We were given the call to conduct a VIP route clearance tasking, this basically entails two fire teams in two vehicles travelling ahead of the VIP’s convoy to prove the route, almost acting like bait.

In theory if insurgents want to hit the convoy, hopefully they will see our British call sign first and attempt to hit us, however we have the firepower on board to hopefully counteract this and take the fight to them.

We got the brief and mounted up, I was excited because it was my first chance of driving in the city. I was in the rear vehicle of the two as we set off out the main gate. The road leading from the main gate is very heavily guarded by the Afghan National Army; we had to pass through at least three or four barrier check points before we arrived at the main roundabout in Kabul. The Land rover in front accelerated and blocked off the traffic from the left, sounding his horn and flashing his lights, while I accelerated past and moved over blocking all vehicles entering the roundabout from the right and letting the first vehicle drive past safely. On top our lads were pointing their weapons at any traffic that ignored our moves and issued them stern orders. The traffic was unbelievably heavy and we had to weave in and out making drivers move over to the sides of the road and sound our horns to warn pedestrians that we were coming through.

Turning off into the last leg of the approach to the airport, we had to drive through a type of shanty town, the road turned into a track and a few times we had to drive off road, through deep water, the poor lads on top cover certainly got bounced around, especially when we hit a speed bump that nobody noticed, luckily the lads in the back just about had their teeth still intact, not so sure about their backs though. Finally we arrived and entered through the barrier system of the airport. We all sighed with relief that things had gone well and the VIP extended his gratitude to us for putting our lives on the line for him, which made us pretty well proud.

While we were waiting for the plane to take off safely the lads took their chance to dive into the shops on the base, we bought more equipment and for me.... well it had to be chocolate, everyone at home knows I have an addiction to the stuff, so I bought plenty to keep me going. The plane flew off and we loaded back up. We set off through the barriers; however this time we had to take a slightly different road which was very uneven and areas had water that was deep enough to cover half way up our wheels.

Whilst driving through the water we sounded the horns warning everybody we were coming, nearly all of the residents quickly moved clear of us, apart from two children that thought they would stay and see what we were doing, as we drove past a wave of water created by our vehicles swamped the two of them, the poor kids were soaked through, we couldn’t help but laugh, but felt sorry for them to.

We used the blocking drills on the way back and arrived back to base safely for our debriefing.