I don't have an opinion on combat load except to say after slogging around Afgh in body armour and helmet, it's a PITA, but a few commentators have brought up the issue of drinking local water rather than carrying it, and after six months of treatment, during which time I lost 25 per cent of my body weight for what was eventually diagnosed as a form of blastocystis that hadn't been seen in the west since 2001, all I can say is DON'T.

Got caught in the Aghan thing where it's impolite to refuse tea. My tropical diseases specialist later told me it wasn't the tea or the water but the cup, which probably hadn't been washed since a Soviet drank from it.