Overwatch

"Me too. I love you, you know?"

"I know. Let's start today all over again."

I turned, took her hand, and started back to the bedroom. Jean threw her head back and laughed. The sound lifted me. I just loved her laugh. "No!" she said, "Let's start with a nice breakfast and you can tell me about your new job." I gave her my disappointed schoolboy look and trudged, theatrically, back to the cooker.

Over breakfast, I told her about the offer and the degree. She seemed to be interested and asked all the right questions at all the right points in the conversation, but I just felt there was something distracting her. I asked what she had been doing. All I got was generalisation and inconsequential. We realised it must have been a fortnight since we actually spent any real time together. Neither of us was sure when we had last made love. I thought it was maybe six weeks or more. We had been ships passing in the night and barely seeing each other. We were so busy, one day just ran into the next without us realising we had barely spoken. This definitely had to change. We spent the rest of the day visiting our families. We had dinner with John and Margaret in Aghalee and then rushed home for an early night.

The next couple of weeks were pretty routine. I did mostly daytime patrols on the 'ops maint' as we became known. (It was abbreviated from 'operations maintenance patrols'; we were there to maintain the patrol pattern.) My platoon didn't see that much of me at night so I became the 'Irish Vampire' - only came out in daylight. The good thing was that I was at home every night when Jean came home. She was pretty whacked when she came in, often quite late, but I knew the politicians were pretty active trying to move things forward. When she did get home I would have something for her to eat and we would just chill out in front of the T.V. She was tired and not that keen on socialising, but a couple of times we did go over to the J.R.C. I was able to check what was happening with the platoon and Jean and I could relax in a different environment. Even so, she still seemed distant and we only made love once that fortnight.

The Sunday before deployment was an early start range day. We had to fire our weapons test, and a familiarisation shoot on the L.M.G., (the good old BREN, reworked for 7.62mm), since we were going rural. After the range, the ops maint teams were called in for a briefing for the rural op. We found out we were working in 3 U.D.R.'s patch, County Down. We would deploy out of one of their company bases and go mobile (vehicle bourne) until our company was on location, and able to put out patrols. The company would be briefed later in the week. The two team commanders were to go to 3 U.D.R. for a brief and familiarisation. Jonty suggested that both teams went down. Not only did we get the brief but we got a heli recce as well.

That week was a repeat of the previous fortnight. Jean made all the right noises but still seemed a little distant. I knew I had the Thursday off so we made a dinner date at the Four Winds for Wednesday night. It seemed a bit strange making a date with my wife but I was determined we were going to take control of our life together. Naturally things didn't go as planned and Jean was two hours late. We still had time to get to the restaurant for our reservation but there wasn't time for pre-dinner drinks so the meal didn't start off as relaxed as it should have been. Nevertheless, we made a serious effort to enjoy ourselves and had a couple of drinks after dinner before getting a taxi home.

We fell into bed together and made up for lost time.

We had breakfast together on Thursday and I tried to get her to phone in sick. She said she had to get in, otherwise Windy would report her and she might find it difficult to progress when she went back to the Civil Service. This was the first I had heard that the Parties had any influence on the future of any seconded staff. In fact, Jean had assured me that she would be in line for promotions when she returned. It was promised to her because of the extra hours she was putting in. Anyway she was home on time that evening and we went out for a drink and returned to make love and get an early night.

I reported early on Friday morning. We were being heli'd in to K company's location with our personal kit. Our two teams would use their vehicles and VCP equipment for the duration of our deployment. Our company would deploy with our own stores arriving around 20.00hrs. The plan was that we would carry out patrols with a native guide to familiarise ourselves with the patch and then cover our own company's approach. We got an outstanding Int brief and deployed.

It was actually really enjoyable patrolling around Co. Down, a new landscape and different people to talk to at the VCPs (vehicle check points). You got the usual range of attitudes, from supportive to downright hostile, but we took pride in maintaining high standards. This unsettled the rebels who tried to antagonise us into over-reaction. We treated them politely but firmly and gave them no excuse to put in any complaints. The guys from 3 were pretty impressed by our professionalism. They had been told we were all wild Sammys who would put a rifle butt through a car window rather than wait for it to be wound down.

