Page 48 - QDG Year of 2020

46 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Pontins
This was the third round of COVID testing that the QDG have carried out over the course of the pandemic, the second
enabled some of the Sqn to get back to RBSM to successfully run a fantastic PNCO Cadre organised
an enormous amount of Planning to take place for Ex Gao Eagle in Cyprus (January) which has amaz- ingly still taken place even during lockdown Mk3, Ex Rattlesnake in Louisiana (March) before starting PDT (June) and Op Newcombe in the Autumn.
It goes without saying, that although the Whole City Testing in Liverpool was a huge success it cannot be left without a quick mention of the laughs that were had by all when reading the reviews left on TripAdvisor by some ‘miscella- neous’ soldiers which even received national media attention. Well worth a look!
Although it can be frustrating to be pulled from exciting courses and training exercises, it is clear
for A Sqn. As you can imagine, the Sqn was extremely excited about the prospect of more COVID testing and the opportunity to stay in Pontins, Southport which SSgt Comley assured us was the place of dreams...
the Sqn was extremely excited about the prospect of more COVID testing...
and executed by 2Lt Zaki Al-Khamiri (but actually we all know it was Sgt Pitt).
As the weeks went by, the testing was having a positive effect on Liverpool’s COVID infection rates. However, we were still chasing the laundry company for one of the coach drivers washing that had gone missing for the third time that week, the odd few
As with many of
these MACA taskings,
you tend to be rushed
off to wherever it is
that you have been
sent with great urgency and short in numbers too, to find that when you arrive at that specific task you haven’t been assigned the role that you are to undertake. After a short wait, it became apparent that we would be taking over the RLS (Real Life Support) of what is now been called Pontins camp, housing some 1,758 (although changing daily) soldiers. For those that are unaware this is where the Army was based in order to carry out the Whole City Testing across Liverpool City in the Autumn.
Running Pontins camp was a small blessing in disguise for A Sqn, with Maj James Curry as camp commandant and SSM Hopkins as camp Sergeant Major, day to day life started to run smoother, which
fireworks that the locals sent over the fence which went down like a lead balloon the next
morning, and 2Lt Alex
that everyone within the QDG and Army as a whole, understands the importance and hard work that the military and all of our ‘key workers’ across the country are doing during this pandemic and I know for a fact, we will all look back with fond memories knowing that we did our part to help.
EC
Allington moving the odd COVID positive SP into the isolation block enabling the MO to be so accurate at predicting who would test positive next we almost wiped the virus from the camp entirely!
With the entirety of the A Sqn command all working together out of ‘The Queen Vic’ which was Pontins very own spin off of Peggy Mitchell’s famous watering hole it enabled
...and the opportunity to stay in Pontins, Southport which SSgt Comley assured us was the place of dreams...
Pontin’s TripAdvisor reviews will never recover