Page 59 - Mercian Eagle 2012

c company
When a visibly smoking bomb with BATUS COEFOR written across it started bouncing around BHQ in December and it became clear that not only would this mean 3 months in BATUS; but the added joy of re-roling to CVR(T), there was a certain amount of sharply drawn breath amongst the Company Commanders. 9 months on, this concern has proved to be, as always,
ill found. As C Company completes hand back to BATUS of the last CVR(T) based COEFOR AI Company; we can look back on a challenging, varied, productive and successful training period. The Company completed Light Role Live Firing, two Prairie Storms, Adventure Training, R&R and a CT3 exercise in the Light Role. It also worked for every exercising Battle Group (less the CSS BG, despite the OC’s best efforts with the Bde Continuity Team and the amount
of time LCpl Gardner spent in the ECCP), making it the most versatile and most exercised sub-unit in 7 Armd Bde, in the lead up to Herrick 19 MST. We also had the lightest ORBAT, as can be seen by our final line up, shown above.
Re-roling turned out to be the least of
our problems, as a very capable and helpful team from the 9/12 Lancers came across
to spend 6 weeks converting Warrior and Bulldog crews to CVR(T). We received a taste of what was to come on the ES side. However, as we broke two of four vehicles on Commander Training and one had to be left in the sheds due to a cracked Final Drive (Instructor gives lesson...”when you remove the Final Drive cover, you should see...
not oil going everywhere like that...”. Pte Jackson found he had no brakes on a brake test and Sgt Smith, Tech CQMS, spent a lot of time trying to acquire spares.
Conversion over, we completed LFTT in Sennelager with our reduced strength based on 10 Sturgeons and saw the new Platoon Commanders for the first and last time. Having joined us prior to PCBC, the newly formed D Cbt ordained that AIPCC tactics would be better training than 3
months in the premier training ground of the British Army – a decision that looks even more inspired as I look at the ATEC (ie no Warriors) ORBAT, for C Coy on H19. A full on range package was followed by an equally full on Company Smoker which led into an even fuller night in Paderborn
– Pte Bridgart was finally recovered after leaving a message with his wife that he was “lost in a wood and didn’t know where the town was”...about 750 yards from the accommodation.
In the spirit of keeping the Armoured flame alive, we fired 9 crews through
ACT and then conducted our only CT1 training with 36 hours on Bergen Hohne Ranges. We then conducted in camp training, ran the Bde Skill at Arms meeting (commiserations to Snipers who lost to [whispers] 4 SCOTS in a close contest)
and got stuck in to conceptual training
with a 4 SCOTS BG, who were very clearly not intending to roll over for BLUEFOR to celebrate heroic success. The talk was immediately of PSYOPS, Target Packs and High Value Targets (the debate over whether one would create more chaos in B Coy by killing Maj Steve Burton or leaving him alive was a long one...) and we ran a number
of successful study days trying to work
out how to defeat fifty plus AFVs with 20, and three Infantry Coys with a reinforced Platoon. However, optimism remained high.
On arrival in BATUS, it became clear that even getting on to the Prairie would be
a challenge. The BATUS spares system had all but collapsed under the pressure of (depending on who one believes) a poorly supervised HOTO/a poor juxtaposition
of Mars, Pisces and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers/a lack of REME and RLC Temporary Staff/MJDI fielding/BATUS summer leave/the weather/the NHL players lockout and STURGEON availability was
at 12.5% (one vehicle). Spirits were only slightly raised when we discovered that we were 12.5% better off than the Challenger 2 Sqn for the SCOTS DG BG! As expected,
however, a combination of WO2 Fisher, Sgt Smith and Cpl Taylor as our CVR(T) experts raised their game and delivered 5 vehicles for the COEFOR D-6 runout and a salutary lesson for 4 SCOTS BGHQ on the likely availability for the rest of the exercise.
In our first dramatic change, we resubordinated to SCOTS DG on D-2
and deployed as a Light Role Coy (once we’d pointed out to all and sundry that
we couldn’t actually walk everywhere for
2 weeks and acquired some SVs) for Live Firing. We spent 4 extremely pleasant days in the remote training area of Komati, left completely to our own devices, which gave us a chance to work up some pretty rusty Light Role skills and for the OC to command his first and second ever Coy attacks. Training in 30+ degrees of heat took its toll and unfortunately Pte Adama fell victim to Heat Injury, winning himself a free Helivac courtesy of RMO 3 MERCIAN. He was
by no means the first to suffer, and it was tribute to the intensity of conducting some extremely tough ranges with a Company of 50 blokes that we completed the package with 10 serious injuries in camp. Before anyone starts to raise the same eyebrow that OC and CSM had done as they asked
4 SCOTS RMO to review the casualty list at the start of TESEX, one should note that she, a native of the Newcastle not placed under Lyme and full of vigour to drag malingerers back onto the Prairie, reported back to us
The FSG watches a heat casualty extraction during live firing
OC: 2IC: CSM: WSM:
CQMS:
CQMS (T): 7 Pl Comd:
7 Pl Sgt:
8 Pl Comd: 8 Pl Sgt:
Maj O E R Major
Capt John Coutts
WO2 George Long
WO2 Ian Fisher / CSgt Craig Scott
CSgt Craig Scott/ Cpl Darryl Mills
Sgt Gareth Smith
Sgt Darren Street / Capt John Coutts
Cpl Taylor / Cpl Chadwick
Sgt Barrington Brown
Cpl Casey / Cpl Armstrong
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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