We were called back to base for a re-brief. Apparently a special task had arisen and 3 had got agreement from our Bn to use us on a soft target protection op. Soft targets were anyone who might be attacked while engaged in their normal life. Shopping, doing the dishes, walking the dog, playing away. We were all supposed to keep Int informed of anything that might set a pattern that made us vulnerable to attack including affairs. The same applied to police, soldiers, politicians, civil servants, even churchmen and key civilians. Apparently our potential target was in the habit of relieving the tension of political life with a young lady in his love nest in the Mountains of Mourne.

Usually this would only result in increased patrolling in the area but after the recent upsurge and the associated political activity there was a definite CQA (Close Quarter Assassination) threat to politicians. This meant we were going on over watch. This was great. We rarely got tasks like this. We all knew the threat was pretty low because we were going in. If it had been a guaranteed attack the S.A.S. would have been tasked. Putting U.D.R. in meant it was a bit of window dressing to reassure the politicians, but...you never know, we might get a chance to take on the enemy in a firefight for a change.

Broadly we would draw specialist equipment, and rations, get our heads down for a few hours, feed, and deploy by heli to a drop-off and the final approach would be by L.P.C. (leather personnel carrier a.k.a. boots i.e. on foot). One good thing was that we drew bergens, (rucksacks), to use instead of our large packs. They meant we could keep everything together. The location guard would cover our original task.

We got to our F.R.V. (final rendezvous) and observed our final positions waiting for dusk. Jonty's team would be close to the road, Big Derek, my team commander, would take us up the hill to provide top cover with the gun. As dusk fell we moved into position. Big Derek and I would take the first stag. The Cincinnati Kid, (Tom Davidson, nicknamed, for obvious reasons, after Steve McQueen's character in the film), and Nobby Clarke would get their heads down and relieve us in two hours.

Overwatch Ch 6

Jonty's crew were in a copse overlooking the road. They could use their night vision scope to check traffic on the road. Not that there was much of it. The target arrived about 21.30hrs in a Jaguar. Both teams were on a special radio frequency for this op, so when Jonty let the ops room know, we could hear the transmission. Derek was on the gun at the time and I was keeping our log so I dutifully recorded the event. Derek and I swapped tasks, (to keep ourselves alert and awake), so I was on the gun when Jonty called in my wife's car registration number.

Derek had been in the Royal Ulster Rifles at the Imjin. His battalion had been pushed forward to cover the withdrawal of a Belgian Bn who were out flanked when the Chinese over-ran the Glosters. He had also been in Borneo, Malaya, Aden, and Cyprus. "Just what do you think you are doing?" he murmured. He had noticed my hand reaching for the cocking handle. I put my hand back on the pistol grip, but continued to stare at the door. "Is there something you need to tell me?"

"I, er, I...."

"OK. Just breathe, quietly."

We continued to observe for some minutes. I refused to believe what I had just seen. There was no way that was Jean.

After a lifetime the Kid and Nobby relieved us. Derek and I moved back to the basha, to get our heads down. Derek spoke only when we got there, "Was that yer wife?" He spoke in a murmur. Whispering carried in the dark because of the high frequency 's' sounds. A murmur was deeper and since we were packed close in the basha we could speak low and it wouldn't carry all that far.

"How'd you know?"

"Tell me about it."

"The guy we're covering is the one she works for. That's her car, and I saw her open the door with a key."

"You sure it's her?"

"Who the fuck else could it be?"

"Anyone."

"D'ya think so?"

"Yeah. Listen. Do you think she'd do that to you?"

"No, I, eh, I don't think so."

"Look, Drew, I've seen a lot over the years. Jean never struck me as the sort of girl who'd screw around. In fact I'd put money on her."

"How much?"

"You don't mean that, son."

"I'm not so sure any more, Derek. She's been hard to live with the past lot of weeks. She comes home at odd hours, nothing's regular. She never wants to know me, and when I got the offer from the railways, she wasn't interested."

"What's she doing in work?"

"Dunno. We barely see each other to talk now."

