Page 50 - The Cormorant Issue 14

CJEX – Rome 2011
By Wg Cdr Chris Mullen
An intrepid group of ACSC travellers set off for what resulted in an exciting and informative exercise in Rome, as part of CJEX, on Tuesday, 3 May 2011, which also proved to be a fantastic opportu- nity to work with our EU colleagues in one of the most spectacular settings in the world. Unusually, the travel to Rome passed uneventfully; everyone remem- bered their passports and all made the departure gate on time. Indeed, the only occurrence worth noting was Sqn Ldr Phil Cane’s comment of “...what Div are they in?” after the retired sportsmen
Tim Henman and Lee
Dixon walked past a couple of our group in the departure lounge. He has never been one for
popular sport!
In true ‘location, location, location’ style, the hotel in Rome could not have been better situated being just a three-minute walk from the Vatican city; however, with benefits, there are always costs and the rooms could best be described as ‘com- pact’ – we were going to be closer to our roommates than we had ever envisaged! It was clear that the hotel management was aware of these potential concerns and had provided a free bottle of Pro- secco in order to relax their UK guests.
The exercise began in earnest on Wednesday morning, involving numer- ous coffee-breaks which accounted for almost two-thirds of the programme. This would have been most welcome had we not had to squeeze ourselves into our Service Dress uniforms on a rather warm,
spring day. The purpose of our formal dress was the flag ceremony, which marked the official beginning of the
exercise, where the Italian two-star gen- eral arrived to his own tune, played by a military band, and proceeded to march
around the gathered throng saluting apparently at random. It was probably fortunate that DACSC was not present as the future protocol for the Cormo- rant Hall Lecture Theatre may have changed forthwith as a result!
Once the official duties had been completed and we had peeled our jackets off before passing out, brief- ings were provided to initiate the planning process. Here, the CJEX experience appears to have dif-
fered in Italy compared to the remaining locations, as the Italian staff had elected to nominate two syndicates as low- and no-tech. This presented some conster- nation to certain delegations, as it would limit their ability to use the previous year’s solution to the exercise which they had brought pre-loaded on their laptops and it did come as a shock to some when mem-
bers of the UK contingent suggested using the planning cycle to derive a suitable solution.
The remainder of the exercise high- lighted a number of lessons from the stereotypical differences in work- practices, to the more important dif- ficulties that planning a multi-national
stabilisation operation would present. Our French and Italian colleagues were able to promote the use of Gen- darmerie forces, especially in the field
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