Page 72 - RADC Bulletin 2018

BFG Regional Team
Building Day
Capt Varinder Singh Bassi RADC
An unexpectedly balmy day in October made fine weather for the BFG regional team building day.
We were visiting 23 Amphibian Troop, Minden, to have a demonstration of the
M3 amphibious rigs housed there. Having hosted the Secretary of State for Defence the previous week for a similar presentation, we eagerly anticipated what they had planned for us.
We descended en masse to the HQ where we were given a brief history of the unit before being whisked down to the training area on the banks of the River Weser.
It was here that we came up close and
personal with the impressive M3. The
rigs are designed to ferry tanks and other vehicles across bodies of water thereby increasing mobility in the battlefield. On roads the M3 travels on four wheels. It
is driven into the water for amphibious operation, for which it deploys two large aluminium pontoons, unfolding them along the length of its hull.
Following the obligatory safety brief we rather ungraciously donned our life jackets. I was then left aghast as they propositioned Captain Watson and I drive the £1.2 million vehicles into the water. We weren’t about to turn down that offer and got straight behind the wheel.
70 RADC BULLETIN 2018
OVERSEAS ASSIGNMENTS