Page 60 - QDG Year of 2022 CREST

58 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Jungle Warfare Instructors Course 2022
58 of us departed from Heathrow on the 10th October. 19 hours later the humidity and the machine-like drone of the rain lashing down on the airport roof were the unmistakable signs that we’d arrived in Brunei. We were herded on to a coach and gratefully received litre-bottles of water. The rain began to fall so hard as we wound our way toward Medicina Lines that we were forced to slow to a crawl. It was a daunting glimpse into what would soon become part of our daily routine.
The accommodation was minimalist. Long rooms with 20 steel beds, plastic mattress and no air conditioning. The first two weeks were the acclimatisa- tion phase. Each day began with 5am runs along the beach as the sun rose, followed by basic tactical lessons in the lecture theatre such as contact drills, methods of patrolling as well as an introduction to the local wildlife.
At the end of this two weeks we made our first trip into the jungle
to put into practice what we
had learnt. Within minutes
of our first rehearsal begin- ning I had been stung by a scorpion and paid the price for lying too close to an ant nest, a lesson I fruitlessly vowed not to make again.
The first exercise, innocuously known as ‘Routine Drills,’ was a bit
of a beast. The exercise involved fifteen days
of hard patrolling with
heavy weight (my kit weighed over 60 kilos
the day we deployed)
and we had lost over
10% of our cohort by
endex. The first four days
of the exercise were focused on navigation before we moved on to section and platoon level
tactics. The poor visibility, unreliable mapping and the 20m contour intervals took some getting used to. We were taught strict adherence to pacings and bearings as well as how to read the light through the trees and the shape of the ground.
The final phase of the exercise involved an eventful 36 hour ambush. It was just an hour after ambush-set when an unmistakable shriek of pain was heard from the killing group. The concern of the DS as they ran toward the scream was the first indication that it was something serious, confirmed later by the sound of rotary blades coming in and out. Two hours later another shriek went out
about followed by the same rush of DS and sound of helicopters. In the early warning group we were completely oblivious of goings on. Not wanting to attract any unnecessary atten- tion from the DS, we remained silent in our fire positions. It was only when the chief instructor, a 22 WO1, arrived asking if anyone had seen a scorpion that we understood the situation. We
Flank protection set
then watched on somewhat concerned as the most composed and professional member of the training team began searching amongst the dense under- growth of the primary jungle at night for a scorpion with a loaded Diemaco rifle and a head torch.
Next came the riverine and a demanding LFTT package before an eight day final exercise on which we were at points reduced to as little as 34 men. Before long it was home-time. One dislo- cated shoulder, eight kilos lighter and carrying an unfortunately located case of ringworm, I got on the plane incredibly grateful for the experience but eager for the creature comforts of a proper shower and my own bed.
FM
One honking piece of kit
River crossings in the jungle