Page 81 - Light Dragoons 2023 CREST

The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
Extra Regimental Employment
Being a Military Assistant at the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps – Italy (NRDC-ITA)
It has been a fascinating time to be in a NATO job. Following in the footstep of the infamous Major Ben Moody to NRDC- ITA seemed like the perfect choice while I was reviewing and writing job applica- tions from my Jackal in Mali, and it has not failed to disappoint. Like most peo- ple who have never worked in NATO, my understanding of what exactly a corps HQ did was limited. NRDC-ITA is the Italian equivalent of the UKs Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), one of ten-sister Corps headquarters across NATO.
I arrived to a whirl wind of new terminol- ogy and acronyms and a hybrid language, not English, but ‘NATO English’ and the daily tatter of Italian: ‘Bonjourno’, ‘Grazie’, ‘Prego’ and ‘Caio’, all expressed in differ- ent tones and ways, and the all-important hand gestures, which gave subtle meaning and difference. All the while, trying to stay one step ahead of my boss who had been posted at short notice two weeks after me, coming from a crunchy job in Army HQ with an outer office of seven having previ- ously been the Chief of Staff at the ARRC. I found the HQ in role as Multi Corps Land Component Command (MC LCC), a corps HQ that controls several other corps HQs in a war fighting role. The following year we transitioned to a Joint Task Force HQ, developing our understanding of how to leverage all the domains in a land heavy, small joint operation.
NATO is a paradox at the staff level, often hugely frustrating and yet if you step back and con-
A sunrise dash to Parapet Rock, Norway
sider it is a coalition of 30 nations (hope- fully to be 32) all of whom bring signifi- cant and useful diversity of thought and experience, yet operate and plan in a com- mon language. You start to understand it is probably more impressive than you ini- tially gave it credit. In our HQ, 20 nation- alities discuss, debate and plan activity on complex and nuanced subjects and 95% of the headquarters do it in their second or third language. Not a day goes by that
I don’t marvel at this. It goes without saying as a native speaker misunder- standing and frustrations are easy to come by. However, the key has been
Ice...
embracing the culture and enjoy being 35km northwest of Milan, 30 minutes from some of the most beautiful lakes in the world and under two hours from some of the best skiing in Europe.
At weekends or during a long summer evening, one can zip off to a Via Ferrata route, 40 minutes away, and scamper up
Breithorn 4164m, Swizz-Italian boarder
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