Page 99 - Light Dragoons 2022 CREST

The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
4X Liaison Officer, British Embassy, Cairo
From February through to November 2021, I took up the post of 4 Brigade Liaison Officer working out of the British
Embassy Cairo. Usually a four-month post- ing, I was gifted the opportunity to remain for an additional five months in a COVID stricken world. Like my LD predecessors, I had a romanticised view of travelling to Egypt to drift down the Nile on a boat in a linen suit sipping white wine whilst remi- niscing of times past. While I definitely got to achieve this dream, my stay in Egypt was multifaceted and involved more time running around in the desert.
After a very quick turnaround in the UK and some haphazard briefs from 4X, I was on a plane to Egypt. I was thrown straight into the deep-end, joining a UK team (led by LDs own, Brig Gus Fair) travelling over for a UK-Egyptian counter terrorism seminar. The harsh realisation of my lim- ited knowledge of Egyptian internal affairs became painfully apparent at this seminar when I made a slip of the tongue comment by calling IS in Sinai “insurgents”. An Egyptian Brigadier then took it upon him- self to show me several videos of these “so- called insurgents” to which he then ques- tioned, ‘are you sure they are not terrorists?’ My lesson in semantics was taken on board.
When the dust settled and I had found a routine, I was welcomed with open arms by the Ambassador and his family (my neighbours in the embassy compound). As Ramadan approached and all meetings with the Egyptian military ground to a halt, we took this time to achieve one of the Defence Section tasks of security analysis
and contingency planning. Along with the Counter Terrorism Police Liaison Officers (CTPLO) of the Met Police, we conducted a series of recces to areas dictated by FCDO travel advice as “amber” and “red”: South Sinai, Fayoum, Matruh Governorate, and the Western Desert. Given that some of these areas had not been visited by UK per- sonnel since the Arab Spring a decade ago, the overall aim of these recces was simple: were the security stratifications relevant to the present-day situation on the ground? I compiled reports for each location under the topics of security; military presence; economic and social demographics; invest- ment; and governance. I am proud to say that these reports aided 2 regions being turned green.
The workload in Cairo definitely ebbed and flowed. We began preparation for exercises and Defence Engagement deliverables for the second half of my tenure and this gave
UK Typhoons join multinational flyover of Pyramids
me the opportunity to take several “long- weekends” to historic and not-so-historic locations in Egypt. I went to Luxor and Aswan in the south to visit sites such as The Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut Temple. I spent a few days aboard a boat in the Red Sea venturing across to the Straight of Tiran to scuba dive (mainly to find Giant Trevally – my favourite fish). I also went through the Western Desert in a 4x4 following the footsteps of the Long Range Desert Group. In amongst this and exercise preparation, I also wrote 2 reports back to the UK. One was a fortnightly SITREP back to 4X and the other was the DA’s monthly report to Whitehall. Much like most junior staff work, you do most of the work but receive none of the credit.
As the pace began to speed up again, my attention was turned to several UK STTT’s I would be responsible for. The first came in the form of the UK contribution to the
HMA Gareth Bayley and DA Capt RN Steve Deacon at El Alamein Service
Ex BRIGHT STAR 21
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LCpls Dabbs and Wilkinson sniping on Ex BRIGHT STAR 21