"Look, Drew, you don't know anything for sure. You and her are great together. Don't, ferfucksake, go off at the half bent. Find out for sure, before you make a cunt of yerself. Get yer head down fer a couple of hours; we're back on watch soon. We'll talk in daylight. Cincinatti and Nobby have got dirty knees 'n'all. They'll tell you the score."

"Do they need to know?" I asked.

"D'ya think they don't already know something is wrong?"

Derek was right. We were a really tight team. We had to be. We could always tell each other's moods. The other three were all oul' hands. Jonty's team was the same. Ex soldiers who hadn't been given any skills when they came out of the army and had to work hard at whatever they could get. They joined the U.D.R., more for the comradeship that was missing from civvie life, than anything else. Between them they'd been through all the vicious little wars that went with the withdrawal from Empire. They'd all seen some real shit, and the stories in the Land Rover when we were on patrol really were unbelievable. The strange thing was, although they hadn't been in the same Regiments, they could confirm some of the stories, 'because their units were in the same area, or took over from each other, or whatever.

I really respected these old guys and they taught me an awful lot about life. Despite my relative youth I realised I was listening to living history. Damn few people were as privileged as me to have talked to men like them, and too few bothered to listen. They were men you could turn to for help, no matter what. I was really lucky to know them. Sadly, they've faded away now, but I'll never forget them, or how lucky I am to have met them.

In spite of my worries, I fell asleep real easy. I put it down to the fresh air, exercise, and the fact that I had learned to eat, drink, piss, shit, or sleep, any time you got the chance. You never knew when you'd get another opportunity. Derek woke me with a mug of tea. "How'd you make tea without giving our position away?" I asked.

"I was an instructor on the jungle warfare course. Any arsehole can be uncomfortable."

I was impressed. I was even more impressed when he showed me the Thermos flask. We had a quick smoke before we moved up to the O.P. Derek showed me how to conceal the fire end and let the smoke dissipate through the foliage. We weren't too worried that anybody would smell it. There was no-one moving about at this time of night. We took a leak, then we moved forward and relieved Tom and Nobby.

Tom briefed us on the previous two hours. "Dead quiet, five cars along the road, all discretion, lights out in the house 23.00. It's in the log." (Oh! 'Discretion'. When we check a vehicle it means there's nothing suspicious about it. So we are supposed to use our discretion in how we deal with it. If we feel suspicious for some reason then we question and search. If it seems to fit the normal pattern of life we can let it go without any further action. Sometimes in the wee small hours we would stop and talk to the occupants just to make the night go quicker.) Derek told them where the flask was, I went on the gun.

I peered through the scope as if it would penetrate the walls of the house. I could see both cars parked exactly where I'd seen them earlier. I started to think about what was going on in there. Was it really Jean? Were they sleeping together or in separate rooms? Were they fucking? This was going to be a long couple of days and every time I looked down there it was going to be rubbed in my face. I was so tempted to slip the safety off, and empty the mag into what I figured was the bedroom window.

Trouble was, that was going to do the terrorists job for them, and fuck my life forever. Even worse it would give away our position and endanger my mates. It would lead to an R.M.P. investigation and Derek would probably fall because of me. I wasn't even sure it was Jean, but then, who else could it be? She'd been treating me like shit for weeks, making sure we didn't have any time together. Yeah, it was her working late so we were hardly in the house at the same time. Always tired. Hell, look how she treated me in the J.R.C. that time. Derek hit me in the ribs. He gave me the field signal for 'watch', two fingers pointed at his eyes, then one finger pointed outwards. I realised my mind had been wandering.

Our job was not only watching for an attack on our subject, but also watching and listening for any approach on our position. I was in danger of getting some of the best men I would ever meet, killed. I had to sort myself out. Derek and I changed positions. He took the gun and I took over the log and radio. I could listen in to everything that was going on, on the net. I could hear our company on V.C.P.s and patrols. It focussed my mind for a while, trying to follow all the patrols on the map, just in case they moved into our area and needed fire support. The other duty was to act as a rebro in case someone lost comms to other teams. In other words, we would relay radio messages from one c/s (call sign) to another. It meant you had to pay attention to the radio, the map, the log and the surrounding area so I didn't have time to think about my personal circumstances. Then, suddenly, Tom and Nobby relieved us. Derek briefed them and we moved back to the basha. We had another smoke then got our heads down. I went out like a light again.

