Geordie in Iraq

The RAF Regiment From WWII to the Present Day

Geordie in Iraq

Geordie joined the RAF Regt in October 1982 and still serving. He has served with The Queens Colour Squadron 19, 66, 37, Sqn's RAF Regiment, RAF Cranwell, RAF Honington, 26 Sqn RAF Regt GDT Cottesmore, GDT Mount Pleasant, STO Centre Honington, Joint NBC Regt and He has just been posted to GDT Coltihall.

He spent from February 2003 - August 2003 as the OC of a Specialist Monitoring Team for the JNBCR in the Gulf. I worked alongside 42 Commando Royal Marines, 1 PARA, Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal and the US Iraq Survey Group in Baghdad.

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1: Geordie's team was with the 1 PARA Battle Group at Camp Pegasus Geordie with 1 PARA's Forward Air Controller (FAC) Sgt Woolf RAF Regt wearing Maroon Beret just finished our final briefings and were about to fly in Chinooks across into Iraq

2:&3: Palace of Uday (one of Saddams son's) and the other is in Saddams palace, both were taken in Baghdad

1. A market stall in Basrah, as you can see the water system needs some serious work.

2 and 3. A statue of Saddam pointing towards Iran as far as I know still standing. There were many others depicting troops in different uniforms all pointing to Iran but they have all been torn down.

1&2 These are pics of a Chemical battalion at a place called Ad Dayr just north of Basrah. As you can see they use the same symbols for NBC units as NATO does and they had been training in downwind hazard prediction

Sent to check out General Chemical Ali's Basrah Residence on 7th April with protection from 3 Cdo Brigade. Living room and swimming pool, however the looters had done a good job on this

1: Baghdad Airport

2&3 These are 2 pics of my team training in the Kuwaiti desert with Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) and protective suits. Used when dealing with highly dangerous substances mostly Toxic Industrial Hazards (TIH). The heat made it difficult to work in and 10 minutes at a time was enough.

Geordie at the village of Imam Annas just South of Basrah Airport with a section from 26 Sqn RAF Regt in their newly issued Wimig Landrovers with GPMG’s mounted. 2&3: is in the back compound of a Salt Factory 4km south of Baghdad Airport; it was occupied by the US 101st Airborne. What strange bits of kit to store in a Salt Factory

Imam Annas Storage area was actually a large bomb/munitions dump of approx 125 bunkers with all kinds of ordinance in them. These show some rockets that the bomb disposal team with me rigged with PE to blow. Some we put in a ditch the rest we left in a bunker

Geordie with Daz, Leah and some local kids 2: Basrah Palace Guardhouse 3: Basrah Naval Academy

1. 1st Royal Regiment of Fusiliers HQ, the Shat Al Arab Hotel, Basrah. 2. Boat jetty from Shat Al Arab Hotel onto Shat Al Arab Canal

One of Saddams Villas in the Basrah Palace Complex. a bedroom and one of the kitchens, "the cans of Jon Smiths bitter were there already HONEST"

Baghdad Palace A Fertilizer plant we checked out at Umm Qasr with support from 5131 Sqn RAF (EOD)

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