“It was mid March. The heat was beginning to really crank up. We had a patrol out (5 platoon) and they were patrolling just up the road when the pictured Taliban member opened up on them by firing his weapon at our platoon.

Thankfully, the Taliban aren’t very good at aiming as he didn’t get any of us. Our OC, Maj Wearmouth and our FAC (Forward Air Controller) W01 Hunter were quick to react and called in an exacter (guided artillery shell that is designed to land in front of you, throwing all the shrapnel up and towards you). The devastation caused by this was immense. As QRF my job as section 2nd in command was to make sure we were ready to deploy as back up, from our mastiff vehicles. We were about eight strong. As soon as we got the call, our Sgt Major (with some very aggressive enthusiasm) told us to load up and get moving. We did. We went to the area where the exacter struck and there was the Taliban member lying there limp, bloody and full of holes. He was moaning and asking for help. This is the same guy that just fired over 30 7.62mm rounds at our mates. Asking for help.

Our Sgt Major, Scotty (Maddog) Mcquillan asked the medic that was patching up the holes if ‘he was finished patching him up’ to which he was, at that point Maddog marched over, grabbed the limp enemy, picked him up and began marching him towards the back of the Mastiff. To say he wasn’t able to before Maddog moved him would have been an understatement. Maddog literally made him walk/dragged him in to the back of that wagon. Blood pouring out of him.

We took him back to the FOB were I TQ’d (tactically questioned) him. We had recorded the Taliban’s movement from before he opened up on our patrol. We recorded the movement of the weapon he used as it was grabbed by a local and hid in a hut.

Later on in the week, someone tried to retrieve that weapon and the OC ordered for that hut to be destroyed with the person going to collect that weapon inside the hut. When we went to the hut, there was fragments of the person all over the inside of the hut and a hole on the roof where the artillery round came through.

(In reference to the photo. The guy on the med bed died in Bastion later too.)

I still remember how young he was. His full life ahead of him. I saw him as a kid looking for a little adventure. Playing a game. Clueless to the life he was throwing away.”
– Lance Corporal Quinn, British Army. FOB Wishtan, Sangin Afghanistan. 2010
———-
As we always say here at Battles and Beers (TM) Every soldier has a story, and every story deserves to be told.