Easter Sunday 24th April - Camp Bastion

Herrick 10
Well I have less than 5 weeks to go now and I think I have gotten over the midpoint blues although am well and truly ready to come home.
I have just returned from a very long weekend in Cyprus and in fact everyone here is saying that I am on a Mediterranean Tour of Duty (I will have a pink stripe on my medal ribbon, flamingos are the logo for RAF Akrotiri) and in fairness I have just totalled up I have spent 14 nights on my way out of & out of Afghanistan in the last 12 weeks. Mind you my suntan doesn’t look like I have had all that time in the “sun”... “on the beach”. But all I can say is that I don’t do the off duty and I don’t break the aircraft!!! Don’t think I will get a Strat flight for a while. It wasn’t all sea and sand though, the house we stay in is in the middle of a building site and they start at 7am, the Red Arrows are in Cyprus practicing and they start early and the weather is still overcast at times! but sunbathing did occur and some relaxation but I don’t need to visit Cyprus for a long while.
This week coming starting (22 April ) I am down to do the Helicopter transfer to BOST hospital which means proper structured days in early and finished early leaving evenings free to go running.... yes I said running. A few of us have started to run in the evenings when it’s much cooler and it is almost enjoyable. I think the location helps + company. It is really surreal as you run past a scene from M.A.S.H with all the helos on the pad and fire cover + the Battlefield Ambulances (BFAs). The busy period is beginning unfortunately as the weather is getting better. You do feel like you are on tour then.
I have also been dog walking again and seem to have struck up a friendship with “Dave” a small black spaniel with a very cheeky character. The new handlers are in and have settled with their animals so we have been able to go again to help them out walking the dogs. They have now set up a plunge pool for the dogs and they love it and can’t wait to get back after their walk and dive straight in. It does mean we come away smelling of wet dog as we have to aid them out of the pool. Have also walked Dec.
One of the Medics I work with is friends with a Naval medic out on the ground (i.e. out patrolling the villages & towns etc.) she was talking to us the other day. She is shorter than me but carries a Bergen of 45kg (>90lbs) of her kit + medical kit and goes out patrolling with the lads, she was out with 2 Para as their medic. I have to take my hat off to these people the courage they show in the face of such physical and mental stress, she was very interesting to talk to. We don’t really ever moan about the amount of kit we have to carry but it really pales into insignificance when you compare it to these medics.
Have been to Easter Service which was really nice, the padre is in his MTP (the uniform we are in) and just puts his religious neck clothes on and the hymns are accompanied on the I player. The church is lovely just one of the accommodation tents. The sermon was really interesting, it was the 2 Para Padre, he had written an article for the Church Times on Resurrection and he read that out to us. In the time that 2 Para have been out here they have lost a man for every month they have been here but the work they have done they feel has meant those deaths have not been in vain. It was good to hear as sometimes I do wonder. Whilst on tour 2 Para have resurrected a small Afghan village from a deserted and derelict place heavily IEDed by the Taliban to a thriving community where kids are playing in the streets again.
Then it could only happen in Afghanistan as we left church and saying goodbye to the padre someone walks by on his way back from the shower in just his towel....nice body!!!. No flying today as no patients to transfer so have taken the opportunity to clean my weapon exciting life I lead am about to finish work as well and go sunbathing... yes I am on tour I know it doesn’t always sound like it but I am out here. I bet Emma will still be browner than me as each time I ring she is either on the beach or on the way to the beach or working at Macdonalds.
Can’t believe she is going to be 17 on the 29th April... seventeen!!.
Well will send this one as not much to say, things aren’t new anymore but I am not moaning as if I am quiet and at all bored then our lads & lassies are safe.

Love from

Amanda xxx

13th April - Camp Bastion

Hiya

This one will be very short cos thankfully not much has been occuring, well I guess that's not strictly true it's just that nothing new has happened it is the same old business. I have been in theatre 11 weeks tomorrow and I have done most things now. So its very much routine now and there isn't an awful lot to do out here bar the gym and work. The coffee shops are running out of tea and coffee on a regular basis, everywhere is really busy as the "Rip" is occuring where the next Herrick begins we are going from 13 to 14 and the Royal Navy are taking over so there are almost 2 people for every job in theatre just now.

I have been on the rota to to the Strat flights for the last 2 weeks and am on the Cyprus Strat again at the weekend. So I am into work late each day, 1pm ish and work through till the last flight in the night. Sometimes get pinged for the Tactical flights if the the Thumpers are at the wrong time for the Kandahar team to pick up the patients.

I did go dog walking again this morning as the new handlers have now settled in with their dogs and we can go along again.I walked "Dave" a gorgeous black spaniel. They have a plunge pool set up for them now its warm for them to enjoy after their walk, I was quite jealous this morning as Dave jumped in. I was then going to do a Aeromed move with our American equivalents but the flight was brought forward and they had been unable to contact me. So I will try again another day just to do something different.

I am due to do an Admin week next week so am looking forward to that as it will be something new, a chance to write the Signals and Patient Movement Requests (PMR). The hopefully I will get to do the BOST moves again on the helicopters then I guess I will have to go to Kandahar again then it will be time to come home almost yeh!!!!.

Right I am off to the Post Office to post Emma's birthday present so it arrives in time and then go and sit in the sun....in uniform so just improving the Squaddie suntan!!.

Take care, thanks for all your letters and emails it's great to receive news from home.

Amanda xxxx