Andy McNab - Spoken From the Front - Real Voices from the Battlefields of Afghanistan

Ranger Jordan Armstrong, The Royal Irish Regiment

I joined up to go to Afghanistan just as our boys were startingto go to Helmand province. I wanted to experience thefighting. I saw it as a challenge. I knew before signing papersin the careers office that I would go to Afghanistan. I had seenvideos of the boys in Afghanistan. It definitely looked madbut I still wanted to try it. I always got a nervous feeling justthinking about it.

We flew to Afghanistan for my first tour on 25 March 2008.I had been abroad once before to the South of France forholidays and that was it. We flew out from [RAF] BrizeNorton [in Oxfordshire] to Kandahar. I was thinking: This isit. I'm going to do whatever I have to do and hopefully I willcome back. I had butterflies when we were on the runway atBrize Norton. I thought: I have a long six months ahead ofme. My first impression when I arrived in Afghanistan was ofthe heat and dust and how flat it was. It was flat in CampBastion. I'm an LMG [light machine-gun] gunner. That is myweapon. I'm trained to fire it. I was in Corporal Harwood'ssection. There were eight of us in it.

April 7 was a bad day. The ANP [Afghan National Police]came back from a patrol to Sangin DC [District Centre]. Wewere supposed to go out at the same time that they came backin around three [a.m.]. But the FSG [fire support group]boys were firing off Javelins [anti-tank missiles]. One gotfired and instead of going off into the distance it actuallylanded in the camp [Sangin DC]. But it didn't explode so theycordoned it off. This meant our patrol was delayed. It wasgood for us because we were then still at the base to deal witha major incident.

An RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] being carried in a bagby the ANP went off inside the camp. I think it was droppedby mistake. They had been carrying the RPGs in a bag ontheir backs. It blew up seven of them. Two of the men werekilled, others lost limbs. It had gone off at the back of the base Sangar [small fortified position] Two. It was an ND negative discharge. I don't know if it was bad drills or badluck.

We were nearby unloading. I ran over with the others. Isaw a lot of boys with their guts hanging out. There was onebeing carried away with both legs blown off above the knees.He wasn't screaming. He was quiet. We got them [theinjured] on stretchers and took them over to the med centre. Ihad to pick up one of the dead boys. His back was blown outand I had to throw him up in the truck. It sounds a bit roughto throw him in the back of a Land Rover but that was whatI was told to do.

I hadn't seen anything like that before [Armstrong wasthen just nineteen and only two weeks into his first tour]. Iwas actually all right when I saw them [dead and maimedbodies]. I wasn't sure whether I was going to be sick but assoon as I saw them I was all right. I thought I would havebeen faintish, but I wasn't. We had a good platoon sergeant.He took control and said: 'Get a grip, boys. Just get the jobdone.' Some boys were sick, though they couldn't handle it.You don't know how it's going to affect you until you see it.