Page 10 - The Light Dragoon 2024

RHQ and Command Troop used the lull in battle to deploy to Catterick Training Area for a mini–Combined Arms Staff Trainer (CAST). A great way to bed in the new team, with some low-level reps and sets, ahead of operations in the autumn. The junior officers, meanwhile, were kept busy by Captain Matt Riall prepping a magnificent summer ball, themed ‘The fall of the Berlin wall’. Guests were treated to a self-built Berlin-themed stage set, which included checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg gate, and the Kit Kat Club.
The German theme stuck, and the regiment deployed two weeks later to Sennelager. Mounted drills and manoeuvres were on the menu in the Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (CATT). The squadrons rolled across the virtual plains, competed in a Princess of Wales Cup, celebrated the Libori festival in downtown Paderborn, and hosted 38 members of the 4th Light Brigade Combat Team for a study day.
Returning the favour, one of our 4th Brigade brethren, the Royal Gurkha Rifles gener-
ously invited a team of Light Dragoons to participate in Exercise SUNDA PATROL. A jungle patrol competition in the style of the Cambrian Patrol. Corporal Hampson and five likely lads, who were mostly junior soldiers from the Northeast, made their way to the Far East. The Light Dragoons were the only cavalry team of the fourteen that entered. They emerged from under the canopy filthy and putrid but smiling. A bronze medal was secured for their war chests.
No sooner had the plane touched down from Brunei than wheels had gone up to take an LD team to Jordan. Sixteen members of the regiment, capably overseen by A Sqn Leader and regimental AT guru, Major Mackey, conducted a nine-day trek navigating from the Dana Biosphere through the ancient city of Petra and into Wadi Rum. Walking 13-25 km a day, in heat up to 30°C, the team worked closely with the Jordanian armed forces, with whom they built a strong bond.
Bonds of friendship remained a focus for the latter months of the year. Lieutenants Olly Griffiths and Tom Greaves stole away to sea, on board HMS Northumberland, for a weekend celebrating Trafalgar night and learning about life aboard a Type 23 frigate. Lieutenant Ferguson linked up with ex-Light Dragoon, Josh Osbourne, to keep the deer population in check at Kinloch Hourn, in Scotland. The five LD bagged thirteen deer and two goats, and LCpl Keaton remarked it was the best £250 he had ever spent. Captain Ellis led a team to Spain for a mounted reconnaissance exchange, hosted by Farnesio 12, a Spanish light cavalry regiment based in Valladolid. They even managed a trip to Sahagun for an afternoon of regimental nostalgia.
Whilst B Squadron troops were visiting old battle honours, A Squadron deployed a troop to Kenya accruing new ones. Lieutenant Lennon and Sergeant Rowson deployed with their troop on Exercise HARAKA STORM, attached to the Grenadier Guards. The troops were put through their paces, exposed to the climatic
The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
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