Over the next two days, Gazette reporter GARETH PALMER looks at the soldiers left behind - the rear party - at Colchester Garrison following the deployment to Afghanistan's Helmand Province last month of more than 2,500 men and women of 16 Air Assault Brigade on a six-month tour of duty. Today, he talks to rear party's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Mike McGinty, and finds out just how the depleted garrison keeps the home fires burning.

Life in the British Army was compared to an old joke about the weather in Wales by the officer leading the soldiers left at Colchester Garrison, while the majority are in Afghanistan.

"You either can't see the hills because it's raining, or you know it's about to rain because you can see the hills," Lieutenant Colonel Mike McGinty, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade's rear party, joked.

"These are busy times for everyone in the services and everybody on the rear party is just waiting for their turn to deploy, if they haven't been before and just got back."

An Army Air Corps helicopter pilot by trade, Lt Col McGinty commanded Apache attack helicopters in Afghanistan in 2006 and expects to deploy to Iraq next year at the head of a squadron of Lynx helicopters.

Even so, the 40-year-old admitted to "professional jealousy" that he was on the home front rather than the frontline.

"I'm glad to go home every week and see the wife and kids, but it's disappointing to be on the outside of what's happening in Afghanistan," he said.

"Some of the guys left behind are desperate to go, while others have been many times before and are happy to let someone else go.

"It's a delicate balance and from my personal experience I want to be where the action is and doing what I've trained to do, but I'm always relieved when I come back."

The role of the rear party - the 550 troops left in Colchester Garrison - is threefold.

They look after the welfare of soldiers' families and any returned casualties, keep up with paperwork and maintenance to help the units on operation - in other words, keep the garrison running smoothly - and plan training exercises for when the soldiers return.

Lt Col McGinty said the rear party are "hugely busy", with the brigade's helicopter units at Wattisham, Suffolk, and Scottish and Irish infantry battalions for him to look after as well as Colchester's paratroopers.

"While it is not the stuff of great glory, it is very important work," Lt Col McGinty said.

"If we didn't do this the soldiers would arrive back from six months of fighting to have six months of admin to catch up on, which is the last thing you want to have to do."

Lt Col McGinty places the welfare role at the top of his list of responsibilities.

"A civilian family can't know what it's like to have a key family member - a husband and father, or wife and mother - away for six months in a dangerous place," he said.

"It's often having to do the routine things like servicing the car needing or getting a leaking roof repaired, which would not normally be their responsibility, that wives can find themselves struggling to do.

"It's the rear parties of each individual unit which do the work with families, making sure they are getting the support they need, days out when their dads aren't around or internet access to send stuff out to the theatre.

"The brigade will offer support where it can, and marshal resources and get units together for events."

With a wife in the Army himself, Lt Col McGinty knows what it is like for families with a loved one on operations.

"She's hugely pleased I'm at home now, like all wives would be, but I've been back in the UK when she was in Sarajevo and Iraq," he said.

"It makes it easier for us both to be in the services, because we each know what goes with the job.

"There are a lot of crap war films that don't really represent the whole experience - on operations 90 per cent of the time you're not in hideous danger, you're uncomfortable and waiting for things to happen.

"When my wife's phoned up to say she's in a dusty camp in the middle of nowhere and bored, I have a sense of what that means and I'm less worried."

COLCHESTER-BASED UNITS IN AFGHANISTAN

All are part of 16 Air Assault Brigade

  • 216 Signal Squadron
  • The Pathfinder Platoon
  • 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment
  • 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment
  • 7th Parachute Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery
  • 13 Air Assault Support Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps
  • 16 Close Support Medical Regiment
  • 8 Close Support Squadron, 7 Air Assault Battalion, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
  • 156 Provost Company, Royal Military Police

    THE GAZETTE AND FACEBOOK

    Just before the 2,500 troops left Colchester Garrison for their six-month tour of Afghanistan, the Gazette set up a Facebook group - Support Colchester's Paras in Afghanistan.

So far, 1,500 people - military and civilian across the UK - have joined our group and posted messages wishing the soldiers good luck and a safe return.

There are also links to the Gazette's latest stories about the troops plus the video we filmed of their departure.

Joining couldn't be easier - and it's free. Go to the Facebook website, sign up with a user name and password and away you go!

  • Tomorrow - how people in north Essex are supporting the troops in Afghanistan and how the Army does its most difficult and unwelcome task.