An Cosantóir

20 MULLINGAR TO MONROVIA – A SOLDIER'S MEMOIR PART 2 By Photos by Lar McKevitt Lar McKevitt Reveille happened at 6am sharp. This wasn't the playing of pipes or a bugle, but the siren of the medical ambulance. It rang out for a good minute or two until you could see dead tired faces moving out of the unzipped tents. Time to get up and face day two of our six-day patrol. Quickly you could see soldiers setting up shaving areas outside their tents, though shaving was optional while on a long-range patrol, I left it to every other day. Teeth were brushed, hexamine cookers pulled from our backpacks to boil some water for a brew or a coffee, the bagged beans were prepared and placed over a small flame. After everyone was shaved, fed and watered, we made a single file to collect our ration packs from the Quartermasters truck for the next 24 hours. This was operated by CQ Pat Ganley from Galway, a mild-mannered man and a decent sort, he was good for an extra ration pack if you were up for it. After that it was time to chill out until we got the order to mount up and to move out of our position. At 9.45am local time, the order was sent out to prepare ourselves, mount up and be ready to move out. At 10am sharp we started to roll again. Next stop: Gbarnga. This trip would be a big push and our ETA was around 3pm local time. The plan once we got there was to patrol as frequently as we could and our orders were to remain alert at all times. We would spend 72 hours at Gbarnga and on Day 3 into the patrol, a platoon would be transported by air in M-I8 military helicopters from the base camp at Gbarnga to be flown by Ukrainian military pilots to a village named Vahun which was close to the border of Sierra Leone. So, because the Company Commander, Commandant Ryan was to travel, this meant that I would travel too as I was technically his communications person for reporting back to both the base camp at Gbarnga and to our HQ at Camp Clara in Monrovia. By mid-afternoon the patrol was pulling into Gbarnga and the very same as before, a forward reconnaissance team was deployed to seek out an ideal position for our stay. We pulled into a base camp, it was noticeably a larger amount of ground but not with as much cover. Same as before, the armour faced into two hourly positioning, personal tents were erected and a logistical area and Basecamp HQ was set up. I remember asking Captain Paddy Kelly to unload my magazine of live ammunition, which is military procedure to have an officer or senior NCO dismount a live weapon. I wanted to clean my rifle as it was a very dusty drive to get here and it was important that our rifles were clean and ready to be used effectively should we require. The truck in this terrain was not to use any bottled oil, but more so a used oil rag to clean it down so that sand or particles from the terrain wouldn't stick to important parts of our weaponry. Just as I removed the barrel and the main housing and gun-lock group from my rifle, the loudest order was sounded. "STAND TOO" – "STAND TOO" – this was a warning order given where a threat was imminent or something suspicious was in sight. I speedily put the weapon back

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