Telford army officer's OBE for Afghan engineering skills
An army officer from Telford who taught Afghan Army members to build bridges, check points and oversaw the most demanding base closure programme yet has been awarded an OBE.
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Nicholson, 43, commanded 21 Engineer Regiment in Central Helmand.
In six months, he taught Afghan engineers the skills they needed for them to take over from British forces.
Lt Col Nicholson said: "I always thought this type of award was for other people after all I was just doing my job. I had a fantastic team around me. I pointed them in the right direction and they did the rest. It comes as a complete shock.
"The team was magnificent. They did absolutely everything asked of them and it was very gratifying to come home and realise 1,000 British soldiers had been able to come home early and we had set the conditions for the drawdown next year."
His citation states: "All of this has been achieved against a backdrop of danger. The Engineer Group suffered two deaths and seven significant injuries during this tour.
"Nicholson's leadership has pulled them through these shocks superbly. Its effect has been to reinforce their resolve when it was at its most vulnerable.
"Nicholson has personally led an engineering effort that has transformed the campaign in Central Helmand."
He taught Afghan engineers to build bridges, which they did by opening an access route across the Nahr-e-Saraj canal, allowing them to secure a vital vulnerable area from which threats to the city of Lashkar Gah were emerging.
He also taught them how to build check points and bases but their capacity was exceeded when their Army Commander asked for a base to be built north of the city of Gereshk to contain a threat.
Lt Col Nicholson recognised the importance of Afghan Forces to delivering this security themselves, and immediately deployed his own engineers.They had a base built within two weeks, transforming security in the area.
