Page 31 - Bugle Issue 20 Autumn 2022

The Officers’ Mess held a paintings evening to widen our understanding of our rich heritage and history, this paired with wine and food from the regions in the paintings made for an educational evening
As is tradition, this article will start by describing what a busy year we have had so far – and indeed it has been busy! While our area of operations has changed greatly in the last two years, our current operational commitments have ensured a constant and reliable cycle of new Mess members from The Rifles and The Royal Gurkha Rifles.
As the battalion’s operational endeavours in the Middle East continue to develop, so too does the Officers’ Mess UNDERSTAND of the region’s wine appellations. The Beqaa Valley wines from Lebanon have become a Mess favourite. We recently held a low-key Mess event where we discussed the history behind
The Serjeants’ Mess has been eerily quiet recently with most of the Battalion either deployed or on exercise. However, we have still managed to hold some great events. On 2nd April, we held our inaugural ‘Last Known RV Dinner Night’ – a dinner focussed on bringing veterans back to the Battalion. The Mess gave our veterans an insight into how we are developing as The Ranger Regiment and bringing them up to speed with current operations and commitments. Naturally
we had a few drinks and a full regimental dinner afterwards! Thanks are owed to CSjt Pearson for planning the event, which was a great success. We are planning to run the next dinner in this series in the New Year.
some of our most iconic and famous paintings, such as Kidney Ridge and Fording the Alma. To add depth to the experience, we paired each painting with food and wine from the region; we have a strong sense of our identity and organising events to maintain knowledge of our heritage is important to us.
Recently we have said goodbye to Lt
Col Jim Allen and welcomed in Lt Col Mike Devenish, both huge supporters of an active Mess. Another heavy hitter in the Mess, ‘Chief Bops’ Josh Lee, has now handed over as
the Operations Officer by James Blakemore. Alongside the usual churn of British Officers,
The Mess also had the privilege to host the Operation HERRICK 11 dinner night led by Major Pat Hyde MC, a former RSM of the Battalion. This event was a chance for A Company 4 RIFLES to get the Company back together
after 10 years! We relish every opportunity to positively engage with our veteran community in familiar surroundings and acknowledge how much we collectively owe them.
We now sadly have to say our goodbyes
to CSjt Mark Lunn MC, CSjt Ben Convery and Sjt Lorne Stonehill. They leave the Battalion having all served over 20 years! To mark this occasion, we held a mess BBQ. We thanked them all for their friendship, commitment and for being such a huge part of Battalion life. We
we now have a healthy addition of US
Officers and Warrant Officers, who we have unsurprisingly become very attached to. ‘Chief’ Ryan Valdez recently left us, although his country music remains, and it can be heard playing loudly in the Mess most evenings. The US influence has even extended to the theme of our first summer ball since 2019, with the overwhelming majority voting for theme of ‘Country and Western.’
Capt Luke Kemp
4 RANGER
OFFICERS’ MESS MATTERS
we have a strong sense of our identity
The Mess gave our veterans an insight into how we are developing
wish them and their families all the very best for the future.
The Mess is now looking forward to our summer function, which is going to be an Ibiza themed party in the garden. Let’s hope the hot weather continues!
WO2 CSM Glen Easterbrook. PMC.
RIFLES The Bugle 31
SERJEANTS’ MESS MATTERS