Overwatch Ch 7

We woke about 03.20, absolutely freezing. Your core temperature drops naturally about two or three in the morning in the morning, because of your body's natural rhythm, then rises again just before you wake. This was going to be a hard stag. Derek produced another flask. More tea, a fag, and a piss, then we dressed forward. This time I took the radio and log first.

Like I said earlier, in the city, not much moved at night. Here, in the arsehole of nowhere, there was fuck-all cubed. Most of the patrols, that had held my attention earlier, had withdrawn from the ground, so there were very few messages to log. All that was left was the nocturnal animals. Their snuffling and quiet rustling was all there was to distract our attention.

The game became one of trying to gauge their position by their noise and lying so quietly that they would approach us. Sometimes a mouse would sniff its way forward but rarely anything bigger. We would try to see if there were any owls flitting noiselessly overhead, but the trees sheltering us, also restricted our vision. We attuned to the environment and small noises would seem to thunder through the night. We watched, as nothing happened, trying to find anything to activate our minds, just to prevent us from falling asleep.

The oddest thing was if you focussed in on an object. The closer you watched it, the more you convinced yourself there was someone sneaking up on you. You had to look away and then look back. Then you could see a bush or rock had scared the crap out of you. We swapped tasks and I had the gun again. Now if I thought someone was creeping up on our position I could use the night vision scope to relieve my anxiety. However, I was able to use it to ratchet up my concern about my marriage. The sight was an image intensifier, so it used the available light and amplified it. I could see nothing through the closed curtains. I wondered if a thermal imager would have let me see some of what was going on.

I still didn't want to believe what I had seen. There was nothing I had done that would make Jean betray me. I mean, I had been in exactly the same position as her. I barely saw her, but I wasn't running off to screw the nearest woman. So what was so different that she would think about fucking Windy bloody Miller? Nothing. She despised him. At least that's what she told me. O.K. so he had provided her with a car, but it was a 'company' car. When she went back to the Civil Service she'd have to give it ba...Derek nudged me. "I'm going to waken the others for stand-to, get your gear on".

I started to pack up everything bar the gun. We had arranged it so that Cincinnati and Nobby used their kit to put up the basha. Now they would pack it all away for dawn stand-to. If we had been on a long term op we would have dug in and stayed quiet and still, but since this was a temporary position we used the drills for short term locations. We had our kit on, bergans beside us, and everyone took a fire position. Gradually the grey tones of darkness gave way to colour as the sun came up.

We waited. Near the road Jonty's team would be doing the same. If the terrorists had spotted our position, dawn or dusk were the optimum times to attack. So we had every pair of eyes and ears alert. We could react as the situation required. If the enemy attacked the other team, we could give fire support to let them extract, or we could counter attack, or we could all join up to concentrate our firepower. We had lots of options that had been included in the original briefing. When it came right down to it, they were only normal infantry tactics. We had practiced them in training. Everything was packed so we didn't leave anything behind.

Purples, and blues, gave way to lighter softer greens and straw tones peppered with the dark green and yellow of the gorse or the mauves and white of heath and heather. Wraiths of mists sighed over the hillsides, the sheep started to graze, and we heard a fox bark somewhere to our left. The sky lightened and the birds commenced their dawn chorus. Fucking singing birds. What the fuck had they to be so fucking cheerful about? All they fucking did was remind me of the special times with Jean. The time I first asked her out, the time we admitted our love for each other. Here I was in the middle of the Mournes, a place I first discovered with her, when it looked like Narnia. Yeah. Rub it in big style. Catch yourself on. Pay attention. Watch your arcs.

Smoke rose from the few, small, hill farms, where some people still tried to preserve a way of life that was slowly dying. From the soft scent that reached us, some of them were even burning peat. Although, that may have been from a rental, where townies or tourists were playing at being The Quiet Man. Our client, however, wasn't stirring.