Page 28 - The KRH Year of 2023 (CREST Sharing)

28 The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars
Command Troop
Not Napoleon’s Old Guard, nor yet Ragnar Lodbrok’s Huscarls, nor Alexander’s Companions, nor Achilles’ Myrmidons were as fine a group of soldiers as the King’s Royal Hussars have in Command Troop. From the snowy forests of Estonia to the plains of Wessex to the virtual hellscape of CATT Command Troop have dominated all, conquering physical reality and spectrums both electronic and autistic.
It has been a year characterised by the strong desire to expand the skill set and utility of the Troop, with experiments in elec- tronic warfare being conducted alongside detailed close-quar- ter battle and night-fighting training, alongside maintaining the total mastery of our vehicles and communications equip- ment. The life of the Command Trooper is one of extremes. Pitching from the highs of our night-time dismounted raids on Ex IRON CYCLONE to the lows of fulfilling the bizarre and often inexplicable demands of the Staff Officer. A good exam- ple of the latter was the order given to LCpl Mohammedi to shovel fresh cold snow into a planning tent in Estonia so that the warm fug of BGHQ’s stray brainwaves wouldn’t melt the stuff already on the ground and lead to wet feet.
The tour of Estonia was an important experience for Command Troop – they are always the unsung heroes of the Regiment. If the Officers and Seniors of BGHQ are the brains of the Regiment, Command Troop are the skull and spine that supports it. Taking the analogy too far, without Command Troop all you have is a pool of useless biological mush. The Regiment’s sig- nificant successes in Estonia were enabled by SSgt (now WO2) Mark Lees and Captain Nathan Turner working in conjunction with RSWO John Harris, together as a team they redefined the ways in which the Troop operates in extreme cold weather conditions and the ever-present complexity of multi-national competition (ed. cooperation, surely?)
That team was to depart after the end of the tour. The new regime was established, with total mastery of the electronic spectrum ensured by the TransPennine partnership of RSWO Alan “Jerry” Stringer and BSM SSgt Liam “Geordie” Fawcett, whilst the tank park fell under the tender loving care of Sgt Ryan Kingston as Command Troop Sgt. This transition was enabled by the excellent cohort of JNCOs that have been the continuity in the Troop. Cpls Wakefield, Whitfield, Tolfrey, Elliott, Downton and Sikdar remain the guiding personalities of the gang and go about every task that is asked of them with their characteristic manner of modest competence. This is, of course, not to say that they are above providing immediate
“Rundy” - Cpls Sikdar and Downton await (successful) board results
feedback in the form of a shrug and a sigh before going to enact some of the RSO’s more confusing requests. They are a group of NCOs who work extremely hard and have fostered within the Troop a culture of camaraderie and looking out for one another that permeates throughout the organisation.
As part of Ex IRON CYCLONE, the crews of Regimental Headquarters had differing results on ranges. Whilst Ricky Hatton did his best to destroy the breach blocks of the CO’s tank Cpl “Cat Eater” Johnson, on a reshow after a mishap on the crew commanders’ course, decided to prove his expertise by destroying every target on the range first time with an HPS on every shoot, all whilst doing the Times cryptic crossword in between bounds and much to the annoyance of the Squadron Leaders who were constantly asking for updates on 0D’s per- formance. Concurrently on A Squadron’s range, the outgoing Regimental 2IC’s crew was bouncing through tanks, chain
“Hussar!”
Step-up take control