in Afghan, supposedly, yeah. From what I have been told from Army guys, is that RAF gunners would try and pass it off like they've been in firefights out on patrol. You would have guys posing for pictures in ditches around bases, pretending they are out on patrol and such.
Not strictly true.
The incident in question comes from “The Battle Of Bastian” where the USMC were covering a sector of the base.
The insurgents were wearing USMC style uniforms and managed to gain an element of surprise and break through into the camp. Ambushing some USMC mechanics and engineers. It was a very well organised attack an did a lot of damage. If I remember correctly a US attack helicopter managed to take off under fire and give supporting fire.
The RAF Regiment were stationed on the opposite side of the camp and reacted to the attack.
I’m all for banter and especially so ripping the absolute mick out of the RAF regiment because I’ve got some old school mates who joined them, one or two were involved in the attack (but thankfully not the next bit) but a few irresponsible individuals may or may not have tried to shoot their own osprey for some reason or other. It was very stupid and tarred everyone with the same brush.
As much as I delight in calling them glorified MPGS they don’t spend a lot of time guarding the airfield, that’s force protection.
The RAF Regiment form a barrier/corridor between the airfield/base and the Army’s area of Operations so do go out on patrol not just cut around camp.
You can usually tell a member of the RAF Regiment from their really smooth left palm. The hand they used to trail along the fence so they don’t get lost....