VRA (UK)
Northern
Moggys big rideout ( sort of )
a VERY quick overview of Op HERRICK 13B Afganistan
Well I was sent off yet again to a lovely country for the 3rd time in 10 years courtesy of our government, the place is a dusty horrible country called Afganistan, having been before I had knowledge of what we , our Territorial Army field hospital, were going to face. Our tour after a months training ( AKA getting buggered about ) was to be 3 months of sweat, toil, sleep deprivation and a lot of trauma.
We landed in the dustbowl after a nightmare journey of 3 days ( no sleep ), we then took over the hospital and got to know our jobs, I was to do 5 jobs in total, I worked in the Emergency Department, mortuary, front of house ( unloading ambulances/searching locals/weapon clearing ), operating theatres and stores. I worked every day and had no day off, however, I was my own boss and made sure I got some breaks and a few lie ins.
We slept ( hahhahahahaa ) in big 15 man tents with us each having a biggish mozzie net for a bit of privacy about 7ft by 5 ft and you kept all your stuff in this space, the area where we kipped was like being under Heathrow airport with helicopters and fast air jets going all bloody night !!
The grub was decent to say we were in the middle of a desert, the gym was good too and we mostly all got on, even with the yanks who were also working in our hospital. One Marine punched me sparring at boxing nearly knocking me out and also almost breaking a rib or two, but I forgave him as he was a decent lad, and he told me he hit me with only 40% force, I have no idea how he knew that but I know it hurt 100% !!
Our workload was high and we had on average a traumatic amputation everyday, these
were usually high up, bilateral and also had goolie and arse trauma too, I scrubbed
for a few cases and was at the squirty end of leg stumps. Gunshot wounds became a
tad boring and only worth a look if it was a head or chest wound ( not for the patient
of course !! ) We would also see multi-
We had a few kids through but not as many as our last tour in 07. The state we were sending the lads and one female, who was from Huddersfield, back were unbelievable, some lived and some passed away when they got home, it really resembled the 1st World War some days and although I am used to seeing really bad sights you truly felt sorry for those who were injured. We did a most fantastic job of damage repair control for the casualties and knew there was no finer trauma centre ANYWHERE in the world.
I also helped out in the mortuary mainly with the enemy dead, we would take forensic photos of what was left of them, fingerprints, DNA samples etc then bag ‘em up and put them in the fridge, trying our best not to drop them and bang their heads on the trolley ( oooppps ). While we were there the sun came out and got to about 30 degrees and I ran a half marathon just to prove how tough I am !!
We left after 3 months and headed home on another nightmare journey back to Blighty, and I wonder where we’ll get sent next time, hopefully somewhere nice with a beach.
This is a very brief view of what we did out there, if anyone would like to see some photos I’ll bring them to Belgium and show them.
24448921 S/Sgt Moggy