Hero on the front line

Friday March 12, 2010

The borough's very own bomb-disposal hero has paid a flying visit home during a two-week break from the front line in Afghanistan.

Territorial Army sapper Graeme Findlay, 29, who normally works as an emergency planning manager for Hammersmith & Fulham Council, talked to h&f news about his experiences in war-ravaged Helmand province.

Graeme, who had been married to his new bride Emily for just two weeks when he reported for his first tour of duty last June, said he was enjoying a mixture of teaching duties and bomb disposal out in the field.

"I'm really proud that I'm actually doing this," he said. "Doing a deployment is something I had thought about for a long time, and I feel like I'm doing my bit for the country."

Graeme, who is part of the 101 Engineer Regiment, spent four months in intensive training in Wimbish, Essex, before travelling to Camp Bastion in October.

"My role during the first three months out there was training the new troops coming in, so I wasn't straight out on the ground," he said. "Then for the last four or five weeks I got to go out and work as part of the bomb disposal team. We also did a bit of training of the Afghan national army.

"We're trying to hand over as much as possible to them."

Graeme's frontline work involves a variety of support tasks for the army's bomb disposal experts such as detecting hidden explosives, safely transporting bombs to safe areas and preparing explosives ready for detonation - which Graeme described as the most exciting bit.

"I love blowing things up and everyone likes to push the button," he said.

But bravado aside, the soldier is also acutely aware of the danger surrounding him and said he was constantly falling back on his army training while out in the field.

"We have acted in support of another group who were getting shot at, and the first time you are walking out of your base with your body armour on, you do feel quite nervous," he admitted.

"But other than that I have not felt like I was in real danger. And everyone has a fully automatic rifle and we are trained to use them."

Graeme said he had also adapted well to the arid conditions of the Afghan desert over the past four months.

"The weather has been a lot milder than I thought it would be, and most days I've just been wearing a T-shirt - I have quite a nice tan!" he laughed.

"But obviously when it's hot you need to drink a lot more and I was drinking about six litres of water a day when I first arrived."

Graeme spent two weeks in London before flying back to Afghanistan on February 26 - but said leaving home for a second time was proving difficult.

"I wish I could stay here a bit longer to be honest - not because of anything over there, but just because it's nice to have some time with my wife," he said.

Graeme will spend one more month in his bomb disposal role in Helmand before returning to London for good at the end of March.

And what is he looking forward to most once he's home?

"Emily and I will probably go and have a proper honeymoon, because we didn't really get a chance to do that before I left," he said.

"And I'd like to do some sailing, but Emily doesn't really do that - that's just for me."