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1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery
Light Aid Detachment Captain S Tallis REME
The LAD has had another busy year with lots of personnel changes deployments, exercises and taskings, while still trying to maintain a good work/life balance and taking the opportunities to get out and relax and celebrate the wins and achievements that have been well deserved.
The start of this year found B Bty fitters coming to the end of the pre-deployment training and rolling straight into supporting 19 Regiment RA in a GiK tasking while also maintaining technical reach back element in support of the effort of the Ukrainian army getting to grips with the AS90s that they received, followed by some much-deserved pre-deployment leave.
With B Bty out the door on Op CABRIT, the E Bty fitter section returned to regimental life after some well earned leave. Upon their return to normal working life the conversion to L118 Light gun started with the fitter section getting to grips with the new equipment which for some was just a matter of blowing out some cobwebs but also provided a good opportunity for the jun- ior tradespersons to develop their engineering skills and master another platform.
The E Bty fitter return to work found SSgt Bridger stepping up in to the AQMS position and giving the newly promoted and posted in Sgt Otterbech the opportunity to take charge of the fitter section.
Chestnut troop fitters started their pre-deployment training. Pro- viding excellent support through numerous exercises and train- ing packages all while under-going an almost complete fitter section change with personnel being posted out or attending career courses to further facilitate the troop on its up-coming deployment.
OHQ fitters continued to facilitate the Regiment’s readiness fleet back filling the other fitter sections and deploying personnel out
to Germany to support Op LIGHTFOOT, this year also saw the LAD say good luck to Capt Gaz Wyatt the then ASM who com- missioned in to the Royal Regiment of Artillery as the BK of 127 Bty 19 Regiment RA, which gave WO2 Will Shaw the opportunity to step up into the ASM seat which was almost prophetic as he was the selected from promotion to WO1 on the promotion board this year.
Most recently the whole LAD deployed out on a Regimental level exercise to facilitate the final training objectives for Chestnut troop to deploy on their Op CABRIT rotation and also to commemorate the last time the AS90 would be fired in the United Kingdom with a fire power demonstration midway through the exercise allowing services persons families to see what they actually do, which is often hard to picture till you see them in action.
While all members of the LAD have had a very busy year we have all taken the opportunities to have a break when we can with
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