Page 31 - MERCIAN Eagle 2015

9 Platoon
The last 12 months have seen the platoon fully ensconced in the incredibly busy and fast-moving battalion conversion from light-role to armour. The platoon is in a very healthy state, with nearly all men moving from having never touched a Warrior, to becoming fully qualified as a Warrior driver, gunner, commander or a combination!
Despite the extremely busy nature of
our conversion to armour, the soldiers of
9 Platoon have still found time to excel
in extra activities at Battalion and Army level. Private Kent spent the most of last November and December on Exercise FROSTED BLADE, an Army level skiing competition in which he secured a haul of seven medals for the regiment. Private Toth, as well as qualifying as a Warrior Gunner found time to continually push himself above and beyond the calling of a Private soldier, by completing a JNCO cadre, volunteering as a rifleman on the gruelling Exercise CAMBRIAN PATROL. He was
also part of the winning battalion team for the Coltman Stretcher Race; a tough test
of endurance where teams raced with a stretcher over the Malvern Hills.
Part of the build-up to BATUS saw the Platoon being deployed to Castlemartin ranges in Pembrokeshire to complete
an LFTT package, as well as the Annual Crew Tests; the culmination of range
work for our newly qualified commanders, gunners and drivers which resulted in the platoon qualifying eight gunners and eight commanders for BATUS. Private Owen was noted for his strong performance as a fire team commander during the LFTT phase, setting the example for high quality potential JNCO’s in the company.
BATUS, the focus for the training
year tested us all as we had hoped and expected. From the first day, coaxing the tired vehicles to life, to the successful handover of the platoon fleet at the end of the exercise, the platoon has performed magnificently. Special mention must be
A C Company soldier moving forward to an enemy position in Canada
Platoon Commander Platoon Sergeant WR Sergeant
Lieutenant R Courtney Sergeant Cornbill Sergeant Kolodynski
made of the Warrior Sergeant who ensured all 4 Platoon warriors remained fighting
fit on the exercise
for virtually its entire
a village, the platoon has more than upheld the armoured infantry standards and levels
of professionalism of its forebears. Whilst
in routine in the silent hours, watching a minefield on the live fire delay battle, with the northern lights cascading across the the platoon can reflect
duration – a genuinely
impressive feat. This
level of reliability
enabled us to be at
the tip of the spear.
Whether it was Corporal
Doyle’s Warrior escorting the bridge layer to the crossing site, or Lance Corporal Shipman’s wagon effecting the break in to
This level of reliability enabled us to be at the tip of the spear.
sky as a backdrop, warmly on a job well done.
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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