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© PTE Matthew Richards
Force Protection Platoon, I31
Greetings to all 5RAR members
and associates,
For the soldiers of I31, the
hard months of training in Darwin and the many
nights spent in Mount Bundey training area now
seem very distant for where we are at this
current point in time. Following the long hours
spent watching endless streams of power point
presentations and briefs now sees us doing our
job “for real”. For most of us, Afghanistan was
just a selection of photographs, videos and
stories and we couldn’t wait to finally
experience it for ourselves, the time for us to
embark for the deployment seemed very far away.
Then it soon dawned on us that we only had weeks
to go and final leave was granted; late
September and mid-October our call sign flew
into the middle-east with the first stop being
in the UAE (United Arab Emirates). After
some medical training and zeroing shoots we
emplaned for the flight into Afghanistan. The
moment was here. This is where our training and
theory learnt would be finally put into
practise. For all, the first sight of
Afghanistan was when the Hercules ramp came down
and we disembarked and looked around. Barren
mountains, choppers flying, noise and of course,
the dust. Just like in the photos but still a
foreign sight to see.
 My call sign, I31, has been
tasked with force protection with combat team
Charlie in the district of Deh Rawud in the
south-western corner of Uruzgan province. It
borders Helmand and Kandahar provinces. We were
settled in our forward operating base with an
American combat team known as Apache Company of
the 1/2 Stryker Regiment. For most having never
worked with Americans before, we soon came to
bond and many questions were raised regarding
weapons and equipment and life in Australia/USA.
Within days of arriving we swung into work and
proceeded to catch up with Charlie section that
had arrived 3 weeks prior to the main body of
the platoon. The general consensus was that area
was going to be “exciting”. The area in which
Charlie Section had been operating was the same
area in which 6 RAR had large contact not 6
weeks prior. For us just arrived, looking across
to Derapet in the Tangi valley was a bit surreal
and a reminder that we truly were in “tiger
country”. Would we see a contact like that one
in our time in Afghanistan? We would soon find
out.
Whilst one section would be
providing security at Patrol Base (PB)
Anar Juy, the other two sections would find
themselves doing vehicle convoy escorts and
foot patrols closer to
 FOB
Hadrian with
moves
out to PB Razaq. Once again it was a chance to
catch with mates in the mentoring call signs. In
late November, Charlie section had a minor
contact in the Tangi valley and we knew it was
definitely game on for it seemed that the
Taliban were trying to get an idea of who the
new kids on the neighbourhood were. After a
mentoring call sign was engaged in heavy contact
in early December, a few days later, I31 was
told we would be going in with the mentors from
Tangi valley to engage Taliban. It would be a
massive day and in fact a lot larger than that
experienced by 6RAR in late August 2010. Whilst
providing overwatch our call sign came under
mass small arms fire for an extended period of
time. From this came our move into the valley
and surrounding villages and we were engaged in
contact for six and a half hours against a large
number of insurgents who were well versed.
Despite what the enemy could muster against us,
I31 and the Mentors managed to see out the day
with no casualties to any Australians or Afghan
national army soldiers. The Taliban were not so
lucky. Since this day the platoon has seen a
number of large sized contacts and has fared
well in all encounters. This is due to the
extensive training and determination of all
soldiers within our Combat Team.
After this period, patrol
bases were built in separate areas and the
weather turned for the worse. Preparing for lows
of -16 degrees Celsius is not a temperature
easily acclimatised to whilst in the Northern
Territory. During winter, the rain turned the
ground to thick mud and vehicle movement was
painfully hindered no matter where we went. But
recently the sun has re-appeared and many are
finally taking off layers of clothing hopefully
for the remainder of the trip!
Whilst the Combat Team
considered itself lucky during combat we have
seen so far, the dangers of the enemy are never
far away. The Taliban make use of IED’s or
improvised explosive devices, and will place
them to target our vehicles and dismounted
patrols. Our engineers are extremely good and
have found many and denied Taliban usage of
equipment with cache finds hurting their ability
to rearm and deploy IED’s and weapon systems.
Sadly for Combat Team Charlie, on the 2 February
we lost Engineer CPL Richard Atkinson, to an
IED. Known as “Akkers, he was an extremely well
liked member. Another engineer was wounded in
the incident and received top medical treatment
in Tarin Kowt hospital and has since returned to
the Combat Team. Akkers will be sadly missed and
it is the strength of a Combat Team to focus on
the job at hand after incidents like the tragic
one experienced. Combat Team Charlie has shown
that we will not slow down nor lose sight of the
tasks we have been assigned, and the goals we
have set.
Our Platoon is now over the
halfway point of our deployment and what can be
considered an already busy last few months. Our
remaining time is set to get even busier with
what’s considered “fighting season” just kicking
off with the start of the warmer weather. We are
well rehearsed now in our requirements needed of
an infantry soldier operating in Afghanistan. We
are well aware of the dangers that we face. All
the members of Combat team Charlie would also
like to thank the association for the support
and parcels that we have received whilst in
country. It’s not just support from family that
will get us over the line but from home in
general and the generation before us from 5RAR.
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