Page 94 - QDG Year of 2022 CREST

92 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
RPoC HQ West Midlands 2022
Hello and welcome to the 2022 Regimental Journal and the life of Deputy Chief of Staff (DCOS) Regional Point of Command (RPoC) Headquarters West Midlands (Venning Bks,
Donnington).
Our Vision: “An agile, high-performance
and customer-focused whole-force team; delivering an excellent service to the units, service personnel and their families
within the WM AoR”
Core Purpose: “Engaging with
society; facilitating the Cadet experience and delivering the Firm Base in order to enhance the lived expe- rience of SP and their families across the WM
AoR”
The HQ merged from
11 Signals Brigade in
Feb 22 to form the RPoC West Midlands (WM) Commanded by Col Paul Gilby, otherwise known as Col Shove (MERCIAN) for all UK Resilience Operations (Military Aid to Civil Authorities, MACA) and all Firmbase matters working under Regional Command (RC). This is part of the Integrated Review (IR) which was announced as part of the restructuring of the British Army. The rationale behind the RPoC other than MACA is to focus on the Lived Experience infra- structure issues in order to allow
the fighting brigades such as 7LMBCT to focus on preparing soldiers for worldwide operations without being tied to non-sol- diering business. The RPoC will deal with Living and Technical infrastructure for all units including Reserve Forces & Cadet Associations (RFCA) based within the West Midlands region. I took over the role of DCOS post Regimental duty as HQ Sqn Ldr and the recent tour to Mali as the BGLO for OP NEWCOMBE 3. Since taking over the role the focus has been to set the condi- tions for a further merger of RPoC HQ West Midlands and RPoC HQ East to RPoC Centre under the command of the current Deputy Commander 7LMBCT Col Sam Plant-based in Cottes- more (Kendrew Bks) IOC is 30 April 23. This will expand the Area of Responsibility (AOR) across the whole of the midlands- including the regiment based at Swanton Morley – this is great news as I feel we can influence the Lived Experience for our soldiers through various funding streams available- certainly for the time they have remaining at Robertson Bks before the move to Carwent. As with many mergers of organisations this has been a difficult time for all of the workforce especially the Civil Servants (CS) most are geographically fixed and unable to move to a new location across the country- I have spent long hours with the team going through CS mapping processes and trying to secure the CS jobs appropriately. FOC is Aug 2024, so there is some flexibility in the location of the workforce as we develop the RPoC to suit the needs of the whole of the AOR . One other major output of the RPoC is the assurance inspections regime, a DCOS responsibility conducted by all the SMEs through the operating functions- G1-9. As we develop the merger to RPoC Centre we have to change the insignia and Heraldry for the new organisation, currently we were the MACAW Parrot as HQWMs TRF:
The proposed new TRF for RPoC Centre is that of the British Bulldog on a black background with red boarder – this has both west and east history and will hopefully be passed by PS12 and the Army’s Dress committee before IOC 30 April 23.
PDJ
RMAS
With my two years at Sandhurst now coming to an end, this feels like a great opportunity to reflect on what has been an incredibly varied and fulfilling two-year posting. Having transitioned from the Defence Engagement Coy where I was fortunate enough to deploy under OP SHADER to Iraq; someone thought it a good idea to give me a platoon within
the Regular Commissioning Course and remain with them until they commis- sion in April (you will have to ask them whether that was a wise move or not). Despite the exercises changing in location, duration, and name, (seem- ingly on a termly basis), what remains constant is the testing environment the OCdt’s are placed under. Assessing
their command and leadership with a CSgt breathing down their neck, and a Captain asking you to reconsider Q7; the old and bold among you will be pleased to know that the course remains equally as challenging, intertwined with a level of complexity that looks to mirror the wicked problems that these young officers will grapple with upon commis-
End of the Intermediate Term with EXERCISE ALLENBY’S ADVANCE in Brecon