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Iam currently within my first year serving with a newly formed unit called Beachley Barracks
Management Team (BBMT), located in Beachley Barracks near Chepstow, previously the home of 1 RIFLES for the last 17 years. The unit is responsible for the maintenance, compliance, and continuing improvement of Beachley Barracks in the absence of a Major Unit. The Rifles are currently serving a 2-year deployment in Cyprus as part of the UK Defence Strategy. They will be returning to Beachley from April 2025 with the intention of re-rolling into a light mechanised unit.
We also house lodger units from 23 Army Education Department (AED), Rifles Training Team (RTT) who are still providing training on a weekly basis. We facilitate Driver training for 160X units and house elements of the Army
SSgt (SSI) M Norton RAPTC
Engagement Team. In October 2023 we accommodated international teams from Qatar as well as other UK-based teams alongside the Real-Life Support (RLS) for Exercise CAMBRIAN PATROL.
Since arriving in the role in October, the establishment has been heavily involved in the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). We currently have two ongoing elements of the ARAP on site, Reception Staging Onward Movement (RSOM) and Temporary Service Families Accommodation (TSFA), this involves multiple agencies and local support networks, NAAFI, MEARS to name a couple. RLS is provided currently by 39 Engr Regt managing the TSFA and 22 Sig Regt managing the RSOM site.
Alongside managing the gymnasium and facilitating access to all the transient
service personnel, I have delivered an Army Reserve Physical Training Leader (PTL), Soldier Conditioning Reviews (SCRs) and Role Fitness Tests (RFTs) for units within the Brigade. I have participated in the Rifles road cycling training camp and have been involved in officiating at the Inter Service and Individual Swimming Championships.
BBMT is a small team and we are working alongside the ARAP to accomplish our Mission. The team has achieved so much already going fully electrical within our Movements and Transport department. A full overhaul of the camp’s facilities are ongoing and within the gymnasium we have just had an uplift of our strength and conditioning equipment and a refurbishment of the gymnasium’s CV Suite is underway.
BEACHLEY BARRACKS MANAGEMENT TEAM
Located in a remote part of West Wales, 14 Signal Regiment is affectionately known as the Wild West, as its
surroundings demonstrate a landscape of sea beauty. If you think Brecon and Sennybridge has its own weather system, Cawdor Barracks displays a microclimate which is harsh and very unforgiving.
New into the unit, I arrived mid-December 2023 and went straight into delivering the Inter Squadron Swimming Gala and the CO’s Christmas PT, which proved a
14 SIGNAL REGIMENT
SSgt (SSI) N Jones RAPTC
wonderful opportunity to get to know the unit personalities and the wider team. This is now my second Field Force unit and I find the challenges no different. For example, commitments continue to increase, whilst workforce liability decreases, but our outputs remain the same.
Jan 24 kicked off with Lanyard Trophy training. The Lanyard Trophy is a highly
contested Royal Signals competition that has endured and evolved over 40 years. The competition itself involves teams of six or eight Service Personnel (SP) carrying an individual weighted load of 40lbs, navigating and moving as quickly as possible on foot between staffed checkpoints over arduous terrain. The total distance of the competition is 40 miles.
As a Unit SSI, I normally like to take a step back from Sqn build-up PT and allow our
CO’s PT Christmas Snowman