A BINMAN has revealed how he came under Taliban attack just days before he was due to leave Afghanistan.
Refuse truck driver Lance Corporal Adam Johnson, of 3rd Battalion The Royal Welsh, was on foot patrol in Nad Ali when the enemy suddenly opened fire upon them.
The 23-year-old Territorial Army soldier, from Llanelli, was on his first tour of Helmand Province and is now on exercise in Larnaca, Cyprus.
In a split second the dad-of-two's training kicked in and he and his comrades fired back and managed to escape injury.
Adam said: "I came under fire three or four days before I was due to leave Afghanistan.
"We were out on patrol and were doing a re-supply in Nad Ali when we got hit.
"It was close – the Taliban were only 30 metres away.
"We immediately fired back. It's scary although your training does kick in."
He added: "We found IEDs (improvised explosive devices) but there weren't any Taliban firing on us until that day.
"We had just gone passed the patrol of the AUP (Afghan Uniform Police) and were checking on how they were when we were attacked.
"Overall it was a very quiet tour, we were handing over areas and passing them onto the Afghans."
During his tour of Helmand Province the part-time soldier was serving alongside 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh, alongside which he trained in Kenya.
Adam, who remained in patrol base (PB) Omar during his tour, said it was tough being away from his two little girls Caitlin, four, and Jessica, two.
He said: "I felt a little bit bad when I was out there. I did have a computer which I could text from for half an hour.
"Normally I would speak to the children twice a week — it was nice to hear what was going on back home."
The Scarlets fan, who is engaged to Katie Woodgate, added: "In the beginning it was a shock – it's a totally different environment but it becomes day to day.
"When you are back to normality it's another shock to the system.
"Afghanistan puts life into context."
Challenge
When the soldier first came back from Helmand Province in October he was unemployed.
He devoted his time to TA Live, which is aimed at recruiting for the reservists before taking up a full-time job as a bin truck driver.
Adam, who is based at the Morfa TA centre, Swansea, said driving to collect rubbish from homeowners in the area would be totally different from the challenge of driving a large Mastiff armoured vehicle down a small stretch of road.
"Driving in Afghanistan is like driving nowhere else in the world," he added.
He said he had been able to travel the world with the TA, which he has been a part of for five years, and he added he had been impressed with the people signing up.
"The quality of people we have been getting through is good, " he added. "It's about getting more people who work hard involved with the TA."
