On the Frontline in Afghanistan (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

Karl, like many young soldiers, joined the army to escape the lack of opportunity of a working-class area. Having completely flunked school and being a product of a failing education system, it was the Army, particularly the Infantry, that offered Karl the fortuity to begin adulthood with the best possible foundation. What followed was a typical but equally unique journey.

Joining the 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment at the age of seventeen, making him the youngest soldier in the regiment, he was quickly deployed in 2010 to Afghanistan on Operation Herrick 13. He found himself in the district of Nad Ali, the most southern part of Helmand Province occupied by coalition forces.

During the seven-month operational tour, he was exposed to an array of life-changing experiences. Within the first week of 'A' Company's arrival on the frontline, Karl and his tactical team was in fierce firefights and subjected to heinous tactics carried out by the Taliban which involved innocent children.

As winter fell and conditions worsened, Karl and his fellow Irishmen endured regular attacks by insurgents, including a chilling incursion with a grenade that resulted in a Military Cross being awarded to his unit commander, an unexpected IED strike leaving the patrol stranded from casualty extraction by air and even becoming a casualty himself for an extremely unorthodox injury. Throughout the tour his unit had to deal with scenarios that no level of infantry soldier training could prepare them for, one of which was an unnerving day where a building collapsed while being occupied by Karl and two other rangers.

In the years that followed, Karl's story changes lanes as he left the army after six-years and tries to adjust to civilian life, the transition of which was anything but smooth, the absence of the army lead to an intense period of mental and physical decline, dealing with PTSD, substance abuse, adjusting from the only job he had since school and a long and arduous recovery entailing residential care and a complete change and step away from his previous life. This is his story, told in his own words.