Page 21 - QDG Vol. 9 No. 2 CREST

1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
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Still quicker than the road through Watton
lessons included revision on medical training, intelligence briefs and voices of experience from the individuals who had completed the first rotation.
The first hurdle following the handover patrol was to prepare the equipment, vehicles and personnel for the six-day long familiarisation patrol. This patrol was a necessity in order to qualify the Task Force for longer and more arduous patrols. June was therefore spent reflecting on the handover period, remembering the tips and tricks we were told and going through the preparations for the patrol. A factor which we had to contend with at this stage, unlike the first rotation, was the beginning of the wet season. Nobody knew quite what this would involve but as June progressed the winds whipped up the dust and the thunderstorms became more frequent, as did the mud (!) storms. Despite these frictions, the Squadron deployed towards the end of the month on the patrol. As with the handover patrol, this familiarisation patrol began with a day on the ranges, aligning our weapons and test firing the vehicles’ weapons. It was during this stage that C Squadron were tasked with filling cages with sand as a makeshift barrier. Rotating through this task, we filled the HESCO bastion in the hottest hours of the day. It was a great success, until night fell and the civilian population took it upon themselves to remove the wiring from the cages, allowing all the sand to return whence it had come; a frustrating day but gave the Squadron an insight to the operating environment. Following the ranges, there
I miss the rains down in Aaafricaaa
was a three-day patrol around the local area to best understand how the vehicles worked off road, how to interact with the civilian population and to confirm our understanding of all the techniques, tactics and procedures we had learnt from the Light Dragoons. All was going well until the last night when an almighty storm hit the Task Force Leaguer, knocking everyone sideways! The low point being all the medics having to hold onto their tent to prevent it blowing away! Fortunately, everyone returned safely and immediately started the preparations for the next patrol – Operation MAKARA 1.
Operation MAKARA 1 would see the Task Force going further than the previous rotation. After a potential COVID-19 scare, which caused the Task Force to quarantine for 24 hours,
the Squadron deployed on the 17-day operation at the beginning of July. Op MAKARA 1 was designed to visit diffi- cult-to-access parts of Mali and reassure the population, and where possible, to spread the word of the United Nations and our Peace Keeping role in Mali. The operation was a real success with the residents of Tin Hama and Tassiga being pleased to see us and receptive to our engagement. A highlight was the annual festive of Tabaski (known elsewhere as Eid Al-Adha), which is the Muslim festival celebrating Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismail, to Allah. As this operation was in the midst of the wet season, it continued to be a chal- lenge. It would vary from thunderstorms at night, to temperatures in excess of 50 degrees Celsius by day. Thankfully