Page 43 - Mercian Eagle 2012

way of working which certainly at the outset of the Operation fostered an expeditionary mindset.
As with every other Tour I have been on the time rapidly disappeared and we were soon making preparations to hand over to the incoming unit. Whilst not perfect in any way I believe we had achieved an immense amount in a short time with a view to setting the next unit up for success.
Post Afghanistan was the usual blur of reconstituting the Bn and indeed the CIS Platoon, including much-needed post tour leave. After leave many of the Platoon found themselves on a very different type of Operation, that being the 2012 London Olympic Games. This has been covered
in detail by others in this magazine but personally there were a great deal of long but ultimately fulfilling days at the Olympic park in Stratford.
The Pl focus is now switched to events that will rapidly be upon us including CAST/ CATT and a return to Kenya which has always been a very testing environment for all things CIS.
There have inevitably been several personnel changes in the Pl over the last year, principally the return of the RSO, Capt Paulin to the Royal Signals in Lisburn. His firm leadership and sense of humour will be missed as will his cheery morning demeanour! He will be replaced by Capt Brigham when he manages to extract
himself from the Ops Officer’s office. We have lost on posting Cpl now Sgt Deacon, Cpl Simpson and soon Sgt Spencer: In their place we welcome back Sgt Gilmour and Cpl Barringham. In addition to postings Ptes Wesley and Watson have left to ‘Civilian Street’ and Pte Holmes MC is currently recovering from an injury he received on tour: We wish all of them well wherever
life takes them next. During the year there were many reasons to celebrate including the marriage of CSgt Pointon to his wife Andrea and LCpl Murray and his wife announcing the birth of their son Joshua. Cpl Hill and his wife have also been gifted with a daughter, Grace.
CATERING DEPARTMENT by Sgt Davies RLC
RCWO:
WO2 J Eskdale RLC
It has been an exceptionally busy year for the Catering Department which started when the majority of the department deployed with the 19 (Light) Brigade
Chef Group on Op HERRICK 15 in early September 2011. After completing an arduous Reception, Staging and Onward Integration package they were sent out to the Forward Operating
made it a lot easier to feed such large numbers in such a small place as the kitchen, which was only designed to feed 300, but every man and his dog seemed to turn up in OULLETTE.
All the chefs enjoyed a successful tour serving both in Camp Bastion and in
the Forward Operating Bases, including
Bases. The biggest and busiest location for the Chefs was FOB OULLETTE where
the Battalion HQ and C Company moved in to take over from the US Marine Corps.
All the chefs enjoyed a successful tour serving both in camp Bastion and in the Forward Operating Bases, including an extremely busy christmas period
an extremely busy Christmas period where the challenge was to provide every ISAF soldier with a Christmas dinner no matter where they were situated. Through blood, sweat and tears this feat was accomplished. Things were made easier as the Ration IC in Bastion was none other than the 2 MERCIAN Master
Forward repair FOB OUELLETTE
Sgt Davies and Pte
Gouldthorpe (who was
famous for making
pizza without cheese)
from the 2 MERCIAN
Catering Department along with a chef from 2 RIFLES were the lucky ones who were given the task of whipping up the culinary delights in this location. It was fair to say that the menu had not been given the Gordon Ramsey treatment and a lot of work was needed to bring it round to a standard that British troops were used to. There are only so many pop tarts and crisps that you can eat for breakfast, which the Americans seemed to have no problem doing. Once the US Marine Corps chefs’ tour was over the overhaul of the feeding and the cooking facilities began. The main problem was the state of the area underneath the kitchen and servery area; this was a bit of a death trap. To solve this problem the Battle Group Logistics Officer managed to get the Royal Engineers to down tools in other areas to concentrate on the cookhouse. This meant that all 500 soldiers in the location had
Chef, SSgt Boyle. He made sure that all our locations never wanted for anything. LCpl Boila returned from his location as a legend; he was the talk of Helmand with his Fijian cookery.
It was now time for a bit of well deserved leave, with the chefs dispersing to the four corners of the World for a spot of R&R. As soon as we were back it was time to start preparing for the Freedom Parades back
in the Midlands, where the highlight for
the Catering Department was the Cocktail Party at Nottingham Castle. Once again
we displayed how we can serve gourmet food even from a field kitchen. As soon
as we were back from this it was time for us to prepare for Op OLYMPICS, which saw roughly half the Department deploy
to various locations around England, with some chefs not only cooking but working on security as well. Since being back from this the Department has seen a massive turnaround in personnel, with no fewer than six people leaving us for new pastures. So it will be an interesting time to gel a new catering force together, but as always the RLC chefs will still strive to provide the highest standards possible.
Forward repair FOB OUELLETTE
to go onto operational ration packs for 4 days: Obviously the chefs were devastated with this as they had nothing to do but boil water and sun bathe. All the tents were taken down and the flooring was completely replaced, and when completed it was like working in a Regimental Restaurant. This
Forward repair FOB OUELLETTE
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
41