Page 82 - QDG Year of 2022 CREST

80 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Op Unity
On the 15th June 1815, the Duchess of Richmond hosted a ball that would go down in history - there was dancing, costumes and general merriment amongst the British and allied officers. Little did they know that early the following day, they would be travelling across the country post-haste to join their men and face an army under the dreaded Marshal Ney.
Two hundred and seven years later, the soldiers and officers of B Squadron shared a similar fate. The day after the Officers’ Mess Summer Ball saw the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and some officers, just as their forebears had in 1815, turned up still wearing their dancing shoes.
B Squadron were billeted in a small, wifi-less cadet camp in the middle of Cannock Chase Forest which, as an Area of Outstanding National Beauty, proved to be a rare gem in the oft-maligned county of Staffordshire. In a reshow of 2012’s Op OLYMPIC, the Government had shortly before requested that the British Army support G4S to provide a comprehensive security presence across multiple sites in one of the UK’s largest urban centres. The atmosphere across Birmingham was electric as people from across the world came to support their team, whilst antici- pation rose amongst B Sqn as they waited to see whether they had been chosen to attend the beach volleyball...
Alas, they had not but an acceptable replacement was found in the Rugby 7s tournament. With the gates mostly closed during the games, dragoons were able to watch the games as they unfolded. Soldiers cheered loudly for Wales, officers cheered loudly for England and - under the watchful eye of WO2 (SSM) Navunasaravi - everybody cheered loudly for Fiji.
A variety of sports soon replaced the rugby - soldiers were sent to venues hosting sports as diverse as netball, taek- wondo, cross-country mountain biking, swimming and gymnastics. Tasks included bag searching, metal detecting and the supervising of G4S on the entrances and exits to and from venues. With the minor exception of Trooper Rowland’s mystery metal object, most working days passed without incident as a compliant and good-natured general public poured praise on anyone in camouflage.
As the three weeks came to an end, the soldiers bid goodbye to their tempo- rary home. A small champagne/two can celebration was held, alongside a final volleyball tournament and indoor barbecue, and the following morning the big white busses arrived to carry them home to a well deserved summer leave.
RWF