General Update

Story and photos by: Lt Jon Dolphin 7RIFLES

Salonika Company has now been in theatre for a little over three weeks and the end of October is fast approaching. Like moving into a new house, the company has made its own alterations to the tented accommodation that we live in which is referred to as 'Salonika Lines'.

All four platoons, the company stores, the signal tent, the interpreters tent, the company office, all the washing facilities and the quick reaction force are now co-located. Our vehicles are parked but a stone’s throw away and at the main entrance there is a flag pole on which The Rifles flag is raised at sunrise and lowered at sunset. The only thing missing is the bugle call, however, in the interest of winning hearts and minds, we are taking care not to make enemies of our sleeping neighbours.





The past weeks have been busy with each platoon now on its third rotation. It is pretty clear to all of the soldiers which tasks offer some form of excitement and which are a complete bore. Sangar duty, vital though it is, tops the latter category. Regardless how you dress it up, staying in a concrete sangar – a fortification - on guard for a week is pretty boring. On the positive side however, with three people doing a rotation, you get a week to catch up on some sleep and relax a little.

The more enjoyable tasks to date involve anything which gets the soldiers out on the ground and away from Camp Bastion. This has included the Immediate Response Team (IRT) and the GDA and TLZ patrols.

The IRT has unfortunately deployed on a number of occasions in support of the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT). I say unfortunately, because every time it deploys, it means that somebody somewhere is having a very bad day. The riflemen have conducted themselves well on these heli-tasks and Salonika Company has received a number of personal thanks from the MERT and the units on the ground for their efforts. Whilst working with the MERT, the riflemen have not only provided close protection for the medical team but they have provided medical assistance in treating the casualties.

The GDA patrols have been out day and night dominating the local area, gathering intelligence and reassuring the locals. Given Camp Bastion’s remote location, you would be forgiven for thinking that there is little life in the area. On the contrary, there are several settlements and the central Wadi to the east of the camp is a busy thoroughfare for traffic heading up to Route one, the only tarmac road which runs around Afghanistan.

The TLZ patrols have also been out, as the RAF dictates, providing overwatch of the local area to cover aircraft as they arrive at the landing strip. Work extending the runway at Bastion continues and the new runway capable of receiving C17 aircraft is expected to be ready in November. This means that direct flights from the UK to Camp Bastion will be possible.

There have of course been highlights, perhaps the most newsworthy of which was the destruction of a civilian vehicle near the main entrance to Camp Bastion by order of the 2ic. Unbeknown to the driver, who had come to Bastion to visit an injured relative, he had parked his vehicle in a place which could have been a serious risk to our forces if it had been concealing a device. Taking the safest option, Capt. Jamie Althorp called for EOD who were more than happy to oblige him by blowing up the vehicle. The man was slightly shocked when he returned to his vehicle, however, probably not as shocked as his brother who he had borrowed the car from!



Also very worthy of note were the QRF team from 2 Platoon who calmly handled the situation when two young children who had broken their legs were brought to the gates of Camp Bastion. They provided first aid and comforted the injured children as best they could until the ambulance from the hospital arrived.

Hopefully, this gives you a flavour of what we are getting up to in Afghanistan. We’ll keep you posted. Granite 0 out.