Page 28 - QDG Volume 9 No. 2 2021

26 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Dogging – not all glamour One day they’d be allowed inside the tent
Finally, a windscreen
Bemowo Piskie ranges
Cassino Tp
The Second Half of Tour
As the last Journal went to press, Cassino Troop, the regular-reserve hybrid Squadron group, deployed to Poland over winter 2020/21 as part of NATO’s Enhanced Forward
focus on gaining as many qualifications for the soldiers in theatre as possible. Sgt Tom Biddlestone RY, Sgt Glyn Williams and Sgt ‘Mitch’ Mitchell RA led an excellent and highly demanding
student was awarded to Tpr ‘HJ’ Hell- yar-Jones QDG and Cfn Jodie Culley REME. The unglamorous parade in the US Welfare tent courtesy of COVID-19 and extreme cold weather will perhaps, sadly, be less memorable to those who passed.
During the PNCO Cadre (or LCpl ALDP MT as it is now known) we were very grateful for our first visit of the tour from the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Poland Her Excellency Anna Clunes. The Ambassador was treated to an exciting drive through the snow between stands led by the SSM, WO2 Navunisaravi (time on recce was definitely not wasted!); exceptional food courtesy of Sgt Hodgson RLC; a set of static stands in our hangar demonstrating our capability, where she tested out the commander’s seat of a Jackal, upon which a Ferrero Rocher had been left by one of the enthusiastic Troopers; and a brief from the OC and US Battlegroup commander (less exciting perhaps).
In early March Cassino Troop deliv- ered a combined arms live fire exercise (CALFEX). This had been months in the
Presence. The coldest winter in a generation in Poland and a COVID-19 outbreak at the Bemowo Piskie camp made for a challenging second half of the tour.
The 16 students (from 30)
who passed should be very proud of their achievements
(for the instructors and students) fortnight of range qualifications in sub-zero temperatures working all hours. The end result was 40 students awarded their SA-M and SA-E range qual- ifications, who will now add exponential value to all their units. Lt Joe Wightman RY and Sgt Matt Henley RY ran a superb PNCO Cadre in the extreme cold weather pushing students to the limit. The 16 students (from 30) who passed should be very proud of their achieve- ments. They will, I have no
With temperatures below
-20°C for the month of
January and struggling to
get above -10°C until early
March along with the record
low wind chill reported as
-56°C on one particularly
cold night range, the Troop’s
soldiers did superbly well
to continue activity both
mounted and dismounted.
Through good drills, kit and manage- ment we continued to operate when certain allies didn’t, proving the British soldiers’ capability in all weather. January and February were training heavy with a
doubt, remember the course for the rest of their lives. In a rare moment of inde- cision Lt Joe Wightman, while awarding top student, concluded that he could not split the top students and so a joint top