Start of Herrick

Wed 24 Jun 09

I arrived at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan in the early hours of Monday morning after a gruelling 18 hours travelling and waiting to transit to Camp Bastion. We were ushered to a bed and told ‘get your heads down and we will get you up for breakfast’ by a Media Operations Group (Volunteers) (MOG(V)) Major from the media team .

After breakfast we were told that a live broadcast to ITN would be happening that evening with CDS Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup. A Captain from MOG(V) woke us up flapping before midday and he wasn’t even anything to do with it, what an idiot. Sgt Jon Bevan filmed it whilst I watched and refreshed myself as to how to set it up.

My team’s first big job is with The Light Dragoons next week but I can only write about them afterwards. Clive Hasn’t arrived yet but should be with us for next week.

We managed to sort weapons out today as we thought we were signing over from the previous Combat Camera Team (CCT) but this had fell through. Thankfully, The Light Dragoons have sorted us some SA80 Carbines which are the stumpy version. The laptop I’ve been issued hasn’t had all the programs I need for the job so after setting up the satellite I have managed to get one or two of them gaining the other programs from Jon and the surge CCT who are also in theatre.

The weather isn’t as hot yet as I thought it would be, don’t get me wrong though, it’s still hot. The accommodation here is excellent for an operational tour; I am in the Tier 2 Corrimec with remote Air-con! You can’t argue with that!

Tomorrow we start RSOI which is what all soldiers have to conduct once they arrive in theatre. It helps to update everyone to the latest skills and drills, we will also need to ‘zero’ our weapons on the range.