UK
Forces fighting in Afghanistan need to keep moving in a range of
vehicles. But each needs fuel to stay operational. In the fourth of his
Echo reports from Afghanistan, BEN GLAZE speaks to a tanker driver from
South Wales transporting diesel in a war zone
A BULLET magnet.
That is how Private Scott Burrows-Jones describes his 20,000-litre
diesel tanker as it rumbles across Helmand’s dusty desert tracks
littered with roadside-bombs.
His dad Jason, 44, is a
long-distance lorry driver – but the traffic jams of the M4 can’t
compare with the incoming fire from a Taliban insurgent’s AK47 assault
rifle.
Pte Burrows-Jones is one of nearly 10,000 British
troops in the southern Afghanistan province, where UK forces were
deployed in 2006.
When needed, he clambers aboard the dark green tanker and thrusts the vehicle into gear.
Then
begins a dangerous, four-day, life-threatening journey, during which up
to 100 vehicles in a two-mile convoy face attacks from Taliban
insurgents and risk being blown up by the improvised explosive devices
peppered through the brown and grey stony wastelands.
A
rocket-propelled grenade or bullet strong enough to pierce the heavy
metal tanker could cause an explosion – blasting Pte Burrows-Jones, his
load and surrounding vehicles into the sky.
The target
presented to the Taliban is huge but the fuel must be delivered to
troops at the forward operating and patrol bases scattered throughout
Helmand.
Pte Burrows-Jones, known as “BJ” to comrades within
the Royal Logistics Corps (RLC), said: “You’ve just got to get on with
it. There’s no point whatsoever in worrying about it.
“I can honestly say I’m not scared at all; the drills prepare us for what we face and we know what to do when something happens.
“I try not to think too much about whether we’re making a difference; I just want to get on with it.
“We help our guys in the field – and our guys help the locals.”
The
20-year-old ex-Barry Comprehensive schoolboy, on his first tour in a
war zone, puts his faith in the machine gunner popping his head through
the tanker’s cab.
If the gunner, armed with a general purpose
machine gun, known as a Gimpy, spots a Taliban fighter it is his
responsibility to protect the tanker and its cargo.
“My mate
will be poking his head through the roof and keeps scouting the
terrain,” said Pte Burrows-Jones, who is on attachment from the RLC to
the Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment.
“He will have the Gimpy and if he sees anything suspicious he will report it down the line.”
The
diesel’s flashpoint, the temperature at which it would ignite, is 56°C
– high enough to minimise the risk of an explosion even if an
insurgent’s round or mortar struck and pierced the tanker’s side.
“I
actually don’t get nervous. I know that even if we did get hit I should
be OK,” said Pte Burrows-Jones, who is from Rhoose in the Vale of
Glamorgan but now lives in Barry.
“The fuel inside is extremely well-protected and I’m confident driving this through the desert – but it is a bullet magnet.”
It
was four years ago Pte Burrows-Jones walked into the Army careers
office in Cardiff city centre and signed up to serve for the next 22
years.
“Because my dad’s a lorry driver there’s a kind of
haulage history in the family, so I knew I wanted to be a driver,” said
Pte Burrows-Jones, who has two brothers – call centre worker Jamie, 24,
and Jac, 16, who goes to Bryn Hafren Comprehensive School in Barry –
and one sister, Brooke, 13, who also attends Bryn Hafren.
He added: “My mum worries like mad but I know she and my dad are both really proud of me and the job we’re all doing out here.”
Private
Scott Burrows-Jones, 20, from Rhoose, Vale of Glamorgan, is in the
Royal Logistics Corps, attached to Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment
PICTURES: Ben Glaze ©
1st Battalion, The Royal Welsh, return to Camp Bastion in Helmand Province after Operation Bambirak
Source: WalesOnline
