Combat Chef Stevie Allan whips up morale in Helmand

by Shaun Milne

IT WAS Napoleon who famously said that an army marches on its stomach – and that’s certainly proving the case for Scots troops out in Afghanistan.

Soldiers based with 1 Scots in Helmand Province have been celebrating after the arrival of their own ‘Combat Cook’ Lance Corporal Stevie Allan.

The 23 year old Fifer – who has just deployed to Forward Operating Base Wishtan in Helmand Province – is a former Scottish junior chef of the year.

MIXING IT: Combat Chef Stevie Allan

And they are now lapping up his award winning grub including his trademark ‘Jock Pasties – filled with ham, beans and cheese.

Deployed

Just hours after jumping off a helicopter into his field kitchen, Stevie said: “I’m delighted to be back with the lads. I cooked for B Company throughout our training in Kenya before we deployed, and then back in the UK.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better group of friends. It goes beyond that though – the lads mean everything to me, they are my second family.”

L/Cpl Allan, from Kirkcaldy, is with the Royal Logistic Corps, has even been equipped with a brand new winter cookhouse from which to work.

The new kitchen has been named ‘The Jordan Rossi Cookhouse’ after Sapper Jordan Rossi, who was tragically killed by an explosion while on patrol nearby in May 2009.

Great Scot! Our Moira is troops’ angel of Camp Bastion

By Michael MacLeod

A BRAVE Scots mum of two has told for the first time of the harrowing work in a battlefield hospital which has helped make her the angel of Helmand Province.

Moira Kane watched as the latest news about the mounting casualties in Afghanistan filtered through this week, follow by political posturing over the rights and wrongs of it all.

Regulations prevent her from commenting about the war on terror.

But look into her pools of eyes, and you know she has seen more horror on her Camp Bastion medical table than most could imagine, alongside some awe inspiring courage.