Southport soldier deploys to Iraq

Photo: Kingsman Tom Halsall

Southport soldier deploys to Iraq

A soldier from Southport is deploying to Iraq to help train Iraqi Security Forces in their fight against Daesh. 

Kingsman Tom Halsall, of 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, will be spending six months near Baghdad helping to provide protection to other personnel who are training Iraqi soldiers in countering improvised explosive devices, infantry skills and combat first aid.

Tom, 23, and his colleagues completed preparations for the tour with a mission rehearsal exercise on the STANTA ranges in Norfolk (7-16 November). The troops practised scenarios they could face in theatre, such as providing security for lessons and recovering broken down vehicles.

The 2 LANCS troops are light Infantrymen, used to operating on foot, and so learning how to work from Foxhound patrol vehicles has been key preparation for the mission. The state-of-the-art vehicles will provide the best in protection whilst moving around Iraq.

Tom said: “This is my first tour and I’m really looking forward to it, because I joined the Army to go away on operations. Working with Foxhounds, providing force protection and teaching our skills to the Iraqis is very different to our normal infantry role and that should make it an interesting challenge.”

Tom, a former pupil at Stanley High School, has been in the Army for three-and-a-half years and been on exercises in Kenya and Belize.

2 LANCS recruits from across the North West of England and many of its soldiers spent last December providing assistance to civilian authorities dealing with the effects of flooding across Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire.

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