Page 36 - The Light Dragoon 2024

So, 2023 into early 2024 has been an incredibly long period within this office and no doubt the remainder of the
Regiment, but in the same breath it has gone by in the blink of an eye. The Regiment has been at full throttle since finishing INTERFLEX, going on to a Squadron exercise in Kenya, and the remainder of the Regiment off to Estonia and then full on into pre deployment training, culminating in the deployment on Op PYSMA.
Luckily for the circa 340 soldiers of the Regiment (never include the Officers) the reporting timelines and responsibility has remained flawless! Ok, ok, a little lie from me and we’ll come back to those pesky officers and the restructuring of the Regiment for the PYSMA deployment, with people moving Sqns without any PiD moves created or the RCMO department informed! Leading to the relentless sloping shoulders of responsibility and unwill- ingness to write reports! Sounds harsh, maybe so, but in all honesty, it has been a difficult year for staying on top of reporting on our soldiers, especially when there is such an incredible depth of talent within the Light Dragoons across the junior ranks and into the SNCO cohort.
So, to add some context and not make people think the RCMO is throwing people under the bus, I’m just highlighting that due to the pressures put onto the entire CoC with seemingly never-ending tasks, deployments and required movement of personnel, it has created an extra layer of work and communication to ensure the talent of the Light Dragoon soldiers is recognised and ultimately rewarded.
Just to add to the stress levels throughout 2023, the department saw the departure of the oracle himself, Sgt Jonny Allen! He moved into the Welfare Office and was replaced with the extremely capable, diligent and forward-looking SSgt Spurgeon. After 4+ years, it was time for Sgt Allen to move on, but with an absolute fountain of knowledge passed onto SSgt Spurgeon, the department remains in good hands.
Another great year for promotions which has seen 2023 and early 2024 proving to be another incredibly successful year for promotion across the ranks within the Light Dragoons. It is certainly proving highly competitive and bringing out the best of our soldiers.
Admittedly, I have had conversations across the ranks with those soldiers disap- pointed not to be selected for promotion and I completely feel for everyone’s disap- pointment. However, I try to appease and reassure them that their time will come if they continue to maintain the high standards they clearly set and comfort them with the fact that the competition is extremely healthy and helps create a very strong team across all ranks within the regiment.
Unfortunately, there have been no visits externally from the RCMO department, but we have tried to ensure we keep in touch where needed with our LDs at ERE, which helped secure a few of the reserve promotions over the year, so not too bad.
The Light Dragoons are extremely popular amongst Pte/Gnr/Sig/any other prefix within the remainder of the Army with a steady stream of transfer requests coming across my desk. Some clear and obvious strong young soldiers wishing to better themselves and embrace the challenge of a front line, fast paced unit. Despite holding 10 of our PiDs empty for the ‘carrot-dangling’ offer to the reserves (no bites in over 12 months!), we are sat at a healthy 133 Tprs for an establishment of 112 (119%) with another 4 transferees expected in April 2024 and another 4 from ITT. This is creating an incredibly compet- itive workforce and helps to maintain the quality being chosen for promotion.
What we have been doing very successfully for our soldiers is get more of them away at ERE, selling the Light Dragoons well, in particular having 3 of our Cpls (all Crew Commanders) chosen to be Section Cpls at ITC in Catterick. This was put out across the entirety of the RAC and such was the strength of the LD candidates, they placed 1, 2 and 3 on the board! APC praised us for the quality of the Cpls being put forward, but that is more down to the individuals and the strength of depth amongst their cohort.
Naturally we have some outflow and unfortunately we cannot stop people from giving their NTT, but we can do our best to ensure we retain as many as possible and with the latest figures (March 2024) being at less than 5%, we are ensuring we remain one of the lowest for NTT in the Brigade and have recently been asked by Brigade for what we do in helping retain and change our soldiers minds. Personally,
I speak to individuals with a relaxed, open and honest approach, treating them as an equal. Honesty has been found to be the biggest appeal with individuals, paying heed to their choices, but adding a little bit of reality, albeit, delivered in a respectful way. It seems to have helped and our department will continue with honest and considerate conversations.
So, coming towards the end of this article, I accept it has been rather bland and has stuck to facts and figures regarding reporting and promotions. There is always a time and a place to add humour and move away from what our core role is, but for this I just wanted to show off the numbers for those that successfully promoted and continue to perform highly within the Light Dragoon brand.
I also wanted to use this opportunity to thank everyone within the Light Dragoons for their friendship, guidance, counsel and humour since my arrival in September 2022, as I will be leaving for pastures new in June 2024 as the OC of the Equine Training Squadron at the Defence Animal Training Regiment in Melton Mowbray (as if I need more excuses to eat the pies!). It has been an honour to serve with you at RD and I have met some truly wonderful people, a part of me will not want to leave. The future of the Light Dragoons is clearly strong with some incredible SNCOs and solid depth at JNCO to keep the quality going. I wish all of you great success, hope you achieve your aims and enjoy future successes. All that is left for me to do is pour a whiskey, light a cigar and raise the glass to all Light Dragoons. Thank you.
Capt. Matt Chamberlain RDG
The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
Regimental Careers Management Office
SSgt Spurgeon putting on a brave face after realising he has 150 Tpr/Pte/Cfn reports to build!
Tpr – LCpl - 26
LCpl – Cpl - 8
Cpl – Sgt – 9, Astwood, Aitken, Black, Oughtred, Paylor, Du Plessis, Biggins, Julien, Newton (includes reserve promotions) Sgt – SSgt – 6, Thurtle, Jeffries, Cribbin, Richardson, Kenney, Chard, Hodson (includes reserve promotions)
SSgt – WO2 – 4, Purvis, Garsrud, Russell, Tynan
LE Commissioning – 2, Pennicott, Tran (ASM)
34