-: The third tour of Op Telic
in the end of 2007,
yet again feeling the apprehension to go out there
but I'd been promoted by this time, so I was a corporal,
so I knew I was gonna have guys I needed to look after.
That I think, the pure virtue
that I had other people to think of
and I had a bigger role in the team,
that helped me
because it wasn't just about me,
I didn't just have me to think about.
There was other things.
There was other factors
and I had to be inspiring to those guys as well
or attempt to be inspiring
because you're put in a position to lead
and you've gotta go through with it.
There's no other way and you've got to find a way
to go through with it.
So, I prepared myself as best as I could
and the training was outstanding to garner.
Yet again the tour was very, very different
and we didn't really have free reign
to go and drive around Basra anymore
because there was a massive insurgency in the area
and on a daily basis, the Basra camp
was under rocket attack
and sometimes this would be a couple of times a day,
the rocket attack, at any time of the day or night
and then sometimes it would be 10/15 times a day.
So, literally rockets coming and flying
into the camp boundaries
and impacting on the ground
and sometimes getting causalities.
But because of our role,
a bomb disposal role, every single time a rocket was
or mortar was fired,
we'd have to go and investigate
to see if it was safe,
that it had actually functioned on the ground.
So, we were busy.
I mean, hugely, hugely busy.
Night and day
and then there was other operations that we had to go on
with the infantry
to various different places
which was quite exciting
'cause that was in their armor
and I'm not gonna say too much about that.
And then we looked after Basra Palace.
There's a team of us that looked after destroying anything
that we couldn't take back from Basra Palace
when we handed over to the Iraqi Army
and so, that was very exciting.
Instead of rockets raining down on us,
we had mortars.
So, yeah, that was a different experience.
And yeah, very, very responsible experience
and I gained a lot from it.
I think I matured a lot on that tour.