Page 23 - MERCIAN Eagle 2011

Exercise Jamaican Eagle by 2Lt James Trehane
Early in February, the Battalion 2IC informed Capt Ryan March (Sp Coy) that 1 MERCIAN were required to send a small Short Term Training Team (STTT) to Jamaica. The deployment would be for three weeks in order to instruct the Jamaican Defence Force (JDF) and the Jamaican Constabulary Force (JCF) in our methods with dealing with hybrid threats from gangs and criminals. Jamaica has for many years suffered from drug gang rivalry that has spilled out into the public domain, affecting innocent bystanders. In fact, Jamaica is
one of the leading sources of cocaine based amphetamines to North America and Western Europe; as such, arrests of key players have been and do continue to be made, with some of those being extradited to the USA for trial.
So in late February, Capt March and Cpl Lee went out to Kingston for a week to see first hand how the JDF and JCF went about business. Training objectives were agreed with the JCF and JDF and on return to Catterick a training programme was devised based on those training objectives, coupled with our qualifications and experience.
Arriving in Kingston on the Friday meant that we could settle in, acclimatise, and make sure everything was set up, ready
to start training on the Sunday. The flight was comfortable, helped by LCpl Vickers northern charm which managed to upgrade
our seats! We didn’t really know what to expect from our students but initial training was complicated by the fact our training audience would change from week to week with Platoon Commanders and Platoon Sergeants regularly changing. I learnt that their officers are trained either at Sandhurst or in the USA, Canada or India; this enables the JDF to take away the practices from each army that best suit the Jamaican circumstances. In reality though, we found that mixing doctrine at the tactical level often confused the soldiers and made finding a common foundation on which to train almost impossible. After the first week we turned our initial plan of teaching some more complex skills into a programme for the remaining fortnight that allowed us to create a decent platform on which to build basic skills. It made me appreciate how repeating all those basic things in training is utterly vital in developing hybrid tactics that we use on operations today.
I think that the JDF and JCF were initially disappointed when we went back to basics for the last fortnight’s training, but they
quickly came round to our way of thinking when they saw how much the students had improved from the Monday to the Friday, and the feedback we got from all ranks within the JCF and JDF were unconditionally positive. The JNCOs from 1 MERCIAN noted a significant improvement in the field craft skills of the students through the hard work and long days of both instructors and training audience.
With working so hard throughout
the week we were fortunate enough at weekends to stay in the three main resorts in Jamaica to unwind, be ‘sociable’ and get into civvies. Ocho Rios, Montego Bay and Negril were all absolutely stunning venues with white sandy beaches, snorkelling and waterfalls to experience and we made the most of what was on offer.
When you combine the word ‘Jamaica’ with the word ‘work’ you would normally expect the word ‘jolly’ to swiftly follow. In our case as much as we were there to teach, we also learnt new skills and being in a different country that has to deal with threats that differ from Afghanistan was a benefit to us all.
Jamaica 2011 Short Term Training Team:
Capt Ryan March
2Lt James Trehane
SSgt John Keiler INT CORPS Cpl Marc Lee
Cpl Phil Hornsby
LCpl AJ Vickers
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