Page 46 - RADC 2017

Brunei
Maj Rachel Scott, RADC
Twelve months ago Major Scott x 2 arrived in Brunei . I took over as SDO Seria as part of British Forces Brunei, and Jim began work as a Loan Service Dental Officer for the Royal Brunei Armed Forces.
Celsius and 90% humidity. It provides the ideal environment to challenge soldiers in austere conditions.
Rather than face the same MATT training video on SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape), Dental Centre
Brunei is a small Muslim state on
the island of Borneo which regained independence from the UK in 1984. It
has the population roughly the size of Nottingham and
consists of 75%
untouched primary
lowland rainforest.
British forces have
been based in Brunei
since 1959 at the
request of the Sultan.
British Forces Brunei
currently consists of 2
Royal Gurkha Rifles,
the Jungle Warfare Department Training Team Brunei and Garrison Support including 7 Flight Army Air Corps.
A large focus of the training in Brunei
is Jungle Warfare and Survival. Brunei is predominately covered in Jungle, with year round temperatures averaging 30 Degrees
Seria were invited to participate in a jungle survival exercise
with the Army Air Corps. Not only was this an opportunity to refresh basic soldiering skills but also to put ourselves in the position of our patients, enabling us
to empathise with the conditions they often face on exercise. Cpl Nyalemegbe and I decided to step away from our Dii terminals and step into the Jungle.
With a limited road network in Brunei, the only options to reach the exercise area were a multiday trek or Helicopter transfer – we
A large focus of the training in Brunei is Jungle Warfare and Survival.
opted for the helicopter! After an exhilarating flight across Brunei we were deposited miles from anywhere, in a small clearing deep in the heart of the Borneo Rainforest.
With a survival expert to hand we were taught about the main threats of the Jungle environment and how to protect ourselves against them. We were shown how to erect shelters, how to set up Hennessey hammocks and to look out for dead wood (surprisingly the biggest threat to life in the
44 RADC BULLETIN 2017
OVERSEAS ASSIGNMENTS
Loan Service Brunei
Maj J Scott, RADC
Brunei!! What a place! Full of Rainforest, biblical weather and the worst drivers you ever did see. I think its fair to say that I have never sweated as much or as hard as I do in Borneo!
Rachel and I landed August 2016, to two very different hand overs. I was picked up from the airport by one of my fellow loan service officers who, through the haze of jet lag, kindly spent the first two days showing me about the capital Bandar. This is where the majority of
the Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF) are garrisoned and where the
Loan Service Community live. Here I sorted my visas and began my ingratiation into the RBAF. This done, I went to Lumut Dental Centre to meet my staff and for one of the local dentists to provide me with a hand over. We started at 0800 and by 1030 I was treating patients.
As a Loan Service Officer you are posted directly to work with and for the RBAF. You wear their uniform and follow their working practices. There are 30 or so of the Loan Service who form a micro community within the 10,000 strong RBAF with our express mission to assist the RBAF whilst providing soft diplomacy and excelling in our fields to act as bastions of Britishness.
The 3Bn soldiers largely hail from the Iban & Kendayan tribes who disappear back to the jungle and their farms or long houses at the weekend, and have a very different attitude to medical and dental to what you may be accustomed to. It is a daily occurrence to reveal non-divulged or unknown medical conditions in my patients including regular type I & II diabetes, common recent cardiac surgery and even the occasional severe hyperthyroid goiter or gross head and neck pathology.
Extrapolating this I am sure you can see that periodontitis and/
or caries pales to insignificance. It does, however, mean the depth and breadth of conditions you see and treat are vast. If you want to come and work on the finer parts of our trade then you maybe need to look elsewhere but regaining a grip of medical histories and frank pathology is refreshing.
Perks of the job have improved with you being entitled to a ‘get me home flight’ annually for you and your dependants, an annual flight to Hong Kong (historically to visit the garrison there to sort your admin), a small increase in pay, invites to the local functions at the Palace and High Commissions, a relaxed lifestyle and a medal after a year’s service.
It would be unfair of me to not mention that there are some sacrifices for this post to. The accommodation isn’t what you would expect in the UK and maintenance doesn’t happen. The pace of life
Majors Rachel and Jim Scott at the Sultan’s Palace