Page 354 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
selection boards. Sue was then assigned to 102 Sqn part of 1 MWD Regt and deployed as the SSM on Op HERRICK 15.
WO2 Sue Roberts was appointed as the first female WO1 (RSM) of the 1 MWD Regt in 2015.
Sue remained in post until 2018 when she was commissioned as a LE Captain and took up the traditional post of Regimental Welfare Officer; a post that was followed by a busy tour as the Regimental Career Management Officer.26
Captain Sue Roberts’s career took her from rider/ groom to commissioned Officer in the space of 23 years. Like so many women of her generation in the RAVC, she was able to choose to work with the Corps’ dogs and horses and progress through the ranks, in direct competition with her male colleagues, in a way that her forebears had been unable to achieve – through no fault of their own.
Equality in the Ranks
The political changes that occurred in the mid-1990s to establish equality between the men and women serving in the Armed Forces had already been embraced by the Corps.
The RAVC’s female soldiers enjoyed the equal opportunities on offer in all aspects of Corps matters, including dog training, leading, and serving in the ranks or as a commissioned officer, on patrol, on Ops in conflict situations, or at ‘home’ in Melton training MWDs. Approximately 40% of RAVC personnel are women.
Although the idea of working with dogs and horses may have been the initial draw for many women entering the Service, once the freedom was granted to progress in their roles, it was grasped wholeheartedly. And with that came a welcome and constant requirement to shoulder more responsibility and advance in their chosen role. For instance, the female RAVC trainers employed on the Canine Detection Training Section had to constantly administer and modify techniques to meet the demands of individual Operations. The selection of AES dogs was as thorough as ever, with MWDs trained to search a wide variety of environmental conditions and locations – with female handlers at their side.
Overseas Operations:
RAVC dog handler LCpl Debbie Caffull was very much at the forefront of high-risk search Operations. LCpl Caffull was the point soldier handling her dog in the search team working ahead of the massive military convoy that escorted
the 220 tonne turbine to Kajaki Dam through territory dominated by the Taliban27 in Afghani- stan’s Helmand Province in 2008.
Female RAVC dog handlers were sent forward to all FOB locations in Helmand Province and worked successfully alongside male infantry units. A very senior officer of 23 SAS quoted to the OC of 104 MWD Support Unit in the summer of 2006: “if all the females were like LCpl MH we would readily employ them in the SAS.” Female RAVC MWD handlers were very much at the forefront of kinetic war fighting Operations.
It was now commonplace to see women on any front line in southern Afghanistan. They were medics and translators or, like Corporal Marianne Hay, dog handlers. Hay was twenty-four years old from Banff in Aberdeenshire, one of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps experts who conducted the explosives and ammunition searches. She had experienced as much of the Paras. ‘When they’re going to exploit compounds [or} tunnels they’ll take me as well,’ she said. ‘I’ll just go in and search it.’ She felt bad about putting her springer spaniel, Leanna, in first, but ‘if there’s something in there, it’s going to be dangerous, and the guys are much more important at the end of the day’.
Marianne Hay did not have to be in Afghanistan. She had volunteered and sometimes she wondered why. She had days ‘when I can’t believe I’m here and I think I’m bloody stupid for coming out.’ But then there were others when ‘I absolutely love it and I’ve even thought about asking to extend and do a winter tour because I think it would be nice and cool.... I like watching all the guys and the bond they’ve got with each other and the laugh they have and all that.’ 28
Female VOs and VTs were part of the Provincial Reconstruction Team Veterinary Engagement Team (PRTVET). Captain Emma Jude RAVC VO and LCpl Stacey Frost while on Op Herrick 15 were very much involved in Capacity Building Operations with Provincial Governments’ livestock and veterinary departments. The aim being to encourage better co-ordination between the provincial departments, central and veterinary departments in Kabul, with paravets operating veterinary clinics in the districts.
Captain Jude spent a great many hours in meetings at Provincial Offices with key Afghanistan personalities and Non-Governmental Organisa- tions (NGOs). Meanwhile, LCpl Frost became the ‘media expert’ producing posters, liaising on radio broadcasts and series focused on animal health and
26 WO1 (RSM) Sue Roberts RAVC, oral testimony taken on 20th June 2016 at 1st MWD Regt at North Luffenham. 27 Ex RAVC WO1 (Chief Trainer), Mr Frank C Holmes oral testimony taken on 18th October 2020.
28 Narrative taken from pages 215 and 216, “3 PARA: Return to Afghanistan - Ground Truth” by Patrick Bishop.
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