05:00 Delta Platoon gets up and packs 15 kg of weight into our day sacks and takes on plenty of water, today is our training day and we are starting with battle PT.

Everyone weighs in their day sacks on the scales and we form up outside. The PT instructor leads off on a quick speed march around the base, every so often we break into a run, my calf muscles weren’t half burning I can tell you.

It had been a couple of weeks since we had done intense exercise and we felt the altitude. After about half an hour some of the lads were starting to drop back, but we need the intense training to make sure we are fit for our foot patrols. Between the circuits of the base, we would conduct sit ups and press ups. Every so often the instructor would scream out “man down”, four of us had to grab the chosen man and run with him, each person holding a limb. If you were unlucky like me and a fair few others, you had to haul the casualty up over your shoulder and run with him in a fireman’s carry position. We finished that training at 07:00 and went for breakfast.

08:00 we conducted public order training, (riot control), we were given shields, armour, visors to fit to our helmets and batons.

The platoon was split down into our 2 multiples with 16 lads in each one and shown the basics; we also conducted some hand to hand combat training. Then the order came to make it as realistic as possible, so we did. We really laid into each other, sand bags boulders and even wooden pallets were being hurled at each other as well as one line of men acting as rioters smashing into the lines of shields and batons of the other multiple. The items that were thrown were directed at the shields of two or three men grouped together, and were thrown by an experienced Public Order Instructor. It may seem harsh training, but we need the 'battlefield inoculation' so we can stand ready if we are called upon to do it for real. There is no point making training really soft because it would not prepare you for the reality if the worst should happen. A crowd had gathered to watch the carnage, even the American colonel that is in charge of all force protection came to watch. Bodies were flying everywhere and by the time lunch arrived, we had trained so hard and so aggressively that the rest of the afternoon session was called off. Every single person knew they had worked hard, some had minor injuries bruising etc, however the training was amazing and think we will be prepared if ever that situation arises in Kabul.

Over the next two weeks I must admit there is not much I can report about as I have been on light duties, mostly escorting people around the base while an injury I picked up recovers.

Other nations that I speak to whilst on this duty, keep mentioning the training we did, calling us Nuts and Crazy. Some of them have said they certainly wouldn’t like to mess with the Force Protection Platoon; maybe it’s this type of situation that helps give the British infantry such a fearsome reputation! Hopefully the Locally Employed Civilians who work inside the camp will carry the message outside the walls about how seriously we take our role here, and this will put off anybody who might think we are a 'soft target'.