Out on the streets of Baghdad

Eyes open: 1RAR soldiers patrol the streets of Baghdad.

Pte Daniel Holcroft, of Secdet 8, guards the Australian Embassy. Photos by WOFF Dave Pang

No sleep: Heavily clothed against the cold, Pte Rob Dean and Pte Dwayne Bould watch over the suburbs of Baghdad at night.

By Cpl Simone Liebelt

EVERY time soldiers from B Coy 1RAR head on to the streets of Baghdad, lessons keeping them and their mates safe come as second nature.

Known as the “pick of the litter”, 6 Pl has won the 1RAR platoon competition two years in a row and is now putting those skills to the test in an operational environment.

The platoon is currently assigned to the Australian Embassy in Baghdad providing around the clock security to diplomatic staff.

Privates and lance corporals of the platoon man security stations around the compound in a rotating picket, including an entry checkpoint (ECP), while the remaining members undertake watchkeeping duties.

Among them is veteran Pl Sgt Matt Evans, whose job it is to keep the soldiers focused on the mission.

“These guys have come to a place where dangerous things happen, so it’s important that they stay motivated,” he said.

“You can’t afford to relax on any of the pickets; otherwise it will come up to bite you on the backside.

“There are signs around here saying ‘speed kills’, but it’s complacency that kills in this job. It only has to be a stupid mistake to be a killer. This is Baghdad.”

One of the most essential pickets is manning the ECP, where anyone entering Baghdad’s 10th Combat Support Hospital must pass through the security post manned by the Australians.

For LCpl Daniel Vincent, witnessing the horrific injuries to soldiers, civilians and private security guards coming through the checkpoint is just part of the job.

“I’ve seen gun shots wounds to the head, missing arms and legs; all sorts of injuries,” he said.

Rifleman Pte Isaac Rubio scans his arc in an observation post with a machine gun and an M79 loaded and ready to go.

He said while some areas were safer than others “that doesn’t mean you can relax, you still have to be really switched on because anything can happen”.

He said he was in the observation post when the Palestine Hotel was bombed, and later when an Iraqi celebratory firestorm erupted to put them all on high alert.

“The Iraqis won a soccer match, so the whole place lit up when everyone started shooting up in the air,” he said. “At first we thought the International Zone was getting attacked because there were tracers going everywhere, like one of those World War II movies.”

Sgt Evans also recalled the unusual event.

“About four hours after the firing ceased, an Iraqi turned up saying he had a headache, so they checked him out at the hospital,” he said.

“He’d been hit by one of the rounds that had been fired in the air, and he couldn’t work out why he had a sore head.

“You get lots of strange things like that around here.”

He said it helped having a great bunch of guys to work with.

“I’ve got a good mixture of old blokes and brand new soldiers, who I refer to as my kids, because they’ve barely got enough years between them to match my years,” he said.

“This deployment is just another one for me, but it’s great experience for these guys and some of them are already showing that they make very good junior commanders.

“A quote I heard once was ‘when I joined the Army, all the warrant officers had medals, but now I’m a warrant officer, all the troops have medals.’ That pretty much sums it up.”