort other call signs through our AO and provide protection on the key infrastructure in the town of Gereshk down the road – Bridge Tom. 7 Platoon also became the Battle Group recovery specialists, based on how many times they had to tow the CO back to BASTION after his Husky either broke down or got ‘bogged in’.
Within camp, the PTDS balloon was put to good effect. The ‘7.62mm alarm clock’ could be relied upon by the Taliban at first light every morning to rouse the soldiers as they attacked the local Afghan Army and Police checkpoints. Our cameras could then be used to track the gunmen, and they could be effectively silenced by the use of Apache gunship or exactor missile.
As the tour dragged on, the blokes were maintaining morale and professionalism
to a surprisingly high level. We had almost no low-level discipline problems until four days of horizontal snow into the sangars and temperatures of minus 10 during the day broke a few souls; as soon as the
rain returned, so did the professionalism. This was reinforced by a superb level
of diligence from the Junior NCOs who performed brilliantly; it was noted at a high level that unlike other organisations where it was SNCOS and Officers who uncovered problems, in C Company, the JNCOs
were both doing their checks and had the moral courage to do the right thing when a problem surfaced.
A key part of the morale was the diligence and proactive nature with which the Platoon
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