Blogs from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe - page 37

Amongst the motivations for extending my tour in Bosnia was that while my TA Soldiers had been most impressed that I had volunteered to come here in the first place, by the end of the last training evening before my departure several of the Balkans veterans were muttering things about my being a “summer tour lightweight”. Having mentioned earlier that Bosnia in summer has lots of weather of the scorching one moment, drenched by rainstorms the next it bears reporting that the winter can be pretty special too. In fact while neither the hottest or coldest place on earth this part of the Balkans can easily lay claim to being the most extreme in seasonal variation. Our first fall of snow was in mid-December and gave a dusting several inches thick. Temperatures, which had been fairly ... read more

Over the past weeks it appears that the Factory Moles have been trying to escape from the confines of BLMF. A random series of trenches emanating from the main building have now circled most of the south western quadrant of the compound. These holes wind about the camp regardless of obstructions before them and it is not uncommon to see decking and walkways that seemed perfectly solid and permanent at nightfall cast aside like matchwood the next day. Later on the holes are filled with sand, which of course is washed away the moment that we have a Bosnia special rainstorm. Bearing in mind this is often the camp is now covered with numerous pitfalls for the unwary. The command structure maintains a complex charade that the holes are being dug to lay pipes and this ... read more

A gag runs here that those who work within the Factory are a rare species known as “Factory Moles”, because in summer they emerge from the Stygian gloom of the building itself into the incandescent sunlight (which reflects from all the (handily) white surfaces outside) blinking, unable to see for several minutes and a hazard to themselves and traffic. A similar effect happens to those of us from outside when going in as we can see nothing in the dark and walk around with arms outstretched like zombies feeling our way about until the eyes become accustomed. The only way to tell for the first few minutes if a Welsh Guardsman is creeping up to salute is to listen for approaching footsteps to become even more regular, the sharp intake of breath of bracing up and ... read more

A trip to Sarajevo had to come eventually and like buses two came all at once. The first was for a G1 conference similar to that due to have happened at Mrkonjic Grad and for this I enlisted a helicopter in order to avoid road carnage and delay. I was accompanied by C*** S****, the RAO, who as holder of the purse strings would be berated about the whereabouts of the welfare cheques which he swore blind had been sent out and had definitely not been “resting in his account”. Still, what can you expect from a man who was backtermed and Y-Listed so often at Sandhurst that he was the first Officer Cadet to win the Long Service and Good Conduct medal while going through the Factory. The flight was entertaining with the scenery as ... read more

An oft quoted fact is that the helicopter pad at Bessbrook in Ulster was for a time the busiest airport in the world. However in the blue corner now stands a new contender for the crown: the Banja Luka Metal Factory. The Factory has two pads controlled by an august body named Springfield Ops. How the heli-tasking centre got this name is lost in the mists of time, but rest assured that a suitable number of pictures of the Simpsons adorn the walls of the corrimecs. Pulling out my spotters’ guide I reckon that we have been host to Lynx, Gazelle, Chinook, Griffon, Puma, Blackhawk and the little ones with the sensor pods on top which no one knows the name of. On some days the scene is like something out of the ‘Nam, and this ... read more