Tales from the front line

I can’t remember how often I have sat in this lounge contemplating what is to come over the coming months, but in my 21 years of service in the Army it is probably too long.

I bade farewell to my ever stoic wife and children yesterday leaving them in Germany where we have been based for the past two years. Waving goodbye never gets any easier, but having now been deployed to Bosnia, Kosovo, the Falkland Islands, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq as well as a number of exercises in far off places like Canada, the Ukraine and the US, my wife, Corina, is more than used to looking after our four children, all under eight, without me around.

The military system is very supportive of our families, and our community always pulls together when one of the family is deployed so I know that they are in very good hands.

I’m not sure that the children really understand what is happening in any case, given that they were more interested in getting back to Star Wars on the Wii than in saying farewell to their absconding father - at least I know where I sit in their list of priorities!

In the somewhat surreal way that the military works I am currently between jobs. Last week I was the Commanding Officer of 2 Close Support Battalion REME supporting the Desert Rats, 7th Armoured Brigade, in Bad Fallingbostel just south of Hamburg, Germany.

This week and for the next six months or so, I will take over as the spokesman for Task Force Helmand based in Lashkagar, Helmand Province. I will be responsible for co-ordinating all media coverage of the Task Force and its operations, as well as acting as the media spokesman on behalf of the Brigade Commander. You can say many things about life in the Army but it certainly keeps you on your toes and on the edge of your comfort zone at times.

I was last in Afghanistan in 2006 as the Deputy Chief of Staff of 16 Air Assault Brigade as we first deployed into Helmand.

I will be returning four years later with the same Brigade and it will be interesting to see just how much has changed in the interim period.

Apart from anything, we now have three times as many troops focused solely on the central development zone around Lashkagar as well as a huge increase in support from both the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development, and of course, the US Marine Corps. Things have definitely changed.

So I sit waiting at Brize Norton filled with a mixture of trepidation in anticipation of my new role, sadness at leaving my family behind, but also a sense of excitement to be doing what I joined up to do.

Once in Afghanistan I will spend four days on administration, testing and zeroing my rifle and then being briefed on the latest tactics, techniques and procedures by the outgoing parade before finally being let loose on the press.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with you.