Meet the Officer Commanding the next infantry company deploying to Afghanistan
Major Charlie Grant will be commanding British troops in the next deployment to Afghanistan. We spoke to him as they took part in a mission rehearsal exercise before deploying
Men and women from 2 SCOTS, Royal Regiment of Scotland, recently found themselves far from home in the county of Norfolk at Stanford Training Area in preparation for a deployment much further afield.
They were located at in camp deep into the training area, which was imitating HQ Resolute Support, the location they will be operating out of in Afghanistan.
The 2 SCOTS are preparing for what will be the next rotation of troops to Afghanistan on Operation TORAL in support of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission.
The man commanding these men and women is Major Charlie Grant.
“The big difference is that 10/15 years ago when we were fighting in Op HERRICK, the southern part of Afghanistan it was a highly kinetic operation, and what we were looking to do was to partner with the Afghans and fight the Taliban, as much as we could we would take the fight to the enemy to ensure the security of the region. It’s come a long way.”
Can you introduce yourself for us?
“I'm Major Charlie Grant, I command Charlie Company of 2 SCOTS, and we’re on Exercise Kabul Dawn getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan on Operation TORAL 11”
What is your role as the commander?
“My role as the overall commander is to co-ordinate what we’re going to do in response to each activity and ultimately command it. The buck stops with me on what happens with this company”
What is going on here in Stanford Training Area?
“The Mission Rehearsal Exercise is supposed to do kinda what it says on the tin, it practises us, it rehearses us, for everything that we’re likely to face out in Afghanistan. That can be everything from, even just the routine of daily life here in the camp — which you can already see behind me — how we go out on patrols, how we might respond to various incidents, how you would respond to being attacked, how we could respond to having casualties. We practice all those things so that if we are called upon to do them for real, then we know what we are doing”
Why 2 SCOTS?
“I’ve been part of the Royal Regiment of Scotland for close to 14/15 years, from a personal point of view I would say it’s us because we are one of the best and highly professional units in the army. The wider answer would be to say, 2 SCOTS like every other unit it the British Army, we are professional soldiers and we will be taking over from equally professional soldiers from the RIFLES and incidentally form the 4th Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland. 2 SCOTS has a long tradition of being an operational focused highly professional body of men and women and it's our turn to take our stint on Op TORAL”
“The fundamental building block of this Company and any army unit is the private soldier — we call them fusiliers in our battalion — a highly trained professional soldier, whilst brought together with their teams, sections, platoons or as part of the company, they all come together to be that professional body and ultimately complete the mission.”
What’s the UK’s role in Afghanistan?
“ The British Army has been committed to Afghanistan for close to 20 years now and part of that effort is to ensure that Afghan forces themselves can deliver security in Afghanistan”
“A decade or so ago we were part of Op HERRICK where our part of that NATO mission was to deliver security, mentoring to Afghan forces in the southern part of Afghanistan — principally Helmand Province — Op TORAL and the British Army’s role in it is focused on Kabul itself. We’re part of something called the Kabul Security Force (KSF) and our job whilst there is to deliver Advisor Force Protection (AFP) missions — which is NATO advisors going to meet with, support, help train, help guide and partner with Afghan forces — our job is to make sure that they can deliver those missions safely.”
Have you deployed to Afghanistan before?
“I’ve done two tours of Afghanistan before both of which were in Helmand Province and on both occasions I had the good fortune of working with the Royal Regiment of Scotland and as an experience for a young officer — which was what I was when I did those — it was rewarding, challenging but hugely rewarding”
“The big difference is that 10/15 years ago when we were fighting in Op HERRICK, the southern part of Afghanistan it was a highly kinetic operation, and what we were looking to do was to partner with the Afghans and fight the Taliban, as much as we could we would take the fight to the enemy to ensure the security of the region. It’s come a long way.”
In the scenario earlier you were out of action, can you explain what happened?
“We’re on something called a Mission Rehearsal Exercise (MRX) where they want to test us on all of the different things that could happen. One of the things that could happen is that I might not be there or that I might be injured and my second in command, he might need to step up and do my job”
“So, what you saw this morning was Tom stepping into my role, and of course someone had to step up from below him and do his job. This exercise here — which is fantastically resourced, with so much good value training thrown at it — is preparing us for almost every eventuality that we could face. Hopefully, we don't have to face all of those realities. The scenario this morning was a big complex attack on this camp, explosives going off at the front gate, armed insurgents storming into the camp, we very much hope that we don't have to deal with that, but the reason we train the way we do is so that if we do get called upon to respond to the very most severe things, is that we know what we are doing”
How have you found this Mission Rehearsal Exercise?
“I'm hugely proud, that I think we have approached this exercise — and all of our training — with absolutely the right frame of mind. A frame of mind that is an acknowledgement that not a single person here has done their job on TORAL before, I’ve been to Afghanistan before, but I’ve never done a Company Commander’s job on TORAL. But every man and woman that we’ve got here has approached the level of training on offer with an open mind. “
“They make a very good point here with how they deliver the training, it’s a crawl, walk, run mentality. They teach you the lessons of the things that you are most likely going to face, they gave us an opportunity to experience some of those and as the exercise has gone on they have increased the complexity. I think if we had been hit with some of the stuff, they’re hitting us with now — lots of different moving parts — we may have struggled more, but absolutely now I feel we are ready to deploy because the training has given us a chance to really test ourselves”
