Page 71 - MERCIAN Eagle 2018

CO Foreword 4 MERCIAN
Lt Col FGB Cuttle
What instantly struck me upon assumption
of my command in April, having been posted externally for several years, was the fact that the County family ethos of our antecedent Regiments continues to strongly endure and underpins
4 MERCIAN as a professional, caring and robustly forward-leaning Battalion. Despite the routine cycle of personnel changes within the Regular
and Reserve staff, our core of dedicated Army Reservists remains our continuity; delivering in spades in everything they do, supported hugely by their Regular counterparts.
This year, we have experienced considerable transformation. One of my key priorities is deployability; it was clear to me on assumption of command that we had
been particularly enthused by the LFTT, which has underpinned our core training and numerous adventure training opportunities; designed to be accessible by as many individuals as possible
so that we grow our next generation of internal instructors.
Regimentally, with 1 MERCIAN being heavily committed on exercises throughout the world, and 2 MERCIAN moving to Cyprus, the Battalion was directed to be the Regimental lead for recruiting; no easy task given manning constraints and a significant geographical spread. Alongside the Regular RST, we have conducted multiple targeted activities each week which has widened awareness of the Mercian brand in each of our
a significant number of individuals on the books who had not attended for extended periods of time; now, our trained deployability is over 90%.
This year, we have experienced considerable transformation.
five County footprints; during the Armistice celebrations, 19 separate parades were undertaken on the 11th November alone. I recently re-read the Mercian Eagle from 2013 which lamented the closure of several Army Reserve Centres; in the last twelve months, the footprint
Aside from reviewing our
manning, throughout the
year, we have successfully
consolidated our pairing with 1 MERCIAN as an Armoured Infantry Battalion and the re- subordination of Brigades to the 1st (Armoured Infantry) Brigade; soon to be the 1st (Strike) Brigade.
By focussing on our competence and relevance, we have continued to be widely employable, particularly within the 3rd (UK) Division, evidenced by our soldiers deploying on the Annual Training Exercise which concentrated on core infantry
and support weapon capability but further afield, participate additionally on Ex WARRIORS CRAFT to BATUS, Ex SAIF SAREEA 3 to Oman and
Ex IRON WOLF 18 to Lithuania. On each occasion our soldiers have been a huge credit to the Mercian Regiment, displaying impressive levels
of professionalism when seamlessly integrated alongside their Regular counterparts – it would be remiss of me not to express my personal gratitude to those we have supported, particularly 1 MERCIAN, for their sincere, inclusive attitude towards the Reserves.
From a training and readiness perspective,
the mantra of ‘Work Hard, Play Hard’ has been welcomed by all our regular attenders. They have
has again expanded, with eleven locations now being occupied, including Worcester, Ellesmere Port, Burton and Kidderminster, despite the
loss of A (Fusilier) Company to 5RRF. Subject to these locations attracting personnel, we hope to re-establish A (Grenadier) Company at the earliest opportunity while expanding elsewhere within
our traditional recruiting heartlands. Successful manning of the locations relies on the initiatives and dynamism of the recruiters and we have been fortunate to have the expertise of our ROSO Capt Miller who, together with our dedicated recruiting staff have enhanced the strong relationships that we have with local Units and with our community. As we recruit, we remain incessantly proud of our Regimental history but firmly looking forward and exploiting every opportunity we can to promote the Mercian family brand.
Guided almost single-handedly by the Battalion Second-in-Command, Maj Bullard, local community engagement has been relentless throughout each of our Regional Brigades.
We have invested in developing partnerships
with Wolverhampton FC, Stoke City FC, West Bromwich Albion FC and Nottingham Forest
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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