In his first blog - 35-year-old, father of two Wally Mahaffy from North Belfast - gave a unique insight into life on the front line of a current war zone and the important mentoring role being conducted by Ulster soldiers.

The 1st Batallion of the Royal Irish Regisment are currently serving in Afghanistan.

Our brave soldier gives his latest exclusive update from the front line.

Wally's Blog

The last time I reported we were making low level preparations for operations with our Afghan counterparts. To get any normal British Army Unit ready to move is normally a co-ordinated event. But this time it will be different.

Kit preparation, weapons checks and so on form the basis of ensuring that our troops are ready for every eventuality. The Afghan National Army, ANA, have their own methods of preparation that we have been closely monitoring over the past few days.

You see, sometimes different types of people have differing methods, different thought processes, different priorities and an uncanny way of doing business. In layman's terms, as we say in Norn Iron, "Don't judge a book by its cover".

3rd Kandak (our sister ANA Battalion) that we are mentoring, have been packing their kit and equipment as the time closes in for us and them to move forward into the heart of Helmand Province.

Getting the preparation correct, fuelling the vehicles, service testing a wide array of weapons, radios and night viewing equipment becomes a constant chain of events. Loading equipment onto vehicles in a synchronised fashion becomes an art.

Now as you know the soldiers of the 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment like nothing more than a bag of Tayto Cheese and Onion Crisps when the going gets tough, so as we stand beside the men of the 3rd Kandak and watch with amusement as they hurl live goats onto the back of their vehicles alongside the bags of rice and beans we find some common ground.

They load their food in the form of flour, various types of bean and dahl and bags of spices. We stuff bags of crisps and soda bread that has been made by the local chef into all nooks and crannies of every vehicle in the fleet. The kit is packed and it is time for the Irish and the Afghans to move.

There comes a time out here when you look around at the soldiers under your command. For me I consider myself to be a lucky guy. These soldiers from all corners of Ireland are my family.

My Operational Mentoring and Leadership Team, OMLT, consists of what I believe to be the best "Fighting Irish" soldiers I could have possibly wished for. An eighteen year old soldier from Craigavon sat beside me today and said, Colour Sergeant, " Do you think that this will go according to plan and the ANA will try to do everything the way that we have taught them?" I said to him with confidence "You can't teach an old dog new tricks, but we sure as hell will try."

We have an attitude in 1 Royal Irish. Fighter First. It makes us think that no matter what we do throughout the day, we must maintain that constant thought in our minds. We have installed this attitude in the ANA. They sort of understand. That's good enough for now. Old dog, new tricks etc.

So what next? A few phone calls home. Check the "Our Wee Country" website for the latest news (yes, even in Helmand province we manage an internet connection now and again).

Maybe a few early morning runs around the camp perimeter to finish off the acclimatisation process. The air up here is quite tight as we are currently at 872m above sea level, almost as high as Slieve Donard, well so my dad says! So, in a few days we will head into the sunset, soldiers in arms, as we now are, friends from a different country, accomplices in the war against terror, but now with a common understanding.

You see, even if you are Afghan, you are still part of the Fighting Irish.

In a week or so I will be back reporting from the business end of the job out here. We will be firmly embedded deep in Helmand Province. Acres of Poppy fields will form part of the daily scenery as we try to make the Afghani people see that such a colourful and beautiful flower can bring so much pain, terror and lawlessness to their country as we strive to get the ANA to do things the right way, the Irish way.