Written on December 21st, 2007 by stephengrey1one shout
First published in Sunday Times.
THE men of B Company gathered in whispers on the hilltop, helmeted silhouettes against a tapestry of stars.
Tonight, until first light, they would take turns at sentry duty � “stag”, as they call it � protecting the body of their fallen comrade. He was lying in our armoured vehicle. No helicopter was available that night to fly him home.
Major Jake Little, 36, the officer commanding, knew that emotions were running high. That morning, in front of us all, Sergeant Lee “Jonno” Johnson, one of the company’s best-loved soldiers, had been killed by a mine. His death came only hours after an afternoon of fierce fighting with the Taliban. Many felt they had just cheated death.
Little, his stubbled face weary with emotion, dug deep to find the right words. “I’m s*** at this,” he confessed to the men. He spoke of the gap Jonno would leave behind and how he had died doing what he loved. “Jonno would have been proud of each and every one of you,” he said.
“It’s a hard thing to be spending the night here with Jonno,” one highly experienced soldier said. “The men are quite bitter that they couldn’t find a helicopter for him.” (more…)
Written on December 11th, 2007 by stephengrey1no shouts
From The Sunday Times, December 9, 2007
Stephen Grey in Musa Qala, Helmand
First there was a loud bang; then we were enveloped in dust that descended like a shroud. “Mortars!” someone shouted.
In a panic, we scrambled for the relative shelter of our vehicle on a hill opposite Musa Qala, a Taliban stronghold under siege this weekend by Nato and Afghan forces, and dived inside.
Sand thrown up by the explosion swirled through the hatches and we reached for our helmets, keeping low in case of incoming fire.
Only when the dust had settled was the horror revealed: the blast had been caused not by a mortar, but by a mine that had been detonated when a British vehicle passed over it. One of the men with whom we were travelling was killed and two others wounded. The dead man’s next of kin were informed last night.
It happened as a British convoy passed along a wadi – a dried-out watercourse – in the desert near Musa Qala. We were standing at the top of the pass and stretching our legs as we waited for troops to recover an Afghan army truck that had got stuck in the sand 25 yards away.
The mine, probably one left by Soviet occupiers in the 1980s, exploded as the British vehicles steered past the truck.
Helplessly, we watched as British and US medics crawled across the Afghan truck to retrieve the casualties from their vehicle, its armour plating twisted by the force of the blast. (more…)
