The Longest Kill by Craig Harrison

Author:Craig Harrison
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250085245
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

9. First Afghan Tour

The squadron was lined up in the ports at Umm Qasr, waiting to head home from Iraq.

“Squadron … Squadron…’Shun!” bellowed the sergeant major, and we all stood to attention.

The squadron leader took the salute from the sergeant major and then turned to face us. “Lads, I’m sorry to do this to you but I need a volunteer.”

One thing everyone knows in the Army is never, ever volunteer for anything. Out of 120 lads, not a single hand went up. Then one arm shot up—belonging to a young lad who had only been with the squadron a week and didn’t know any better. His arm was straight as a die and he looked really pleased with himself for volunteering.

“Good lad,” said the squadron leader. “You’re off to the Caribbean for three weeks on a sailing expedition.”

There was a collective groan from the rest of us.

“Right, for the remainder, we have been put on standby to deploy to Afghanistan later this year.”

He filled in some more details but I couldn’t take them in. I couldn’t believe it. We hadn’t even finished in Iraq yet and already we were chalked up for something else. Afghanistan wasn’t as crazy as Iraq, but it was a completely different environment—much more rural than urban, with far bigger areas to cover. The US and its allies, including Britain, had removed the Taliban from power in 2001 but they were far from defeated and years later they continued to wage guerrilla warfare. The Taliban were very influential in the rural areas in the south and east of the country, particularly in Helmand province, where the British Army was stationed.

As soon as we got back from our post-tour leave, it was straight into training. The IED threat that had been pretty much limited to Iraq had now morphed to Afghanistan too, so there was much more emphasis on counter-IED training. We spent a lot of time learning how to spot them, what to do about them and, most importantly, how to deal with a casualty situation involving them.

Coming back from a tour and then going straight into training, which often takes you away from home, was really hard for all of the families—and us. There was one bright spot, though, for Eddy and me. One day we were called into the armory.

“Here you are, lads,” said the armorer. “The new .338 sniper rifle is in.”

He laid a rifle and all of the accessories out on a counter for us to look at.

Simplistically, the .338 rifle is a bigger, heavier version of the L96, shooting the larger .338 bullet. The L96 has an effective range of 1,000 yards and can harass out to 1,200 yards, whereas this bad boy can be comfortably used at 1,600 yards plus. It has a more powerful scope and a much more powerful round. It was like Christmas for Eddy and me. We just couldn’t stop playing with it.

“You aren’t allowed to cover them in camouflage tape or spray-paint them,” the armorer told us firmly.

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