Page 5 - LBV 2024

ADX 2024
This year the Annual Deployment Exercise (ADX) was held in Ballykinler Training camp, Northern Ireland, bordered by the Mourne Mountains to the south, the Irish sea to the east and glorious Irish countryside everywhere else. For many this trip was their first taste of Northern Ireland but 2025 differs vastly from the Troubles era and it’s hard to imagine the difference when surrounded by the scenery of Ballykinler (including the seals). Although some personal security restrictions remain
in place, Northern Ireland is now a much more convivial place to visit for service personnel than it used to be
but it pays to be sensible. OCdts have the enviable ability to look like students when they want/need to be (unlike all
of the staff) so they fitted in easily with the local student population of Belfast without raising any suspicions when released for their ‘cultural visit’ but for the majority of the time it was nose to the grindstone on military training and taking advantage of the great resources Ballykinler had to offer.
We began the training on Ballykinler’s range complex where, for the majority, we took the OCdts from the absolute basics right through to the trained soldiers personal weapon test and onto automatic firing and the firing other weapons (pistol and GPMG). This was a good warm up for their weapon handling skills and the move to the tactical exercise which marks the culmination
of their year going through the Mod A
or B syllabus. CUOTC vastly exceeded
its ammunition allocation (of which we are yet to say sorry for to RMAS!) and pushed the OCdts way beyond their mandated training requirement, much
to their enjoyment. Praying for good weather we embarked on the tactical training phase where the Junior Div (Mod A) could put into practice all they had learned and the Intermediate Div (Mod B) could prove that they had what it takes to be leaders as they rotated round their command appointments. 2Lt Scarly Knight (with a short guest appearance by
2Lt Harris Wood) led numerous offensive activities (section and platoon level) in rural and urban environments which led to an all-night ambush and final attack before the enemy (provided by 2 RIFLES) were finally defeated and sent packing back across the water to their [fictitious] homeland. Hopefully CUOTC has persuaded them of the folly of invading our territory, at least for now. Jaded but happy the OCdts finished this phase with a well deserved breakfast by the beach and the extra reward of hours of rifle cleaning and searching for cam cream in their ears.
Cam cream removed, we moved on to a short Adventure training phase
(a longer one was planned for later in the month to Chamonix) to stretch the OCdts and give them a break from the tactical life and then we let them loose at the Giant’s Causeway and Belfast for few hours to sample the culture before heading home and their unfeasibly long summer holidays.
The end of ADX is always marked by a sad occasion when we say our goodbyes to the senior OCdts (but hello to our new Light Blue Volunteers Alumni) but there’s always a new batch to follow them and more OCdts to promote to JUO/SUO. For the 2024/25 training year the new crop of SUO:
• SUO Barraud (Cambridge)
• SUO Sellick (Norwich)
As always, the ADX remains the
capstone to the training year and is
the one occasion where we can get everyone together for a protracted period of time and is thus enjoyed by everyone. Preparations have already begun for
ADX 2025 and the rest of the preceding training year in the hope that we can recruit, train and recruit (again) or send our OCdts into the big business world full of confidence and willingness to strive through adversary (hopefully less of the latter).
Major I Hendry-Adams
THE LIGHT BLUE VOLUNTEER 5