Page 4 - Mercian Eagle 2012

Foreword
by Maj Gen Sharpe
Each year brings its own unique challenges, memorable events and moments for reflection, and 2012 has provided all of these. As I write this foreword my thoughts are with the 1st Battalion in the winter cold of their current tour of Afghanistan. But such has been the pace of
life in the Regiment that it seems more than just a few months
since the 2nd Battalion returned from their tour. The deaths of Pte Matthew Haseldin and Capt Rupert Bowers, and the large number of casualties that have changed lives, serve not just to remind us of the cost of modern-day operations
but also of our responsibility as a
family Regiment. ‘We who are left’
will continue to do the very best
we can to support those who are
injured or bereaved: when life is tough families close up and put their arms around those who need support. Throughout this year’s deployments, the 4th Battalion have continued
to lead the way in mobilising soldiers for operations; their seamless integration into regular Battalions on tour speaks volumes about their professionalism and training. We remain enormously fortunate in the support that HRH The Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester continues to give us as our Colonel in Chief, and those members of the 3rd Battalion who went to Sandringham to receive their Afghan medals, as well as those soldiers in hospital who he has seen (or at least supplied with a crafty tot of whisky), will testify.
This year has also seen us receive the unwelcome
orders that as part of Army2020 we are to be reduced by a battalion: like you this has saddened me deeply. Our efforts since the announcement have focused on getting the best deal for the Regiment in the new construct, not in trying to reverse a decision which is not going to change. So I would like to make two key points about Army2020.
First, while the announcement specified that ‘3 MERCIAN is to be removed from the Order of Battle’, this Regiment will not simply allow one battalion to go to the wall and the others to be unaffected: that is not how we do business and we are all in this together. The Regiment will reorganise completely in order that as we transition from three Regular battalions into two we do so in a transparent and measured fashion which shares the pain across the Regiment. Getting this reorganisation right will involve detailed work on manning, and a Regimental Planning Team has been set up to lead with this. At the same time I was adamant that we must carefully preserve our Regimental heritage, and a Heritage Planning Team has already put in a great deal of work to make sure that we get this right too. I have literally spent a lifetime in the Army, including over thirty-three years with the Colours, so
I understand only too well the importance of traditions and customs. And, had I been in any doubt, that doubt would have been wiped away by the wonderful (and very cold) ‘Ferozeshah’ that I have just spent with the 3rd Battalion in
Fallingbostel. Be reassured that
we will look to the future, forming a modern-minded fighting Regiment, but that, equally, we will continue to cherish and preserve the heritage of our forebears.
My second point about A2020 regards our future roles. I sincerely believe that, in securing both an Armoured Infantry role within a new Reactive Force Brigade and
a Light Role within an Adaptive Force Brigade, we have assured
a solution which offers our people variety, challenge and opportunity in the years ahead. In the meantime, we will keep our fingers crossed that the basing solution
is confirmed as matching our aspirations and providing us not only with a foot on Salisbury Plain
but also a foot in Mercia.
Next year also provides us with a rare opportunity:
the Presentation of New Colours on the 6th of June, in Worcester, promises to be a very special day. Not only will we finally get our new Colours as The Mercian Regiment
but we will also have a rare window, before the 3rd Battalion deploys, which sees all the Battalions available for a short period to parade together. I genuinely hope that all members of our Regimental family, young and old, serving and retired, will join us at Worcester to put the seal on what has been an astonishingly robust transformation.
I would like to finish with a couple of ‘thank yous’. First, I would like to thank all those who have supported us this year, through numerous events and occasions, by raising money, by hosting our soldiers, by your kindness to the bereaved or wounded, or simply in coming out onto Mercian streets to support our soldiers on coming home. Your support sustains us.
And finally let me finish by thanking you, the serving soldiers, for your efforts over this last year. On training, whether on MST or when facing the Arctic climate in BATUS, you have set a standard that has led to your trainers seeking me out to tell me that you have set the standard for others
to aspire to achieve. In the face of difficult news you have showed a stoicism and quiet determination to get the re-
set right that others have struggled to achieve. And your professionalism on operations, from the extreme of a gritty no-nonsense approach when closing with the enemy on
Op HERRICK, to your forbearance, turnout, banter and good humour when deployed at short notice to Op OLYMPICS, has been exemplary.
This will be my last foreword to a Mercian Eagle as ‘The Regimental Dad’, so all that is left to say is: no father could be as proud of his children as I have been of you. Thank you for the privilege of allowing me to remain associated with you. I raise my oak-leaf-adorned hat to you all. Stand Firm and Strike Hard.
2 THE MERCIAN EAGLE