World Cup rivalry kicks off in Lashkar Gah

Captain Stuart Thomas, , the Main Troop Commander of 204 Signal Squadron, based in Lashkar Gah for his six-month tour on Operation HERRICK 12, details his soldiers’ focus on elections and football…

We manage to keep reasonably up to date with events back home and have just heard that there may be a volcano due to erupt in Iceland, and Michael Jackson may be ill!

Whilst the newspapers that we get are infrequent, we do get the headlines and big stories from Sky News which is constantly on in the HQ, although it’s the local news stories that I miss.

Lately it has been all about the election, and discussing the hung parliament. Much like the Lord of the Rings saga, they kept us waiting and waiting.  If I remember correctly the elves and dwarves ended up working together after being in opposition for so long, so maybe there are a couple of parallels although I am not sure where the ork army fit into all of this.

We have had a couple of birthdays recently, of particular note Signaller Faye Tanner has turned 21 and can now be officially thought of as an adult!  The Troop are now two months into the tour and we have started sending soldiers back to the UK on R&R for a well deserved break.

With the football season over it is time to start talking about metatarsals, and heaping unrealistic expectation on the English football team.  Friendly rivalry has already started with the Americans in the headquarters, and hopefully we can silence them (along with the Scottish) by winning the opening game of the World Cup, before limping out at the knockout stages to the Germans on penalties no doubt.