Page 10 - RSDG Year of 2022 CREST

8 EAGLE AND CARBINE
our freight was on its way, and Putin decided to invade the Ukraine. With the RAF in chaos, our air-bridge collapsed, and the Squadron rerouted to a less glamorous coast for training – Kircudbright and Galloway Forest. Undeterred (even by Rangers’ loss in the Europa League final whilst on exercise), morale rebounded, and excellent low-level training ensued. Sgts Stevens and Williams produced a memorable dismounted firing package, followed by troop and squadron level recce activity prior to recovery to Leuchars.
During this period, we bid farewell to several mainstays of the Squadron. In addition to Sgt Randles (our long- suffering Engineer Sgt) departing for CRTC, every senior role in SHQ changed hands. First to jump ship was Capt Jim MacLachlan. Defying the young officer temptation to cut and run for finance, he headed for the wild – first C Squadron and then Africa. Who knows when/where/if he will ever be seen again? Then SSM ‘Mel’ Messenger departed, albeit maintaining a prominent place in our hearts and inboxes as RQMS(T). Finally, Maj Tim Barker handed over the reins of the Squadron as OC. The entire Squadron is grateful to both outgoing SSM and OC for their tireless and careful stewardship through a turbulent and difficult COVID-disrupted period. In their place, Capt Luke Lambert (too pretty to be effective) stepped up from troop leader, WO2 Ah-Sing (a little bit of Pacific) returned from CRTC, and Maj Henry Foster (full of ‘bright’ ideas to be carefully ‘managed’ by the SSM) escaped from Army HQ to take command.
Changes complete and ORBAT set, we launched into Ex WESSEX EAGLE and mission-specific training (MST) for Op NEWCOMBE in Mali. For us, this first involved a three-week deployment to the glorious sand and sunshine of Braunton Burrows, a stint on Salisbury Plain, and a mounted firing package in Castlemartin. We learned much during this period: the perfect ‘failed ascent’ of a sand dune, as demon- strated by Cpl Gaughan, again, and again, and again; that Tpr Low is more effective than enemy action when it comes to destroying Kevlar helmets; and that pollen is Cpl Hynds’ kryptonite – it’s impossible to find the enemy when practically blind with hayfever. However, that said, we emerged in good shape. Cpl Williams (REME) and Tpr Stevenson 12 scored 100% Level 6 at annual crew test to take ‘top gun’, whilst Mr Baker-Cresswell’s close target reconnaissance patrol on the crew command/troop leader course managed to find only four of 23 A Squadron vehicles hidden in Imber Village. Whether this was due to our cam and concealment or his evidently nascent recce skillset – the jury is still out.
The Op NEWCOMBE MST process is covered in more detail by Luke Lambert elsewhere in this journal. Suffice it to say here, therefore, that we reached a peak performance of which every member of A Squadron can be justifiably proud. MST was a gruelling and attritional process, involving many weeks away from homes and loved ones – we were tested to the fullest. Some elements were better than others (a static twenty-vehicle, bumper-to-bumper gun line conducting a rapid-fire squadron shoot in preparation for peacekeeping operations was somewhat ironic), but