Page 99 - RSDG Year of 2021 CREST

Sergeant Major noticed that one troop leader was miss- ing something. “Sir - where’s your weapon system?” There was but the briefest of pauses, before the troop leader produced a ballpoint pen from his pocket and presented it to the Sergeant Major. “I’m sure you can write some pointed letters with that thing,” was the SSM’s unexpected compliment. That he may have then added something nondescript about pens being stabbed into eye sockets should not detract from this worthy praise.
04/11/21 – Escalation Measures. The Distinguished Visitors Day at the end of the exercise saw a staged repeat of Mission 3 - a battlegroup strike on the doomed OPFOR of C Squadron - for numerous high-profile fig- ures including the UK’s Secretary of State for Defence. Pyrotechnics and blank ammunition were used in abundance. Rehearsals were extensive and, admittedly, patience began to wear thin by the end of a full day in the sun. After the umpteenth dry run-through, one of the Royal Irish platoon commanders fired up on the net, “Zero-Alpha, is the next run-through live?” There was a prolonged silence, before someone else chimed in. “I think at most it would be blank mate.” A good thing too. It would have been a great shame had C Squadron not made it back.
05/11/21 – Geometry. Occasionally a troop would find itself going down to three wagons, meaning that amend- ments to the desert box - a troop forming a square with their vehicles, inside which they live until they move again - were necessary. Approaching their destination, one troop was instructed to “go firm 50m southwest of SHQ and form a dessert triangle”. It sounded like an altogether sweeter proposal than what it turned out to be.
06/11/21 – Say Seen When Seen. Live fire ranges were conducted towards the end of the exercise, which saw troops advance over 6km, finding and destroying thin plywood mock-ups of enemy vehicles. It made for a rewarding, but long, day. With the sun dropping low in the sky, the last troop to go down managed to bypass the final lot of targetry altogether. This was commented on by the Range Conducting Officer upon their return to the assembly area. “I would suggest,” the troop leader responded, “that I have proved that when it comes to our own counter-surveillance, we must, at all costs, compel our adversaries to fight us in two dimensions.” Unfortunately, this fell rather flat on the RCO.
EAGLE AND CARBINE 105
Captain TA Walpole
The wind whipped the sand around the Squadron Sergeant Major as he gazed beyond the horizon. The setting sun cast final, foreboding shadows across the wadi. As Mr Mitchell turned to Capt Dzwig you could almost hear the faint, haunting strings from the 1962 epic, Lawrence
of Arabia. The Sergeant Major gravely removed his keffiyeh from his
face and muttered,
“roll mats are for new guys”. Then, pilfered cardboard
under his arm, he settled down for the night. Lights flickered around the wooden village, as C Squadron completed the last of their battle preparations, for dawn would bring the defence of Objective SILVER.
Four weeks earlier, C Squadron, accompanied by a platoon from 1 LANCS, departed Brize Norton to provide the OPFOR for Ex KHANJAR OMAN, a Defence Engagement battle- group training exercise based out of Duqm. As B Squadron,
Ex KHANJAR OMAN – OPFOR