Authors: Barney Campbell

Rain (32 page)

REME
.
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
. The British Army’s experts on vehicles and technical equipment. In Afghanistan each squadron in an armoured regiment had about five of them attached, under the command of a
Tiffy
. They were the hardest worked of any squadron personnel; while everyone else slept they would be up repairing vehicles.

REMF
.
Rear-echelon motherfucker
. Derogatory term for those not deployed on the ground.

RESA
.
Royal Engineer search adviser
. Commander of a
REST
.

REST
.
Royal Engineer search team
. The part of a
Brimstone
team tasked with sweeping an area for
IED
s and marking them for the
ATO
to deal with. Close-knit and dedicated,
REST
s were admired by every soldier they came in contact with.

RHQ
.
Regimental headquarters
.

RPG
.
Rocket-propelled grenade
. Fearsome if inaccurate weapon used by the Taliban.

RPK
. 7.62 mm light machine gun from the Kalashnikov family of weapons. Used by the Taliban.

RSM
.
Regimental sergeant major
. The senior non-commissioned officer in any regiment, who has served for at least eighteen years. Feared and respected by everyone.

RSOI
.
Reception, staging and onwards integration
. Week-long period in Camp
Bastion
at the start of deployment to Afghanistan, allowing troops to acclimatize to the weather and environment, conduct exercises and learn final lessons before deploying on the ground.

SA80
. Standard-issue rifle used by Britsh troops. With a magazine of thirty rounds it can be fired either in single-shot or fully automatic mode. If looked after and cleaned well, a fantastic weapon.

Samson
.
CVR(T)
variant used by
REME
, equipped to rescue and repair damaged or broken-down vehicles.

Sangar
. Fortified position in any base used to watch for enemy activity and to act as a main firing point. Protected with a mixture of
Hesco
and sandbags.

Schmoolie
. Handheld rocket flare which, when fired, shoots about sixty metres into the sky, bursts and floats down on a parachute, brilliantly illuminating the surrounding area for thirty seconds or so. An excellent piece of equipment.

Schnell machen
. German, meaning, ‘Move fast.’ A legacy from the British Army’s long Cold War association with Germany.

Scimitar
.
CVR(T)
variant armed with a
Rarden
and
GPMG
, used for reconnaissance and fire support for dismounted infantry.

Scoff
. Food.

Scrapping
. Fighting.

Selly Oak
. Hospital in Birmingham where casualties from Afghanistan were treated.

Shoot and scoot
. Typical and effective Taliban tactic of engaging troops with small arms and then swiftly retreating from the area, often by motorbike, to avoid being decisively engaged.

SHQ
.
Squadron headquarters
.

Sitrep
.
Situation report
, usually delivered over the radio.

Slipper city
. Slightly derogatory term for any area away from the fighting.

SQMS
. Pronounced ‘squimce’.
Squadron quartermaster sergeant
. The second-highest NCO in a squadron and responsible for rations, water, fuel, etc.

SSM
.
Squadron sergeant major
. Senior NCO in an armoured regiment squadron. Equivalent to a company sergeant major in the infantry.

Stag
. Sentry duty.

Sultan
. Command variant of the
CVR(T)
family, used by the squadron leader and the
2ic
, equipped with powerful radios and map tables.

SVR
.
Support vehicle recovery
. Large truck capable of lifting and removing damaged or destroyed vehicles from the battlefield.

TB
.
Taliban
.

Terp
.
Interpreter
.

Threebar
. Sergeant. From the three chevrons that denote the rank.

Throw a track
. On a tracked vehicle, to have a track come off its wheels (known as the running gear). Usually a disaster, as it requires at least an hour to shoehorn it back on. Also used to describe an outburst of anger.

Tiffy
.
Artificer
. The soldier, usually a staff sergeant, in charge of a squadron’s
REME
detachment.

TTPs
.
Tactics, techniques and procedures
.

UAV
.
Unmanned aerial vehicle
. Drone, used to deliver ordnance or for surveillance.

Ugly
. Callsign for an Apache helicopter.

Ulu
. Slang for ‘jungle’ and broadened to mean ‘the field’. Amazingly, this is probably derived from the ancient Greek
ule
, meaning ‘forest’.

USMC
.
United States Marine Corps
. By the time of Tom’s tour of Helmand, the USMC was about to surge into Helmand in force, relieving the pressure on the British.

Vallon
. Metal detector issued to troops and the primary equipment for finding
IED
s.

Vehicle docs
.
Vehicle documents
. Each British Army vehicle has a plethora of documents that must be assiduously gone through and signed before it can be handed over to another individual or unit.

VP
.
Voice procedure
. The correct way to talk on the radio, obeying certain conventions such as never using full names (
see
Zap
number
), not swearing, keeping messages accurate, brief and clear, only using the word ‘repeat’ when calling in artillery, and a host of other rules.

VP
.
Vulnerable point
. Any obvious place to site an
IED
or mount an ambush, such as a bottleneck in a road or a doorway that troops would have to pass through.

Widow
. Callsign for a
FAC
.

Zap number
. The number used to make it easy to identify soldiers over the net without using their name, in an attempt to increase security and also to depersonalize injuries. Formed of the first two letters of a surname and the last four digits of a soldier’s army number. So, Tom Chamberlain’s Zap number (given that his army number is 25186816) would be CH6816, spoken as ‘Charlie Hotel Six Eight One Six’. This number was also written all over clothing to enable quick identification should a soldier be disfigured by a wound.

Zero
. Term used on the radio to describe any commander. ‘Get me Zero’ is a request to speak to the senior commander on that net.