The Lost Platoon
Luke Langley is 22 years old and will be serving in Afghanistan for the second time. The first time Langley participated in battle in 2009, his platoon fortified in an isolated location deep in the desert without any humans. 7 The Platoon’s commanding officer was Mark Evison, a rising military talent in the Welsh Guards. At the time, British forces were overburdened in one of the most dangerous areas of Helmand.
In his journal Mark wrote: We’re walking on a thin line… We’ll have injuries that I can’t treat, and deaths could occur that could’ve been prevented. 7 The lifeline of Platoon was the capacity to summon destructive force with only a few minutes notice. This movie chronicles the day that lifeline failed and the 7th Platoon had to battle on.
In the spring of 2009, the Welsh Guards took over bases in southern Helmand that were vacant at the time of the American withdrawal. Mark Evison and his squad were assigned to a fortress named Haji Alem. Evison was troubled by a brief illness, but 7 Platoon persevered without him after his absence. Similar to many other British soldiers, they documented their battle on video. Few of the 7 Platoon had participated in actual combat, the majority were just out of their teens.
Haji Alem was located near the primary forward operating base in the vicinity. A few miles away was the largest base of the Taliban in Afghanistan. On Platoon’s first day at Haji Alem, shots were fired across the canal on 7. During the conflict, the son of a local leader had been injured. It took 15 minutes to fly from Haji Alem to the operating room Camp Bastion… 30 miles away.
The following day, Mark Evison arrived at Haji Alem to assume command of his squad. 7 Platoon had been at Haji Alem for a week when Evison led them on their first significant excursion. Their path would only require a few hundred meters from the fortress. The patrol followed the irrigation channels that carried water to the opium fields.
