Page 56 - The Wish Stream Year of 2022 CREST

Exercise TEMPLER’S TRIUMPH
Ex TEMPLER’S TRIUMPH is a week-long exercise completed in Senior Term, and is known throughout Sandhurst folklore as one
of the most infamous blood pumping exercises completed on the 44-week course. Split into two phases, the first phase saw Blenheim Company acting as the military NATO presence, and Inker- man Company (my own company) acting as the civilian population for the military forces. In the second phase, which rotated after three days, the two companies switched roles.
In each phase, there were a number of serials performed with interactions between the mili- tary forces and civilian population. As the NATO force, you are responsible for stabilising the area, neutralising potential insurgent threat, and de- escalating any tensions that can arise amongst local nationals, and with NATO. As tensions rose in each phase, so did the feeling of anger by the civilian populations, allowing the OCdts in the CIVPOP phase to begin by aggressively
confronting patrols, hurling abuse and all things floury, and then peaking to full-scale riots, unar- guably the highlight of the exercise. Because who doesn’t want to give their opposing com- pany a push around and an egg to the face?
The primary objective of Ex TEMPLER’S TRI- UMPH, when in role as military forces, is to develop expertise and skills operating in urban environments and learn to work alongside and maintain relationships with civilian populations. It is imperative on the exercise, and in contem- porary conflicts, to gauge the emotional reaction of local nationals in response to our operations. This allowed us to evaluate what we were doing and also allowed us to build on our human terrain analysis and feed into the intelligence cycle as the Military NATO Forces. Furthermore, another key objective was to keep going after defeat and always maintaining professionalism and morale. This was as such during major aggression seri- als, even when we had been pushed back into
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