The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men #3

We will remember them.

This is the Reconnaissance Platoon and Snipers of the Highlanders, The 4th Battalion of The Royal Regiment of Scotland. We had just come back from a recce patrol in Helmand Province. It was a ‘spike-to-strike’ operation. We were essentially used as bait to spike a reaction from insurgent forces in a nearby contested area. We would poke the hornets’ nest to identify and track the Taliban commanders controlling the fight behind the fighters at the front with drones and other surveillance assets.

It was part of a series of operations codenamed ‘Zmaray Taqat’ (Lion’s Power in Pashto), which ran over the last few months of our tour. The ops aimed to disrupt a well-organised insurgent and narcotic criminal network that ran from Pakistan to our southeast, through our area and all the way up north to Sangin and beyond.

The date was 11 September 2011. It was the 10th anniversary of the attacks of 9/11 on the United States by Al Qaeda, which led to the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

Cause and effect

This is an extract from my journal on the day:

“On this anniversary of the attacks on America, we pushed out of [our base] at 0600 and advanced North East.

In a controlled op, our movement was sound and the snipers provided overwatch as we bounded from compound to compound.

The insurgent reaction was as expected and ISTAR [surveillance assets] was able to observe the commanders, the weapons and the scouts all moving into position..

We reached a ‘Mexican Stand Off’ where the insurgents weren’t wanting to push further south or engage us as they were unsure of all our positions and also more tentative due to our sniper capability.

We therefore pulled back [to base], our spike having worked and the ISTAR continued on the collect, tracking guys back to compounds and areas, stashing weapons etc. All this info would feed into the next operation Taqat 5.

In the evening we had a small party for the SCOTS DG, as they were leaving the next day – games of baseball, volleyball, touch rugby, a BBQ and a quiz night – we lost the quiz to CSgt Gunn, again, but he is over 100 so he’s got some knowledge!

Also saw an interesting piece on the news about the 10 year mark of 9/11. The Afghan National Police and local nationals were being shown images of the attacks onto the twin towers and none of them knew what they were, or knew about the incident – i.e. the catalyst and reason as to why we are here!...”

Remembering Jamie and Jamie

I’m proud to say that all of the platoon made it home at the end of the tour. Tragically, not all of them are with us today.

Jamie Coleman (front row, last man kneeling on the right) and Jamie 'Delta' Davies (back row, first man on the left, with his head bowed (snipers!)) were great soldiers. They had a brutal sense of humour and a way of keeping your feet on the ground, and they were deeply entwined in the brotherhood of the platoon.

I, and others, owe our lives to them. On numerous occasions, both Jamies courageously fought to defend troops in contact.

Today, we remember and thank Jamie and Jamie, as well as Mike Pike, Scott Mclaren, and all those who have died serving us.