Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
October 1, 2009
TEARS fell on the parade ground of Dreghorn Barracks yesterday as the young men from The Royal Scots Borderers were deployed to Afghanistan to join one of the most perilous missions Britain has undertaken in recent times.
1SCOT's Bravo Company was yesterday sent out six months ahead of the rest of their regiment to assist 3rd Battalion The Rifles in Sangin, at the heart of the war-torn Helmand Province.
On the noticeboard of Bravo Company Sgt Shaun Jardine's office, nestled amongst training schedules and maps of southern Afghanistan, a pocket-sized laminate of Psalm 23 recounts one of the most recognisable passages from the Bible: "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil."
The valley of the Helmand River is fast becoming Britain's own "valley of death", having already taken 218 British lives since operations began in 2002, and the deaths are rising exponentially.
This year to date there have been 81 British troops killed, nearly double the death toll in 2007, while the number of wounded is also rising at an alarming rate.
And as the soldiers were sent off by their families yesterday it was clear that the men - and their wives and girlfriends - were scared.
"We've spent time apart before but never when he was off to a warzone," said Laura Carberry, from Bathgate, her eyes filling with tears as she waved off 22-year-old boyfriend Private Stuart Cunningham.
"We got together when he was just back from Iraq so I knew what I was letting myself in for, but I was still shocked when he said he was going to Afghanistan.
"I know I'm going to be apprehensive every time I hear news of casualties, but if I spend every moment thinking, 'oh my God - it's Stuart' I'll never get through the next six months."
For many members of Bravo Company this will be their third tour of duty, having previously been posted to Iraq. Their experience means they know something about what awaits them in Sangin - roadside bombs, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), suicide bombers - but their resolve remains strong.
After holding Laura in his arms and wiping away the tears, Pte Cunningham fixed his mind on the task ahead. He said: "I'm looking forward to it. It gets us away from barrack life, but I'm nervous and anxious about what I'll find there and I'm already looking forward to coming home again.
"I've been to Iraq once, where I was engaged in a few contacts involving IEDs and roadside bombs. I think it's good what we're doing in Afghanistan. We're helping Afghanistan by training their soldiers to be better, and to look after their own country but I can see it going on for a while."
The children running through the parade ground is a heartbreaking reminder of everything these young men are risking to help the children of another country have a better future.
"When you see the Afghan children struggling under the Taleban it makes you think, 'what if that was my daughter?', said Pte Carl Fisher, 20, from Livingston clutching his three-year-old daughter Chloe to his chest.
"I went to Iraq in 2007 when Chloe was very small but she's older now and she knows the script. She's been trying to cling on to me as much as she can. We just try to tell her that daddy's got to work and he'll see you when he's finished work and he gets home. She keeps saying, 'No, daddy's not going to work. He's not going'."
Each soldier boards the bus in desert combats, with a beret bearing the 1SCOT crest with the Latin insignia "Nemo me impune lacessit" - "No-one provokes me with impunity".
It's a poignant message carried by soldiers heading to a war that began with the most dramatic of provocations, with the terrorist attack on New York's Twin Towers on 11 September, 2001.
The attack, ordered by Afghan-based al-Qaeda leaders, led to Britain joining the US in striking back at al-Qaeda, and the conflict has been further heightened by continued drug deaths in Britain caused by the Taleban-sanctioned heroin trade.
And yet it was these multiple fronts in this theatre of war - national security, anti-terrorism, anti-narcotics - that led the head of the army in Scotland, Major General Andrew Mackay , to complain, in 2008, that "we were making it up as we go along" before finally quitting last week amid reports he was dissatisfied with the resources being made available to do the job.
However, one of the longest serving privates boarding the buses yesterday, Christopher Wight, 28, from Bonnyrigg, said he's never gone short during his eight years in the Royal Scots Borderers.
"I've always had plenty of kit and vehicles," he said.
"I think a lot of people compare our kit to the Americans but the British army do things differently.
"I'm feeling confident. I've completed two tours of Iraq and during the second tour took part in Operation Charge of the Knights to take back Basra, which we won very successfully.
"Afghanistan will be different because we're already holding the ground so a lot of our resources will be devoted to keeping the locals safe.
I think they will be very welcoming when we get there because they want the Taleban out."
The Royal Scots Borderers' commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Herbert - who has served in Iraq, Northern Ireland, the Balkans, and Afghanistan - said the present regiment is the most well trained force he's seen in 24 years of service. He added:
"When I was last in Afghanistan, in 2007, it was clear that the intensity of the conflict is greater than anything I've ever seen in my army experience. It's been well recorded that casualties as the result of IEDs are rising but things are being done to defend against that threat.
"The Afghans are desperate for peace and they want to get on with their lives, and they will support the side that will provide that, namely the Afghan government and the coalition partners that are there to support them."
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