Page 35 - Bugle No. 17 Spring 2021

their glad rags for a hard earned formal dinner, with the Bugle Platoon providing some rousing calls to educate our All-Arms guests. For an exceptional effort throughout, the Cornwall Cane (for best student) was awarded to Rfn (now LCpl!) Taylor from A Company.
Concurrently B Coy delivered a JNCO Cadre for the wider Regiment, held in Okehampton Camp, Dartmoor. Aiming to develop the leadership of potential leaders from across
all five regular Battalions with a challenging six-week course, the students received world class leadership development, earned range management qualifications and learnt how to operate tactically as an infantry JNCO. Physical training on the bleak Dartmoor terrain tested the students’ mental resilience and teamwork, and ultimately gave them the opportunity
to demonstrate themselves as leaders. The highlight of the cadre for all was the two-week tactics module. The unforgiving environment pushed the leadership capabilities of the students as they each took turns to command a section of soldiers in arduous conditions.
A real high was the Chinook insertion onto an objective as a part of the final attack - exhilarating for all! This cadre has produced 21 future Lance Corporals who will promote in the new year. They will take what they have learnt on the course and imbue their newly proven leadership throughout their respective Battalions.
A Coy Cadre Officer: Lt O Kember A Coy Cadre CSM: WO2 M Perry B Coy Cadre Officer: Lt C Sperrin B Coy Cadre CSM: S Mataika
Cpl Martin demonstrates
A real high was the Chinook insertion onto an objective as a part of the final attack - exhilarating for all!
the ‘En Garde’
5 RIFLES
Bugle Platoon on Ice
Information Activities and Outreach
Op CABRIT is primarily about information; we are here to reassure our allies in NATO, to reassure our Estonian hosts that the Alliance is committed to their defence, and to deter any potential aggression. What this means is that all of our activity, from large multinational exercises right down to talking to Estonian schoolchil- dren about the weather, has to be part of the story. There is no deterrent effect from the Battlegroup sitting in camp and not telling anyone what we are doing. Likewise, without a coherent effort to communicate our activity, we will have a hard time reassuring anyone that NATO is invested in the Baltics. Information activity is about telling our audiences - from NATO, the people of Estonia, our UK audiences and any potential adversaries - what we are doing and why.
The pace of Battlegroup activity has been frenetic throughout, with our CT 1-4 integration training seeing
us operate right across the Baltics, including with the multinational eFP Battlegroups in Latvia and Lithuania. With such a fast pace, telling the Battlegroup’s story is easy; it becomes simply communicating our planned activity in a way that highlights our interoperability, and the broader theme of NATO’s commitment to the Baltics. What requires significantly more imagination is creatively engaging with our Estonian hosts. Cultural differences mean that what British audiences find interesting may not appeal here. Sport has frequently allowed us to
reach our target audiences and the BG was honoured to be asked to attend the Narva PSK vs Tallinn Ice Hockey Match in Narva (on the Russian border) with the Battal- ion’s Buglers calling the players onto the ice. The Estonian winter and COVID restrictions have necessitated much
of the BG’s engagement moving into the digital outreach space over the past few months, with the old and bold desperately trying to understand the concept of eSports. In these circumstances, Riflemen were chosen less for their marksmanship skills and more for their ability to communicate our message.
WO2 C Crow, IA&O Platoon
The MTO tries to work out why he’s diffy white fleet
RIFLES The Bugle 35