NAM.2016-09-17-1

Oral history video interview with S/Sgt Chantelle Taylor, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1998-2008. Interview conducted by Dr Peter Johnston at Glazier’s Hall, London, 25 January 2016, for the CD3: Withdrawal from Afghanistan project Associated with Operation HERRICK, Afghanistan (2001- ). Interview summary with timings available in ‘Research’ tab. Transcribed extracts available in the ‘Transcription’ tab. Interview covers Taylor’s service in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2008. It discusses her motivations for joining the army in 1998, states she chose to become a combat medic because “it was the only one with the word combat in it.”; discusses being a woman in the Army and how she faced no initial sense of an obstacle; by the time she used her training in Afghanistan in 2006 when attached to 16 Air Assault Brigade all of her Phase 2 training was out of date - in her training, for example, she had been told that a tourniquet was an absolute last resort. Deployed to Afghanistan 2006 based at Camp Bastion Hospital; incident when elements of 3 Para - including soldiers she knew - were caught in the Kajaki minefield. Second tour of Afghanistan in 2008 based in Lashkar Gah, went on patrols and was then based in an FOB in Marjah - ambushes, hearts and minds operations, fighting out of Patrol Base Argyll, convoy ambushed near Marjah in July 2008 and Taylor became the first female soldier to have killed an enemy combatant. Reasons for leaving the Army. Experience of being a women in the Army.

HERRICK, Operation, 2002-14 (Afghanistan 2001-2021)