> 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards Deployment

March 2007: Camp Shorabak, Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Lieutenant Colonel Carew Hatherley, Commanding Officer, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards.
The waiting and anticipation is now over for all of us and the task that took all of your loved ones away for so long to train for has begun. The Battalion tour of has started even before all of the Grenadier Battlegroup have arrived. Already we have deployed considerable elements of the Battlegroup into the hills, fields and deserts of Helmland.I am content that the training we have completed has prepared us well for this tour and that the kit and equipment provided here is the best that is currently available. Every person who deploys away from Shorabak has been issued with the new OSPREY enhanced body armour and a brand new type of helmet that gives better protection than those previously issued. The remainder all have the Enhanced Combat Body Armour. As part of our handover from 45 Commando, who have now left us, we have had the chance not only to acclimatise but also to do some live firing to make sure our sights are accurate and that all of our weapons and vehicles are working correctly.

As I promised you on the Families Briefing Night I shall do my utmost to ensure you are all kept up to date with what we are doing using this web site as my main outlet. The first photographs and articles are now being published. I hope that you enjoy them and find them interesting. Now, more than ever, we need to stand together as a family, regardless of cap badge, and by that I mean those of you back in the United Kingdom also and not only those engaged on operations in Helmand.