From extracting casualties to providing safety — the role of a vehicle commander
Corporal Williams speaks about his role on the Mission Rehearsal Exercise in preparation for Op TORAL, and what being a vehicle commander is all about
Members of the Armed Forces are currently in Afghanistan on Op TORAL, which is the codename given to the British element of NATO’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan. Since 2014 British forces have been helping to rebuild and provide ongoing security to the Afghans.
Having completed training throughout the year, Corporal Williams from the Royal Regiment of Scotland is now in Afghanistan on Op TORAL. Here, he answers questions prior to his deployment, and what he would expect to see:
Corporal Williams is currently in Afghanistan on Op TORAL
Please can you introduce yourself?
“My name is Corporal Williams, I am from the Royal Regiment of Scotland, and we are on MRX just now, preparing for our deployment to Afghanistan in October.
“We are deploying on the 23rd October, scheduled for six months on Op TORAL.
Can you talk about your role on the MRX?
“As a vehicle commander, my role here is different to the other operations we’ve done — with TORAL, we have vehicle moves with this operation. We will be operating off of these wagons, pushing on various different tasks throughout the operation.
“The Commander’s responsibility is to make sure everything is good on the wagon, making sure that we crack on with our tasks, and to make sure that we control things on the ground as we see fit.”
As a vehicle commander, what will you specifically be doing?
“It depends on the situation. We could be going out to extract casualties from a location, or taking a mentor or some kind of visitor to a location, providing safety. It is a sensitive situation when we get on the ground, and everything is a bit mature.
How have you been preparing for the upcoming deployment?
“To build the boys confidence, we start slower, getting them confident with the skills and drills and obviously then testing them on harder things. Us as Commanders as well, nobody is exempt. Everybody is tested just as hard.
“It is proven to help quite effectively moving from a slow pace, all the way up to getting tested nice and hard.”
“It is a dangerous region, and we are not going to take that out of the back of our heads. The training that we do means that we are ready to react.”
Corporal Williams and his team have now deployed to Afghanistan, where they will spend the next six months on Op TORAL.
