Page 108 - RSDG Year of 2022 CREST

116 EAGLE AND CARBINE
OP SHADER - NATO MISSION IRAQ
To date I have had a tremendously fun and rewarding career, but apart from indulging in orange cake and cheap tailoring in Cyprus on Op TOSCA with the UN I had failed to get away on any operational tours. When I left regimental duty after SCOTS DG 50 I became the Defence Single Tasking Authority Liaison Officer (DSTA LO (Army)) for Land Operations Command Generate (LOC(G)) in fewer words I was part of the trawls team. My signature block was at the bottom of some great, and some not so great trawls, it was a fascinating job especially through Op PITTING (Evacuation from Afghanistan) and the conflict in Ukraine, however once my successor had been selected and said he was keen to move in early I saw an opportunity to get away on a trawl and became ‘the least pain’ for the Army for a last minute force generation fail for Op SHADER in Iraq.
Straight after my honeymoon I found myself in a 10 person room during the summer heatwave. In order to complete the pre-deployment training at a safe temperature our working day switched to 0200 – 1130 finishing with lunch. Some reprieve from the madding crowd came from A Sqn who were also at the Mission Ready Training Centre preparing for Op NEWCOME
Military College Tour
Confidence Jump
who’s evening BBQs and rosé were far better for morale than the cookhouse.
My journey out to Baghdad was interrupted by a 3 day beach holiday in Cyprus courtesy of the RAF and when I landed in Baghdad the pilot briefed us the sad news that our Colonel in Chief had died. It was a fascinating time to do a HOTO as our NATO allies expressed their sympathies for the people of the United Kingdom and the American run cookhouse made a black cake for us for the day of the funeral when the Brits and common- wealth gathered to watch the funeral together on tv.
NATO Mission Iraq (NMI) is a non-combat advisory and capacity-building mission that assists Iraq in building more sustainable, transparent, inclusive and effective armed forces and security institutions, so that Iraqis themselves are better able to stabilise their country, fight terrorism and prevent the return of ISIS/ Daesh based primarily out of FOB Union III.
FOB Union III is in the centre of the Baghdad next to the US Embassy, NMI shares the FOB with others including the US led coalition Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) which advises, assists and enables partnered forces until they can independently defeat Daesh in designated areas of Iraq and Syria. UK Commander Joint Operations conducted a Middle
Maj Michael Houstoun