Spoken from the Front Read Online Free

an M60D machinegun.
It is flown by two pilots who sit side by side. We also
have two crewmen, who do everything the pilots don't do:
loading and unloading and also firing the guns if needed. The
crewmen work the aircraft – we just fly it. If we're dropping
off light-ordered troops, just with their weapons and
ammunition, then we could carry thirty to forty max in
Afghanistan. But it also depends on the conditions – how
hot it is, how high we are. Thirty to thirty-five troops
would be a good, safe number. Flying helicopters for me is a
schoolboy dream that I've never grown out of.
20 May
    Departed the Sqn at 2100L [local time] to pick up a few crewmen,
and headed to Brize [Norton] to catch our Tristar. For
once, the movers at Brize didn't fuck us around too much and
we were on the plane in quite good time.
    I was pleasantly surprised when a girl from my Initial
Officer Training course [at RAF Cranwell] sat beside me.
Besides being a Harrier pilot, extremely pleasant and quite
clever, she is also very attractive. This had the benefit of
making the trip to Kabul seem much shorter.
    As we approached Kabul, we were instructed to don our
Kevlar helmets and CBA [body armour]. This is a very
peculiar sight; being in a white airliner wearing combat gear
... funny maybe only to me.
    Upon arriving at 1500L, we were received by the movers
and told that our onward flight to Kandahar wouldn't be
leaving until 0500L the following morning. It almost felt good
being fucked around again by the movers, like some sort of
global balance was restored.
    Finally, we arrived at KAF [Kandahar airfield] at 2300L on
the 19th. KAF runs on Zulu time [a military time zone the
same as Greenwich Mean Time], though, so it was actually
0300Z. It would have been great to get our heads down at that
point, as we were all exhausted, but instead we were thrust
immediately into theatre briefs ... very long briefs.
    We awoke today with the sun and were subjected to more
briefs and familiarized ourselves with the running of the ops.
The latter took the majority of the day.
    Upon initial assessment, it is quite clear to me that 'Afghan'
is going to be much busier than Iraq. Just today a large
US, French and ANA (Afghan National Army) convoy left
Camp Kajaki down in the north of Helmand and headed
for Camp Robinson in the south. They were ambushed by
approx 15 TB (Taliban) and suffered heavy casualties (35–40
dead), including 2–3 French and 2 US. The Chinook IRT
[incident-response team] was ordered to pick up the casualties
and provide top cover (aided by Harrier and Apache).
Later, the 3 Chinooks were tasked with landing the Paras in
and around the TIC [troops in contact] in order to provide a
defensive line.
    Yesterday a Canadian FAC [forward air controller] was
killed by an RPG whilst directing A-10s [planes] and Apaches
onto an enemy position. She was the first female cas [casualty,
fatality] suffered since the Second World War. This place
is definitely dangerous and we are right in the middle
of it.
May 2006
    Major Maria Holliday, QGM, Royal Military Police (RMP)
    Major Maria Holliday, QGM, of the Royal Military Police (RMP) is
forty-nine. She was born and brought up in Chorley, Lancashire.
An only child, her father was an armaments inspector. She
attended Holy Cross High School in Chorley before joining the
Army in 1978. Her father had served in the Army during the Second
World War and Holliday was just four when she announced she
intended to follow in his footsteps. She joined as a private in the
Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC), but later transferred to
the RMP. Holliday served in Northern Ireland for more than seven
years, during which she was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal
(QGM). She was commissioned as a late-entry officer in 1999. She
served in Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan in 2006. Holliday is based at
the Army's Bulford camp in Wiltshire.
    I arrived in Afghanistan in early April 2007 as the company
commander for 174 Provost Company 3 RMP and as