TA Gunner has a "hell of an introduction" to Helmand

Gunner Jack Lopresti joined his local Bristol Territorial Army unit, 266 Battery, 100 Regiment Royal Artillery, in 2006 when he was 36.

When the opportunity came two years later to deploy to Afghanistan with 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, as part of 3 Commando Brigade, he jumped at the chance.

266 Battery's emerging role is to support 29 Commando on operations and exercise. And so Gunner Lopresti, along with a few others, volunteered for the tour.

Five months of training later and Gunner Lopresti flew into Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand province:

"Camp Bastion is the biggest overseas British base built since the Second World War and it's growing," said Gunner Lopresti. "If anyone should doubt ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] or NATO's resolve in seeing the job through out here, they should come to Camp Bastion; they would leave under no illusions as to our [the UK's] resolve. Life is generally comfortable here. There is even a Pizza Hut, a shipping container painted in Pizza Hut colours, as well as a couple of gyms and a state-of-the-art hospital!"

His first role in Bastion was to be a duty driver working for the Bastion Support Unit MT (motor transport) department:

"We were a new team who hadn't worked together before. Mainly Royal Marines and Gurkhas, but also a Commando Engineer, an Engineer and me the only Gunner!"

It wasn't long before Gunner Lopresti got the opportunity to get out on the ground when he was assigned to work with The Rifles:

"The Rifles are responsible for force protection duties and needed additional help," he said. "I soon found myself working with them for the best part of two months. I started working on the main entry point into Camp Bastion, searching vehicles and people as they came in and out of camp. I saw the amazing search dog teams in action, got to know a few of the interpreters and, along the way, learned a few basic words of Pashtu."

He also picked up other force protection duties and was trained on a WMIK Land Rover and went out on patrol with The Rifles as a WMIK driver:

"It was fantastic driving across the desert; I felt I was really living the dream. It was amazing to see camels and Bedouin camps; a beautiful but barren, rocky and dry landscape. We had a very good reception from the locals we met on our patrols. It never ceased to amaze me how they managed to survive, grow crops and live in such a hot, dry country. The stars looked spectacular on a clear night, and you could see for miles."

Gunner Lopresti then moved on to providing force protection on the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) Chinook helicopter. He explained:

"This involved being on call in a tent, where we slept, watched DVDs, read and relaxed, sometimes for hours on end until the radio crackled into life with a 'shout' and we had to grab our weapons, helmets, body armour etc and get to the flight line to get on the MERT ASAP [as soon as possible]."

His first day with the unit though didn't involve much relaxing:

"I'd only arrived on duty a few minutes prior to my first shout and found myself with the team being driven at speed to the flight line. The adrenaline was beginning to pump as we took off and towards our first job. It was a routine pickup in a FOB [Forward Operating Base] less than an hour from Camp Bastion. We landed at the FOB, the chap walked on and off we went."

But even before the team had arrived back at Bastion they heard they had another job to do straightaway:

"So we dropped off our patient and immediately took off again. We had to land somewhere in the middle of the desert and so, with our Apache helicopter as escort, I thought things might get a bit hairy. As we got nearer we found out more details, it was a mine strike, three Americans, one dead, two injured.

"We landed and I and the other troops got out of the Chinook and fanned out to give protection as the injured were loaded onto the helo. Once back on the Chinook, it was a hive of activity with the doctors and nurses frantically working on the two casualties. I helped by passing the medical team things and holding up the drip and lightly squeezing the bag as instructed. When we got back to Bastion I then helped carry the stretcher to one of the waiting ambulances.

"As I got back on the Chinook they were cleaning out the helicopter - it was a brutal demonstration of the grim reality of the conflict out here and the daily sacrifices being made. I thought of the families of those boys, the heartache and the calls they were going to get in the next few hours.

"And still we weren't finished! Another call had come in, out to another FOB; a poor lad had been injured by mortar fragments. There was a lighter moment on the way back though, he was stable, conscious and laid out on a stretcher. I don't know whether it was the morphine which did it or not, but he started to hug and cuddle one of the nurses; we didn't blame him as she was actually very pretty! She was very nice to him and chatted to him all the way back to the hospital; no mean feat in a noisy helicopter.

"All this happened in a single morning. It was a hell of an introduction to the heroic work of the aircrew and medical teams who do these duties 24/7."

Gunner Lopresti only has a few weeks left until he returns to the UK:

"I have had the great privilege of working with some fantastic people; I include some of the locals in that, especially the interpreters who risk their lives just by working here in Afghanistan for the Allied Forces. I have also made some great friends.

"I have enjoyed serving with 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery and 3 Commando Brigade hugely and would say to any of my fellow TA Gunners, if you get a chance to do an operational tour with 29, then jump at the chance. You will not regret it."