Page 70 - Mercian Eagle 2016

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4 MERCIAN Mortars/Manchester Airport Armistice Service/Nov 15
B (Malta) Coy Coltman Team/Jun16
PJNCO cadre, under the watchful eye of Cpl Trustcott, who as cadre medic kept most of the cadre on the road. The old and bold of WO2s Buckley and Ward returned largely to their youth as enemy for the patrol cadre, coming back with tales
of spooky noises and bears in the night (most likely WO2 Ward’s horrific snoring). The Company played a significant part in continued paired activity with 2 MERCIAN, a large proportion of the mortars platoon deployed to Kenya on Ex ASKARI STORM, some for the full six weeks as well as Cpl Tom Wood with the 4 MERCIAN Rifle Coy. The level of pairing activity was such that the 4 MERCIAN mortars personnel who deployed provided a complete mortars section and were fully integrated with their
2 MERCIAN peers to great praise and success from all who took part. November gave us the chance to pay our respects to those who went before us, not only at the Armistice day parades in Stockport and Widnes but this year also at the Manchester Airport commemorations, under the
wings of a Concorde. The Christmas Ferozeshah weekend saw the majority of
The new year saw the Company victorious in the inter-company patrols competition...
the aforementioned promotions followed by an opportunity to celebrate them with a well-earned ‘social’. CSgt Keeble excelled himself with the loudest non pyrotechnic based alarm call I have experienced in revenge for the CSMs singing and snoring. The new year saw the Company victorious in the inter-company patrols competition, something we followed up with victory in the G4 competition. The Coltman stretcher race didn’t go quite as planned but those who took part found it rewarding. More successful was Pte Kershaw who as a member of the Bn Cycling team travelled to Cyprus and excelled in the mountains.
B Company has continued to support operations with WO2 Ward, and Ptes
Oldham, Evans, King and Pollock set
to deploy to Cyprus on Op TOSCA with the 4 LANCS BG. As well as support to the ongoing training commitment to the STTT preparing the UPDF for deployment to Somalia seeing five members of
the Company deploy at Easter.
Professionally a number of the Company have moved onto the Regular Forces, Pte Wright and Knowles, both of the Mortars platoon, joined the Royal Marines and Light Dragoons respectively. We were pleased to hear that Paddy Highet who left us last year has been successfully commissioned into the Royal Signals, we look forward to his impact on Army communications!
Again this has been a successful period for B Company; it has been an exciting period with varied and challenging training and a number of individuals deploying
in support to operations and Army level training. There is more to come for next year with further adventure training planned and some new integrated training on the horizon. Recruiting is growing and we all know that the future is in our hands.
STAND FIRM STRIKE HARD
C (Kohima) Company
Crich – Regimental Pilgrimage Major Rob Spalton, OC C Coy, 4 MERCIAN
Having joined the Mercians in January this year after 16 years on the dark side of the force with the Rifles, Crich was a strange new word and indeed a strange new
world for me. The concept of a Regimental monument and a Regimental pilgrimage was similarly alien. Given that the Rifles took “fight light” to such an extreme that there is no such thing as Regimental Colours, having several tonnes of stone on a Derbyshire hillside to deal with was an interesting venture.
Presumably it should be regarded as a great honour for the new boy to have
responsibility for this annual event, but the reality appears to be more a case of several much wiser and more experienced Officers Commanding dodging that particular
bullet. My first lessons in preparation came when 2IC C Company, Capt Lloyd Watts pointed out that my continued reference to my “cross belt” was quite telling and that I needed to find myself a Sam Browne and a proper hat.
From the Company perspective, preparation started a long time in advance with Capt Jim Stewart and CSgt Ian Brown leading the recce of the site. The rest of the
preparation was based around the murky world of G4, ordering an Army’s worth
of tents and a gesture at planning with
a Company war game and rehearsal.
The weekend itself started with more of the same. Tents – this time with added wind and rain! C Company put in a valiant effort at fixing tents, and planning car parking in fairly Biblical conditions, ably supported by volunteers from across the Battalion, most notably the Mortar Platoon under CSgt Kit Harrison whose team seemed to fulfil the traditional role of Mortarmen everywhere
by maintaining the morale of the rest of the
THE MERCIAN EAGLE