Page 62 - Mercian Eagle 2012

There has been a large degree of turnover within Dragon Company, including the Departure of Major Harris who has gone on to work in the Procurement World at Abbey- Wood in Bristol, Major Jerome who has arrived and taken over the Company, WO2 Hunter who has moved on to A Company and who has been replaced by WO2 Hudson. As this article goes to print we are losing three of the platoon commanders
with Captain Flackett moving on to become the Battalion Intelligence Officer, Capt Cartwright moving on to become the Battalion J3/5 Ops Bravo Officer and Capt Fulford moving on to become the RSO. We look forwards to the imminent arrival of their replacements.
The last few months have been dominated by a very successful Exercise Prairie Thunder in BATUS and we now
look forward to the unique challenges of preparing Dragon Company for the upcoming HERRICK 19 tour.
On the horizon we have a planned rugby tour of the midlands being organised by Captain Cartwright, low level adventure training being conducted in Germany, and several Battlefield tours being planned for the next 6 months.
60
OC Major Jerome CSM WO2 Hudson CQMS CSgt Webster
Dragon company
Javelin Platoon BATUS 2012 – Preperation and Execution
Post Operation HERRICK 14 which took place in the summer of 2011, Javelin Platoon 3 MERCIAN was fairly dislocated and disjointed. On the tour we had been split down and supported different ground holding companies as well as forming part of the Brigade Advisory Group. Therefore, upon returning from the tour a period
of integration was needed where we essentially spent time getting to know each other again and building the foundations of a Platoon level ORBAT.
In January we had 4 of our Private soldiers successfully complete the Divisional Junior NCO Cadre, which was a 100% pass rate for our guys. This was particularly pleasing as the course as a whole suffered more than a 50% failure, the Javelin personnel – LCpls Bytheway, O’Hare, O’Reilly and Smith had acquitted themselves rather well.
An icy Spring was when the Platoon really began to focus upon it’s preparation for BATUS 2012. We knew that the exercise would be challenging and that all of the various skills and drills required would need to be practised and understood by all if we were to be successful upon the exercise itself. Therefore, a Javelin Cadre in February
gave the boys an opportunity to get into the field and really focus upon the specific skills that would ultimately achieve success in BATUS. Sgts Lennon and Williams, both veterans of BATUS, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq were given the task of running the cadre, a job which they did with the utmost professionalism and
commitment resulting
in a challenging yet
educational cadre with
Pte Lum finishing as the
top student.
Armoured skills were then the focus, a deployment to a hot and dusty Bergen- Hohne was where we would master our gunnery. Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicles in giving us the ability to combine both our light role Javelin and the 30mm cannon and 7.62mm chain gun of the Warriors to create
maximum destruction. Further to that the Javelin is fired through
a visual platform called a CLU, giving the observer the ability to positively identify and engage and destroy any vehicle in the world at a range of up to 2.5km, useful for seeing what
is happening on the
battlefield as well as having an effect upon it. The dusty plains
of Bergan-Hohne saw the Platoon master integration of these weapon systems and get the guys comfortable with using all of them simultaneously, something which would reek havoc on the enemy in BATUS.
Concurrently to all of this happening LCpl Wright was conducting the Fire Support Group Team Commanders course, a difficult
Further preparation
continued in April when
the Platoon, along with
the rest of the Battalion
deployed to Sennelager,
to undertake a 2
week range package
focusing on everything from basic static shooting up to more complicated live platoon attacks. Javelin Platoon, not always perceived as proficient riflemen as well as specialists, soon quashed that belief and crawled through icy bog and over jagged creek better than the rest, engaging and destroying all in their path.
Armoured skills were then the focus, a deployment to a hot and dusty Bergan-Hohne...
THE MERCIAN EAGLE