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THE MERCIAN EAGLE
CO Foreword
Lt Col Rich Grover MBE
We have crammed in more than normal in our last few months together, ensuring that we finished proudly, sprinting across the finish line with our heads held high, with celebration and dignity at the forefront, and our people as the main effort.
The main event was our deployment to Exercise ASKARI STORM in Feb 2022. This provided
the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the professionalism and fighting spirit of 2 MERCIAN. The deployment totalled just shy of 300 personnel, providing a superb opportunity for a ‘last dance’ together on a unit-level collective training event. With a task to provide the Task Force Hannibal (TFH) element of the exercise, our role was to provide a credible, near-peer
new skill. This had two benefits – it made us a better team by growing our platoons and making our personnel better trained, and it also gave the individual soldiers a stronger skillset ready for the
enemy for the 1 PWRR Battle Group. A reputation enhancing deployment throughout from everyone involved, flying the Mercian Eagle on Climbing Rock at the end of the final mission will remain long in the memory.
A highlight was the visit of our Colonel in Chief, His Majesty King Charles III, who visited prior to the amalgamation
amalgamation. We have
also built various networks and have had distinct days where the Battalion has come together to celebrate them: the Foreign and Commonwealth Day which represented the diversity of our team, a network for our female soldiers, a regular
D&I forum, and regular feedback forums for our Ptes
Throughout the year we
have sought to maximise
opportunities available to
enhance ourselves collectively and individually. One of our priorities was support weapon cadres and the CIS Platoon, renamed Command Platoon. This provided an opportunity for our soldiers to diversify and become qualified in a specialist weapon or
and JNCOs; all aimed at outreach, engagement and better understanding. Complimenting all of this has been a constant thread of professional development; visits to DSEI, a JNCO leadership development series with Dave Maddock from
2MERCIAN