Soldier tells of life on frontline in Afghanistan
Monday, November 09, 2009, 20:30
Lance Corporal Joseph McCormack, 20, from Wollaton, was stationed for almost three weeks in one of the few places in Helmand province where an actual front line exists.
In the past seven days Checkpoint North near Basharan outside Lashkar Gah came under attack five times.
On four of the days, the base was targeted with bursts of inaccurate gunfire, but on the fifth day insurgents launched a sustained attack from various positions, one as close as 150 metres away.
L/Cpl McCormack said: "I was sat on the toilet once when I heard a couple of rounds snapping over my head.
"I just finished up, got my body armour, my helmet and my weapon, went to the defences and started returning fire at them."
Soldiers living in the three outlying checkpoints around Basharan make the most of austere conditions.
The toilet facilities are basic, with a pipe which exits through the outer wall acting as a urinal and a bag for number twos.
Asked about the constant danger, L/Cpl McCormack said: "It sounds a lot worse than it is.
"When you tell someone back home that you're on the front line getting shot at it sounds pretty bad.
"But you get used to it and it's almost blase when you hear the rounds snapping over."
The 6ft 4in soldier said his height did not make him an easy target, with the base fortified using giant containers filled with gravel and sandbags.
He has not seen the Taliban fighters with his own eyes, as they keep down and shoot through "murder holes" – small openings in the compound walls to point a rifle through.
But he said it was possible to return fire in the direction of the muzzle flash.
The sustained 45 minute attack, which took place three days ago, gave the men a boost after the British killed two Taliban using a javelin missile launched from the base.
L/Cpl McCormack, the youngest of five brothers, Leon, Nathan, Seth and Darren, said his parents, Maureen and Mike, were proud of what he was doing in Afghanistan.
Speaking before he returned to base in Lashkar Gah he said: "I think they are quite proud of me. If they worry they don't tell me."
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