Page 15 - Bugle Issue 19 Spring 2022

2 RIFLES
Exercise ASKARI STORM was full of ups and downs, but Live Fire Tactical Training was a definite highlight for me.
Before we even get into talking about firing live rounds, our camp was a ring of double stacked razor wire in the middle of the African bush. Every morning and evening we were surrounded by animals ranging from tarantulas to elephants and everything in between.
At the start of the day, you would hear a helicopter fly overhead. That is how we would clear the ranges of animals before we started firing for the day.
Our ranges started with an individual lane with a grenade, the range was up a wadi that my Platoon Commander assured me was dry when they planned the range but certainly wasn’t when the range was conducted. Despite the water it was still, by far, the best thing I’ve done in the army. There were about
15 targets and sword dummies along the course of the wadi, each getting exposed at different times as you progressed. To cap it all off it finished with a grenade throw that left you covered in sand!
We then moved through the progression of training completing ranges as pairs, fire teams, sections and finally as a platoon. The platoon attack range was a standout memory from my time in Kenya as it finished with a shoot-through facility. That’s something I had only seen on Instagram, I never dreamt that I would be doing it within my first year of being at Battalion.
Our live firing culminated in a Company combined arms live fire exercise, the sheer weight of fire before 5 Platoon breaking-in was immense and seeing mortars drop onto the target moments before we cleared the buildings is something that I will never forget. Rfn Barnes, B Coy 2 RIFLES
Rfn from B Coy provide fire support during a section attack
Every morning and evening we were surrounded by animals ranging from tarantulas
to elephants
B Coy clear a depth building position
RIFLES The Bugle 15
Rfn from B Coy dash between cover on a live range
A Rfn from B Coy reacts to ‘effective enemy fire’
LIVE FIRING IN KENYA