Page 117 - RSDG Year of 2022 CREST

EAGLE AND CARBINE 125 Life of an attached Royal Engineer with
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
SSgt Adam Russett
In early June of 2019, I was in Hamburg, enjoying a three-day stand down period in the middle of EXERCISE BALTIC PROTECTOR. I was a Corporal, a team 2IC, in 24 Commando Reconnaissance Troop, serving under Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron, 30 Commando IX Gp RM. The whole troop, in fact most of the squadron, were in the staying in the same hostel, and inevitably it had been a heavy few days. On the final day of the stand down, I was fortunate to be informed that I had been selected for promotion to Sergeant. For me, at the time, there was only one option; to continue to serve with 24 Commando Recce Troop at RMB Chivenor in North Devon. I had absolutely no desire to leave. I just couldn’t fathom any other posting being of interest to me at all. I didn’t even need to look at the jobs list, let alone complete a Posting Preference Proforma.
However, I had served my whole career until that point at RMB Chivenor, something which was very rare at the time, although is becoming more common now. I was told I would need to post out to broaden my horizons, to gain experience of the wider Corps of Royal Engineers, the wider Army, and that I would almost certainly post back to RMB Chivenor in the future.
I was not happy, but it was clear my options to stay put were non-existent. I had a glance at the jobs list that I had been presented by the RCMO, at the section titled ME Combat, the jobs available to me. All of the familiar RE units were listed, along with a few training regiment jobs, but there was one that stood out. SCOTS DG, Leuchars. Clearly, I had heard of SCOTS DG, I knew that it was an RAC unit, but other than that I knew nothing about it. I had heard of Leuchars, as my brother went to university in St Andrews, and I had heard bootnecks from the wilderness of 45 Commando talk about flying from there. But that was as far as my knowledge went. I had no idea that Royal Engineers could even post to RAC units. I didn’t know anyone who had done it before.
A quick google search brought up enough information for me; a JACKAL-mounted Cavalry regiment, Scotland based. I had just completed a JACKAL Commander course, as SRS were in the process of moving from RWMIK to JACKAL, so I thought that it could be useful to gain some experience. As a keen mountaineer, with a particular love of the Scottish
hills, the prospect of a posting north of the boarder was exciting. I ran the idea past my wife, and she was up for it. So, on the PPP, at first choice, “would love”, went The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.
On my first day at the regiment, 27 January 2020, I paraded with A Squadron and met my new SSM. I was immediately made to feel welcome. I was told what the regiment had lined up in the coming months, and some likely tasks for the next couple of years. C Squadron were on CABRIT, B Squadron had not long returned.
My first few weeks was relatively run of the mill, getting settled in, learning the way things were done day to day at SCOTS DG, which was very different to where I had come from. There was much more structure, morning parades, higher dress standards. I went to my first WOs’ & Sgts’ mess meeting, finding out shortly before hand what the order of dress was. I didn’t have a blue blazer, so I quickly headed out to buy one, making mistake of turning left toward St Andrews instead of right toward Dundee, and spending more cash than I would have liked to! I attended a range package at Warcop, where I was safety on the HE Grenade range. I was there because as an engineer, I would be better suited to deal with any blinds. “But don’t worry, we never get blinds with HE Grenades.” Of course, there was a blind, and of course, I had to deal with it, trying not to look nervous in front of my new colleagues as I wandered out to the grenade body, fly off lever clearly gone!
Just as I was settling into life at Leuchars, getting a hang of the rhythm Cavalry life, my wife having joined me by the end of February, COVID-19 put a stop to everything. Everyone was sent home; the country went into lockdown. Troop training was starting to be conducted online. It wasn’t long before the regiment began to have a role to play in COVID testing, and a regimental restructure took place. I was moved to B Squadron, met my new SSM and OC, and my new troop were deployed to the west coast. We stayed in a hotel in Paisley and were lucky enough to travel all up and down the southwest of Scotland, to some incredible places that I had never been before. It was also a great opportunity to meet my troop leader and the rest of the troop.
We came out of lockdown and began the mammoth task of catching up all the green training that we had