A Message from the Commanding Officer

Lt Col Bill Wright

29th September 2011

Lieutenant Colonel Bill Wright has sent a message from Afghanistan to the families and friends of 2 RIFLES. It talks about the deployment, the handover in Afghanistan and some initial impressions.  Click on the read more link for the full text.

Dear 2 Rifles Families and Friends

The long awaited deployment is now in full swing.  For those back home I know that this is one of the hardest bits of the tour.  Saying goodbye to loved ones is awful, but the clock is now ticking: the sooner we get on with the job the sooner we are home.  My thoughts are also with Rear Ops Group – their job is too often unsung and the tour will demand a great deal of them both physically and mentally.  They are an absolutely critical part of the 2Rifles team.  I also know that those down as Battle Casualty Replacements have the hard job of watching their friends depart and have no idea when they will join them.  Dates are slowing becoming clearer for them and we should be able to brief them in the next few weeks.

The handover in Afghanistan is now a much longer affair in order to allow those coming in to really get to know the local situation before they take over responsibility formally.  As a result we have had a large number of 2Rifles Brigade Advisory Group (BAG) members in Helmand for several weeks already.   As each flight arrives in Camp Bastion (after a rather long 36hrs of travel) they go onto a really good week long training package designed to bring everyone up to date on the latest developments and equipment, and to give them time to acclimatise.  It is 34 degrees in Camp Bastion, which is a lot cooler than it has been recently – thank goodness summer is over!  Added to the heat you also have to get used to its high altitude (1000m) – it is rather different to Ballykinler!

We have been made very welcome by 3 Mercians, the current BAG.  We fought alongside them in Basra in 2007 and had their B Coy under command whilst our C Company worked for them in the North of the City. As a result there have been some good reunions and lots of telling war stories already!  For Security reasons I cannot yet go into the detail of timings and what is happening to each BAG group, but suffice it to say that we are busy, being very well prepared, are very focussed and our morale is high!

As I have said before – we could not do this really important job without the support of our friends and families, particularly at this emotionally hard time.  So thank you – we will do you all proud!

All the best

Bill Wright