Page 24 - MERCIAN Eagle 2019

Ex FIGHTING FIT
Sgt James MacAlpine-Gasse
On the 3rd May 2019, an advance party of instructors from across the Battalion established a centralised Training Facility within Chickerall Camp. Located in SW England, the beautiful Dorset coastline and surrounding area would become our home for the next 8 days. It was here that we would trial a Multi-Activity Adventure Training (MAAT) Package, tailored specifically to the individual limitations of our downgraded C (Meeanee) Company soldiers. The package would include mountain biking in Puddletown Forest, rock climbing on the Isle of Portland and expeditionary (overnight) hillwalking along the outstanding stretch of SW Coastal
Path between Weymouth & Swanage. It would culminate finally with a group challenging pursuit; coasteering along the South-East tip of Portland with the fantastic Weymouth based company Adventure4All.
News of the exercise spread quickly, and our ranks were soon bolstered
by soldiers from across the Battalion allowing us to integrate downgraded and MFD soldiers into groups of mixed ability.
In our capacity as the rehabilitation coy for 1 MERCIAN, we had begun to understand that the swift rehabilitation of a soldier can be negatively impacted if the individual focused solely on what they are incapable of doing. It was
the aim of Ex FIGHTING FIT to flip
this process on its head and allow the
22
Op TRACTABLE
WO2 Mark Dugmore
C (Meeanee) Company was given the
task of delivering 1 MERCIAN’s part of Op TRACTABLE in 2019. This involved handing over 28 armoured platforms used by
1 MERCIAN on Exercise SAEF SAREEA 3 in Oman in 2018. C Company was given the task of getting the platforms ready to hand over to various units so they could be used in Estonia on Op CABRIT. Each platform had to be state ‘fully fit’ (everything working and present) or at the very least ‘limited role’ (nothing wrong with the vehicle which would stop it being used for its primary purpose).
On returning from leave in August 2019 the Company formed up the Battalion’s Fleet Working Group (FWG) consisting of five Warrior crews, three Bulldog crews and a CIS and REME fitter section. Soldiers
on the FWG were drawn from all areas of the Battalion: it was C Company’s task to marshal this effort for the good of the whole unit. All members of the FWG were exempt from all other duties and its only focus was to achieve OP TRACTABLE, answering directly to the QM(T), Captain Rob Mears, daily at a 1600hrs conference to discuss the continuous stream of issues involved in such a big task.
Quickly the scale of the job soon
became apparent and the FWG soon found themselves working daily from 0800hrs
to 2000hrs Monday to Thursday, allowing them to stick to Battalion battle rhythm on a Friday. The amount of man hours needed to complete both level one (crew) and level two (specialist) tasks in order to achieve
our goal soon became very apparent and a strong robust plan was soon developed by all involved.
Each platform went through roughly
the same process. Firstly, the vehicle had to be cleaned along with its Complete Equipment Schedule (CES). This is normally not a difficult task, but in this case, all platforms had been at sea in transit from Oman for weeks at a time and sat outside for extremely long periods of time due to
a lack of vehicle storage. This resulted in most of the vehicles being flooded, which
in turn meant that many items were now rusty. What should have been a task lasting a couple of hours of work per vehicle was transformed into taking a couple of days! After this, the vehicles had to be taken to other locations and be painted from desert colours back to a more appropriate green, with each platform taking several weeks
to undergo this transformation. Once they returned from the sprayers, each vehicle then had to modified in some way. Whether it was removing the ballistic screens from the Warriors or having hatch modifications fitted to the Bulldogs, this all meant even more juggling had to be done by all involved to achieve a maximum of concurrent activity to address issues across the entire fleet. Once all modifications had been completed, the crews then had to work through the mammoth task of completing all level one and two maintenance tasks, bringing the platforms back up to date for servicing, whilst demanding and fitting new parts whenever needed. This took very delicate planning between all our manpower and across all vehicles to ensure there were
no clashes and that we were working as efficiently as possible.
Following all the hard work of the crews from across the Battalion who made up the FWG, the handover of all 28 platforms was a great success. Every vehicle was handed over at a state of ‘limited role’ or better,
and all receiving units were very happy
with the final products they received. That
1 MERCIAN could achieve this success was solely through the hard work, dedication and understanding of every single member of the FWG, led by the small team from
C Company. Every soldier understood the importance of the task and went above and beyond what was expected, digging out
in what was often a thankless task. Most importantly, it was great to know that we passed on the vehicles which served us so well in Oman to other units who are going to use them on Operations to counter Russian aggression in Estonia as part of Op CABRIT.
An OES specification Warrior, fresh from being re-sprayed and with all jobs completed, ready to be handed over to 20 Brigade. WO2 / Mark Dugmore / Bulford / 2 Sep 19
THE MERCIAN EAGLE