“There were some scary moments. Really fast moving, unknown civilian vehicles used to come in the VCP (Vehicle Check Point) location and the platoon commander, who I was attached with, ordered to fire on that car. So we fired at him but we had been trained to shoot at the tyres first, causing minimum lethal damage.”
Arunhang Nembang recalls this encounter when, as a young Rifleman, he was deployed to Iraq. “I was on top of a hill and that was my first moment seeing that kind of action carried out from our team, and that was quite scary.”A proud tradition
The Gurkhas in the British Army have a reputation of being amongst the world’s finest soldiers. There are over 4,000 employed across many trades and all are recruited from Nepal, with thousands of young people attempting selection every year. One
of these was Arunhang in 1999.
He grew up in eastern Nepal and his inspiration to join the army was his elder brother who tried for selection, but sadly was unsuccessful. Arunhang recalls: “He said to me ‘you have to try,
I couldn’t make it, so if you try then you can realise my dream as well’.”
There were several selection phases and his brother was by his side: “he would run with me 5 or 10km uphill, downhill, both free run
and with weights in Doko (basket).”
Arunhang passed first time. “It is every family’s dream in Nepal for your family member to join the British Army; like a dream come true. I was over the moon.”
After a few months training in Brunei he and his new comrades reinforced the Royal Irish Regiment in the UK. Further training saw him progress in a specialised role. “I was sniper badged. You have so many skills and you have to hit all
of them to a high level; if you fail one you will not get badged. So, I (was) top in the course and won an award as well. Later when we were told we were going to Iraq, I was chosen to deploy as a sniper.”
He was part of 16
Air Assault Brigade at the time of the terror attacks of 9/11: “we started anticipating that we might be going somewhere: to war.”
Going to war
There was significant preparation. “I still remember going out training on all sorts of things… we flew to Kuwait at the end of January 2003 and stayed there for a month or more in the desert, training and preparing for actual war in Iraq.”
Communications with home were very limited. “My mum and dad were really, really worried because of the nature of the operation… There were no TVs in our village so (my father) used to travel down to the town where there was a small black and white TV: he used to tell me later that he watched every piece of news.”
Arunhang recalls entering Iraq with CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) kit and respirator: “It was really, really tough, especially moving along from the southern border between Kuwait and Iraq, for about a month. Every stop you had to dig a trench in that heat and with your body armour on; you had to dig the trench and constantly you got ‘Gas Gas Gas’, CBRN sirens. You had to put your respirator on, that was one of the most difficult times I experienced.”
On the Ground in Iraq
Initially charged with securing southern oilfields and infrastructure, they saw the impact of the invasion force. “The mortar rounds and missile effect on a hard tarmac road, and especially lots of dead bodies in front of trenches, the oil fields were burned, and that was really exactly like what I imagined a battlefield to be. Looking at that was a really scary moment for me. But later as we moved, we became used to it.”
Snipers operate in pairs. The role is physically and mentally tough “because you must have constant observation overwatch on key objectives and give constant feedback to report the situation. It is quite challenging; when you feel protected its fine, but when you are isolated, asked to get 2 or 3km away on the high ground, that is the moment you get scared, when you are isolated. I remember a few times when we were sniping, lots of camels used to travel along and they ended up coming close to us many times [laughs] in the dark - they scared us so much!”
They later moved north to Basra: “…we got to interact closely with the Iraqi civilians and most of them were not that friendly, but some talked with us. It was easy to talk with them because most of them speak Hindi, that was an advantage for Gurkhas, we could communicate with them. They were surprised at that; they were wondering where these guys came from who could speak Hindi!”
They would sometimes be lucky enough to find chicken in the town markets. “We managed to buy some and cooked in the mess tin, that was one great memory for me, making some Gurkha curry and cooking chicken in one small building where I was sniping from the top. I still remember that moment! [laughs]”
Tour’s end
At the tour’s end, Arunhang’s company made its way back to Kuwait and then to the UK. “It was straight back to work. Quite intense, but significant, too, for me as a young soldier.”
Steve Reeves/Royal British Legion
Arunhang was able to take long leave in 2005 and travel back to his home village. “My mum and dad were so happy. I literally cried, the emotion my dad showed; the moment when he described what he went through. That made me so emotional.”
He went on to complete four tours of Afghanistan and today is a Captain in the newly formed King’s Gurkha Artillery (KGA). “There were some formations of Gurkha artillery in WWII, but after that there were no formed Gurkha artillery units. We are re-writing that history as the KGA. That is something very exciting to be involved in now.”