Hobo the Search Dog Helps B Company Through the Carpets of Green...

B Coy Blog
17th August 2011

lt_mark_dormon_thmb 13th August 2011... Who would have thought the Green Zone would be able to live up to its name. There is now such a carpet of green across our AO, it is unbelievable to be patrolling in these temperatures where kit dries in a matter of minutes and still be knee deep in squelching mud; the tried and tested Afghan irrigation system is very effective! The corn is reaching its highest in the southern part of our area now, reaching 9 or 10 feet tall.

It’s helping surprise villagers when an ISAF patrol suddenly appears out of a ten foot wall of green. The heat has helped us continue our good relationship with the children as well; they find it hilarious when fully clothed and kitted up, a patrol disappears into a ditch to cool off. We’ve had more than one water fight with them!

 

For us this week has been very focussed on finding out as much as we can about our adversaries. We have started to use the, now famous, search dog Hobo to look for IEDs in the area trying to catch them before they are laid in the ground at great risk to the local population. Luckily, Hobo who found his fame after the Insurgents threw a grenade at him and his handler earlier in the summer, just loves to find IEDs. (He gets given a squishy ball dog toy if he finds one and what more incentive is required?!) Thanks to Hobo and the whole of B Company’s hard work we have had great success in finding them.

We’ve also been busy preparing new routes for our quad-bike, we can now get it up to top speed (and more importantly a new access route to and) across our Helicopter Landing Site. To do so we had to sledgehammer a small wall, this again shocked the locals to find a sweaty Rfn Coombes wielding a sledgehammer.

The last major activity of the week is trying to prepare the school run for the start of the new school year in September. Many families are unwilling to send their children alone on the ½ mile walk to the school building and are unable to escort them. To that end we are working hard to start a school bus service. More than likely this will end up being a tractor and a trailer but if it means the children can get to school this can only be a good thing.

By Lt Mark Dormon