Page 58 - Wish Stream Year of 2016

British Forces operating with local police
base to operate from, a patrol presence in the area and reserves who were ready to respond rap- idly to any situation that may arise.
On both TEMPLARS TRIUMPH
and DYNAMIC VICTORY certain shaped. scenarios tested this versatile
capability. On TEMPLARS TRI-
UMPH a patrol was dispatched to reassure the locals of our presence and maintain a footprint on the ground. In the village they found the atmospherics eerily different to those that they had encountered before. Normally busy streets were empty and the few locals present skulked in the shadows rather than mobbing the British Forces as normally happened. The Patrol Com- mander avoided the most suspect streets but was drawn into the danger zone when an IED detonated, killing several civilians. As the patrol secured the area and assessed the situation a secondary blast went off, severely injuring one of the British soldiers. The QRF was immediately launched to assist with the casualty while simul- taneously the platoon on guard was required to deal with an insurgent attack on our patrol base. For the Company Commander it must have seemed as though all hell was breaking loose but the structure of the Company allowed him to deal with the complex, multi-layered threat.
On DYNAMIC VICTORY a piece of intelligence had come through informing the Company
hierarchy that a high level insurgent leader was in the village. A raid on a building was planned and executed and rapidly went pear-shaped. First the wrong building was targeted, then the insurgent leader escaped and the icing on the cake was the abduction of a British soldier. At this point the focus was all directed on
retrieving the unfortunate OCdt Davies who was tragically executed and left for us to nd. To add insult to injury a false piece of intelligence came through, naming the head of police as the insur- gent leader, resulting in a farcical arrest which ruined the friendly cooperation between British security forces and local police. This was the epitome of the VUCA environment, a scenario with numerous complex strands all combining to create a commander’s nightmare. It was a blem- ish on an otherwise successful exercise, but was a key learning point for Imjin Company in how to deal with threats and problems coming at you like bricks on Tetris level 20.
Overall the exercises in the Senior Term have prepared us well for the contemporary operating environment, replicating the complexity that we can expect to nd on the ground and requiring a realistic level of agile thinking and evaluation of volatile issues. They have also taught us how to operate effectively as a company, how best to utilise manpower and that when faced with a problem...always make a decision!
A raid on a building was planned and executed and rapidly went pear-
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