A COLWYN Bay soldier has spoken about the “learning curve effect” of operations on his second tour of Afghanistan.
TA soldier WO2 Gareth Williams, 43, who previously worked as a local PE teacher, is currently part of a small team building an Afghan National Army which can operate independently.
This training is a key component to the UKs withdrawal strategy for Afghanistan.
Gareth remembered his first tour in the country in 2004 when the Afghan National Army (ANA) numbered only 3,000 soldiers after years of Taliban control.
Today he is the team commander of the Kabul Military Training Centre’s Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) Leadership Team - a centre which trains and prepares 5,200 Afghan officers, NCOs and soldiers every month for the fight against insurgents.
The centre aims to have trained enough soldiers and officers by October this year to have built the ANA up in numbers to 134,000, which is a strength greater than the UK’s own Army.
This feat is being carried out by only 64 British Army personnel together with American and other NATO troops.
“This is a massively interesting job, to be part of history like this and contributing to a future where ultimately we can leave Afghanistan,” said Gareth.
“It’s a really worthwhile job, as the harder we work here to train the ANA, and build stability in Afghanistan, the less of our guys that will have to be in Helmand taking ground.”
For Gareth, who was originally going to be serving this tour in Helmand, the threat those soldiers face is very clear. In 2004 he was part of a troop who patrolled without Electronic Counter Measures.
Gareth, an infantry Warrant Officer with 3 R WELSH, who has also served in Northern Ireland, has two months left of his second six month tour in Afghanistan before he will return home to his wife Fiona and their three children.