Page 9 - 2012 AMA Summer

With the outline in place, and the initial squad selected, a planning team was appointed to lead each of the eight staff functions and get the expedition off the ground (J1 to J8 in good military fash- ion!). This was an enormous effort by all involved especially as the initial training squad was very large so that a significant number of reserves could be held. All of this work required significant coordina- tion and I found myself being permanently seconded for 12 months to work for the expedition leader, Lt Col Paul Edwards, but at least I was guaranteed a place on the expedition! By the time the expedi- tion deployed several personalities from within the planning team, and many more within the wider training squad, had been forced to abandon their dreams and hand over to someone else, either because of deployments, work commitments or personal reasons. After the countless hours of diligent preparation and training that each of these individuals had committed the whole team really felt their disappointment. Without their efforts the expedition would not
have been successful. Disaster for one, is of course, an opportunity for others, and inevitably some people got a short notice call for- ward to deploy.
The training programme for BSAE 2012 was comprehensive. Man- aged by Flt Lt Steve Riley the expedition members were commit- ted to train for around one weekend per month over a two year period. The squad gathered for specific expedition skills training on these weekends but many were also required to conduct further individual training through courses at the type 4 centres. The train- ing package included alpine skills, ski-touring, rock climbing and ice climbing, small boat training, pulk management, rescue skills (especially crevasse rescue with pulks!), comms training and first aid. On top of this the squad deployed for two weeks of training on JSAM in 2010 and 2011 as well as a a full Mission Rehearsal in La Grave, France in the November before deployment. During the
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