Fellow soldiers thought it was hilarious when 36-year-old Captain Fiona Dangerfield took up her new job as Adjutant with the Counter Improvised Explosive Device (C-IED) Task Force in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

In response to the Taliban's persistent laying of IEDs, the British Army has set up a Counter-IED task force to study the Taliban's methods, and has developed new tactics and equipment to find and destroy the bombs before they explode.

Although this is the first tour of Afghanistan for Captain Dangerfield, who joined the Army (Royal Logistic Corps (RLC)) in 2003 having been a History and PE teacher, she has previously served on two operational tours in Iraq.

In Afghanistan her job as Adjutant of the Counter IED Taskforce is slightly different and she enthusiastically explains her new role:

“I work in the Task Force Helmand Headquarters for the Commanding Officer. Day to day I deal with everything from welfare to discipline for all the guys out here - the high-threat operators, the IEDD team and the Royal Engineer Search Team.

“If there's a casualty or a fatality I’m the point of contact. I organise the eulogies and condolence letters. However, I also get to do the nice stuff such as telling soldiers they’ve been promoted. It’s great to see the smiles on the faces of those who are under such pressure.”

The tour has been a mixed bag for Captain Dangerfield. She says:

“It’s been a tough one; we’ve had real highs and lows in terms of the numbers of guys we’ve lost. The low days are when we’ve lost people, the high days are when an operator walks into the camp and he’s still got a smile on his face despite how many IEDs he has dealt with and he can still have a laugh and a joke.

“It’s what you make of it out here – I recently celebrated my birthday and thanks to the guys and the comradeship we have out here they made it one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had.”

At home in the UK, Captain Dangerfield’s job will be a lot different as she is heading off to take up a training post at Deepcut where she will teach phase two recruits.

"I'm looking forward to seeing my mum, and all my nieces and nephews," she says.

“The support from families and friends has been amazing while we’ve been out here but also the support from the British public has been amazing. Of particular note the ladies of Prestwood WI have been sending out parcels. The biggest thing out here for morale is definitely receiving mail.

“One of the biggest highlights of the tour has been at Christmas when we received a pile of cards and letters from Bellbird Primary School in Cambridgeshire.

"We took a photo of the C-IED team in Santa hats and e mailed it to the head teacher at the school who then wrote back to say the photo was in all the classrooms in the school, that was amazing.”

Captain Dangerfield’s eyes begin to water when she adds:

“When we lost one of our lads after Christmas the head teacher e-mailed me to say that all the children and the staff at the school were thinking of us at this hard time. It was a positive to come out of a very emotional day. This amazing link with people that we don’t even know is what gets the guys through the dark days out here.”

Looking forward to after the tour Captain Dangerfield concludes:

“I finish here in early April and then have two months off before I start my next job, so I’m looking forward to that and also the medals parade in Didcot in April. I’m hoping to squeeze in a safari before I go back to work and some well-needed DIY on my house.”