More Than a Soldier

Chapter 3 - Lalma

Y/n's POV:

I can't believe that I've already been out here in Afghanistan for nearly three months. It's been so busy that the days have been flying by. I'm glad that it's been busy as it's stopped me dwelling on the fact that I'm away from Scarlett and Ava. Ava is now in Atlanta. I got Scarlett's email when we arrived at the patrol base that is our home for the next two weeks. I try not to think about all the fun things they'll be getting up to because it just makes me sad.

Don't get me wrong, I'm so happy they are together, I just wish more than anything that I was with them. Who knows what we would be doing had I not got deployed? Would Ava and I have gone and lived in Atlanta for the time Scarlett was there? So, I try to focus on my work, because it's questions like this that don't help.

Two and a half weeks after we arrived, Jimmy joined us. For the week prior to that, I was the platoon commander after Col McNight left. It was nice getting the opportunity to lead, but I was grateful when Jimmy arrived. When you lead, you want to have the chance to place your stamp on things, but I knew that with Jimmy arriving, he'd have his own way of working, so I just kept things running until then.

In that time, I feel like I've managed to gain a good rapport with both the soldiers in my platoon as well as the Afghan soldiers. Having a good relationship with Hamza has definitely helped. They have come to accept me, even though I'm woman and I've not experienced any issues with them. The same can't be said for the locals.

I was right, Jimmy was quick to implement some changes, and we instantly started to see positive impacts to how we were working. What was really nice this time, compared to the three weeks we were here before, is the relationship we have the ANA soldiers. We're not here to investigate why relations were troubled, we were working together to ensure the ANA can carry out their role when foreign troops leave.

The first two months had seen a lot of training session at Camp Shorabak with some patrols to the local villages. All of our guys were forming good bonds with the Battalion we are embedded in. Hamza and I's relationship is growing more and more. I think this is helping with the groups bonding as we have a good relationship between us. I genuinely have a great respect for Hamza and his desire to get the best for his country. It is all going well, and we can see the positive effect we're having here.

We've been at this patrol base for a week now. We're doing twice daily patrols splitting the platoon between the two. In the time between, we're carrying out training sessions and monitoring Taliban movements. It's left me very little time to be able to even think about calling home. Which sucks because it's been over two weeks since I've heard their voices. Thankfully, we still have a network here so I've been able to receive their emails and send short ones in reply. It's not what I want to send, but with the amount of work I have, it's the best I can do. Besides, it's to let them know that I'm ok more than anything.

The last couple of days we've been monitoring some suspicious activity. There are a group of enemy soldiers converging close to one of the villages that we patrol, so we have started to increase our presence here. It's important that we allow the village to be unaffected. Being taken over by the Taliban can be catastrophic for the people.

Getting chatter that there is going to be a move for territory, we make a last minute decision to take a patrol group out to the village. Fifteen of our guys, along with Julia and I are joined by Hamza and 20 of his men. We gather in the courtyard for a briefing that Jimmy has asked me to lead. "Ok. Listen up. We have suspicions that the Taliban group near Lalma are going to move in to take control at any point now. Our objective today is to show a strong and united presence. However, it is vital that we prevent suspicion of our own knowledge." I start to explain to the Sergeants for them to relay back to their squads.