Page 102 - Mercian Eagle 2013

4 MERCIAN. EXERCISE ROMAN STAR
Exercise ROMAN STAR is based in Northern Italy working with the Italian
Army, designed as an exercise to train and assess a Company group in core Infantry skills living and operating in the field. The training area is a dry river bed and ideal
for the Company to exercise on along side the Italians and their vehicles. 32 Tank Regiment were our hosts and allowed us
to live in their camp. We were allocated a Platoon of Italian Armoured Infantry from
11 Regiment Bersaglieri, who also allocated a Platoon of their “Dardo” Infantry Fighting vehicles for our Coy to use.
The morning of 08 June 13 saw the main body from 4 MERCIAN travelling to South Cerney to meet up with the Pl of
2 Royal Irish that would be deploying with us for the exercise. We flew early afternoon, leaving from Brize Norton on a warm June day. Our arrival at Aviano Air Force Base
in Northern Italy, was very different. We landed in a thunder storm and torrential
rain before transferring to coaches for the trip to the camp we would be living in and working from for the next 2 weeks. Finally we were complete in camp with a total of 108 people, the majority from 4 MERCIAN but also, support from 3 MERCIAN, SVHQ and a member of the US Army Reserve on an exchange program.
Week one was designed to allow the platoons to bond and develop with the focus on a return to the low level core
skills. After two days in camp conducting familiarisation on Bowman and the Dardo vehicles, as well as weapon handling test, the Company deployed by truck to the training area and then a patrol into the harbour area. This was to remain their home for the week and a location to conduct training from. This week gave the platoon Commanders the chance
to train their platoons in everything from pairs fire and movement, section attacks
up to Platoon attacks. They also had the opportunity to work with and in the Dardo, finishing with an Armoured Infantry attack with a platoon from both Armies. The finale of the week was an activity day consisting of climbing, OBUA and a casualty extraction
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THE MERCIAN EAGLE