6th January

I was in the super sanger for the patrol into M1T. This wasn’t a combat patrol, just a hearts and minds mission. Taking out blankets, flags, warm kit etc, things the locals could use but can’t really afford to buy but will make a lot of difference in the winter, so it’s good. It was again a combat indicator that all the local farmers fucked off as soon as the patrol was spotted by them, so there must be Taliban in the area, but I don’t think the patrol punched far enough south to get into a scrap.

The patrol came back in no problem after a few hours out on the ground, no dramas. A VCP is going out again tomorrow out the front of Qudrat with the new and improved manikin, to draw this sharpshooter out. The ace up the sleeve for us, is we have a Reaper UAV Drone, at our disposal to use, armed with hellfire missiles, so hopefully the sharpshooter fires and he will get the good news. Fuck I hope we get the prick tomorrow, as I’ve said he always overshadows the patrols every time we go out, walking past the super sanger on the way back in across the open ground is just a proper heart in mouth moment going across that ground.