Category Archives: Preparation

Departure

By the time this is published I’ll be on my way to Afghanistan. It feels as if it’s been a while coming, although I was doing my civilian job just 7 weeks ago, project manager of an IT investment for … Continue reading

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The kit issue

It feels as if I’ve been issued an inordinate amount of kit in the last few weeks. MoD changed the policy a few years ago so that everyone deploying gets a complete new kit issue, as appropriate to their operational … Continue reading

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Consolidation

Connectivity was pretty bad last week, we were in an army training camp in Hampshire practicing a number of the skills and capabilities that we’d been discussing in theory. So it was lots of infantry drills, vehicle drills and using … Continue reading

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So training continues

We finished the rifle course on Friday, and the general consensus was that the time gave everyone a chance to feel very comfortable with the weapons. Personally I was pleased, I got the best result of the course during the … Continue reading

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Rifle training

The first major part of training that I’ve been doing has been to re-qualify on the rifle. Everyone going to Afghanistan or to Iraq has to qualify to an adequate level of weapon proficiency, to the same level as our … Continue reading

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The first few days

The first few days of any mobilisation are predominantly administration, and pretty smooth.  One of the more important aspects was sorting out pay and allowances.  The MoD top up the salary to match civilian pay so that one isn’t disadvantaged … Continue reading

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Last days

So I’m in the last couple of days at work. An odd semi-limbo existence of rapidly reducing responsibility and admin headaches. I’ve finished one project and handed off two others to colleagues. One of those is rapidly approaching close-down, so … Continue reading

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