Page 60 - QDG Year of 2020

58 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
7th Infantry Brigade HQ
In July 2020, I was given the opportu- nity to switch my grenades for pens and night sights for pencils. HQ 7 Brigade (7X) was my destination and legendary QDG OC and CO, Brigadier Jasper de Quincey Adams OBE my Commander. 25-30 brews a day my purpose.
Despite the disappointment of being removed from the front line of the imag- inary battlefield I was delighted to be given the opportunity to gain experi- ence in an environment that many young officers do not.
Upon taking command of 7X in August, Brigadier Jasper has been steering the ship towards passing the test of Exercise CERBERUS (a 3UKXX valida- tion exercise to prove the HQ is fully fit to go to war, and win). This has involved training progression and numerous build up exercises with a learning ethos being employed rigidly. For me personally, it resulted in long days and nights where sunlight was not witnessed for hours upon end to achieve planning excellence. The readers will be pleased to know that 7X passed the test of Ex CERBERUS in October and that I will not mention it again in this article.
It is impossible to write about the activities of the HQ without giving an honourable mention to COVID-19.
Boring I know, but relevant. Since the start of the pandemic, the HQ has had a fully manned Ops Room working for 24 hours per day at peak times. This is has resulted in the deployment of thousands of troops across the east of England to provide key services to local author- ities in the fight against the
disease. This came in the form of deploying QDG soldiers (amongst others) to testing centres, care homes and as ambulance drivers - as I am sure you have read in the Sqn articles.
Unsurprisingly, the HQ has
balanced the above chal-
lenges with its day-to-day
tasks of enabling deploy-
ments of personnel across
the globe. Notably, the
RY-QDG mobilisation of
CASSINO Tp to Poland and
the joint 2 Royal Anglian and QDG deploy- ment in 2021 to Mali on Op NEWCOMBE 2. The G3 team has worked exception- ally hard to ensure soldiers from the Bde have deployed as far away as the Cayman Islands and as close to home as Thetford Forrest. Concurrently, the G5 team have ensured that the Regimental forecast of events remain full so there is
plenty to look forward to in this new year. For me personally, I have had the pleasure to learn from Brigadier Jasper and his operationally proven command style. Alongside becoming a genuinely credible barista and an exceptional tea
maker (if I
may say so myself), it has been thought-provoking to see how a higher formation formulates effective plans, capable of winning battles, even if they are only hypo- thetical scenarios. It has been incredibly interesting to interact with some of the senior leaders in the British Army as well as government ministers during a particu- larly tumultuous period in the nation’s history. With this, I am also proud to say that as a Brigade, we only lost the Chief of the General
...as a Brigade, we only lost the Chief of the General Staff once
Staff once – see The Telegraph and most other national media for further details.
Next year will see the HQ deploy on further training exercises to America and Salisbury Plain as well as other chal- lenges here at home – only 4,567 brews to make before I deploy to Mali where I will make approximately 8,789 more.
WG
Field Training Unit
On the return to work in the New Year, FTU were planning for the largest WESSEX STORM attempted on Salis- bury Plain Training Area – what was normally a BG exercise had grown into accommodating the majority of 7X.
Effectively running two WESSEX STORMs concurrently, R ANGLIAN and QDG with the Light Brigade Support Group also in the offing, the largest training estate in the UK suddenly felt very small; battered by three actual storms (Storm Dennis and co.) the resilience and determination of the troops on the ground was admi- rable to observe and did little to affect their high standards of training.
The first tentative dip back into the Army’s training for FTU amidst COVID was Ex TALLINN DAWN in June, ensuring 5 RIFLES were vali- dated before deploying to Estonia – a reduced exercise heavily constrained by COVID measures with focus on the 5 RIFLES ISTAR Gp and QRH augmented Advance Guard training.
In the last quarter of a blighted 2020, 2 PARA augmented with a company
There are no straight lines in nature
of 2 Régiment Étranger de Parachut- istes (French Foreign Legion) switched the Kenyan plain for that of Salisbury. With COVID an ever-present risk, FTU were at their maximum ensuring 2 PARA were validated and main- taining their high readiness state whilst also keeping 2000 exercising troops socially distanced.
For any QDG considering this as a future job role, FTU has provided an
inimitable experience in gaining an insight into a variety of BGHQs when they are at full-tilt in a planning cycle; being part of a small SME team helping observe and mentor a variety of ISTAR and Recce assets and delivering Sqn and BG After Action Reviews has been a challenging and rewarding experi- ence in supporting the wider Army’s training development.
GESJ