Page 38 - Mercian Eagle 2013

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B (Champion) Company
Major Tom Kelly, Officer Commanding, B (Champion) Company
It is with great pride that I write this article. I joined the Battalion as OC 5 Pl just over a decade ago and now, through sheer good fortune, I have been bestowed the great honour and privilege of commanding my original Company, so without further ado and being conscious not to break with tradition....... I have the pleasure to inform you it has been another busy year for B (Champion) Company.
It is worth noting, although I very much doubt that it has
passed you by, that the
current buzz word in
The previous paragraph implies that
a change in our training direction was required in order to rebalance our capability; this began with a fortuitous opportunity to undertake the role of the Falkland Islands Roulement Infantry Company (FIRIC), Jan 13. The deployment will be dealt with
in a later article and I have no desire to ‘steal any thunder,’ suffice to say, ‘during the Falklands...’ has become a well
used phrase amongst the senior cohort
‘Sandy’ Sandford, a B Coy soldier who was killed, 6 Jun 2007 during OP HERRICK 6. The PONC acted as a reminder to us all that while the Regiment lives on and moves forward we must remember the many friends we have lost along the way and ensure that their memory lives on within the Regimental family.
The success of the PONC sparked
a wave of minor engagements for
the Company. Armed Forces Day and the Buxton Show were the headliners, these being interspersed with contingency based training designed to further refine both our survivability and lethality for whatever lurks ahead. Despite the unrelenting external commitments, it is pleasing to note that
B (Champion) Company have remained
a force to be reckoned with, winning the Battalion March and Shoot and the Falling Plate competitions during the Battalion Skill at Arms Week and most recently the ‘Robin Hood’ March and Shoot during the Carnival.
So now to focus on the future, I write
this article as we hurtle towards our Askari Storm deployment to Kenya. The Company is in fine form, looking forward to the challenge and is well manned with a depth of professional competency across the rank structure. Most reassuring is the quality of the new draft arriving from Catterick. We are fit, eager and ready to raise the MERCIAN banner in East Africa.
These small islands off the coast of South America held a wealth of fantastic opportunities for the RIC and gave
the Company a chance to work within both a joint and an all arms environment.
The initial deployment to Mount Pleasant Camp (MPC) of the newly
of the Coy. It carries with it both an air of theatre and veteran bravado, however most importantly it reflects that the seeds for returning the Company to the aforementioned training focus have already taken root.
FIRIC represented classic field soldiering in austere conditions,
The Presentation of New Colours (PONC), the next major milestone in the calendar, represented an entirely different kind of soldiering. Again, I do not intend to dwell upon the day as many of you will have your own experiences, but I think it poignant to note that as B (Champion) Company made up the majority of Number 4 Guard and took their place on the pristine pitch, many of our number were thinking of LCpl Paul
is the Infantry presence on The Falkland Islands. Our primary mission was to deter any aggression towards the Islands from ‘team Maradona’ and to react to any threats, concurrent to this was the opportunity to conduct training and long range patrols.
the Defence community is ‘contingency’ and our return to it. There has been much written about ‘contingency’ and great investment
There has been much written about ‘contingency’ and great investment
in understanding what
it means for us...
in understanding what
it means for us – I will
summarise, get ‘the
basics’ right upfront,
institutionalise them, practise them and avoid predicating future operations on our experiences in Afghanistan. With this in mind it has been necessary to ensure that our hard won operational experience in the fields of Helmand can be effectively blended with the necessity to ensure we can hunt and defeat any enemy, in any environment, at any time.
The Falkland Islands
After a well-earned Christmas Leave B (Champion) Company returned to prepare for their imminent deployment to The Falkland Islands, in order to take over the role of the Roulement Infantry Company (RIC) under the command of British Forces South Atlantic (BFSA). In short, the RIC
Pte Lovatt and his seal of approval
Ptes Clarke and Coutes during trench clearance
THE MERCIAN EAGLE