Page 53 - QDG Vol. 9 No. 2 CREST

So the Tuk-Tuk is going to
struggle over this terrain here Muzzle!
Ewww! Something yucky touched me!
1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
51
Not even in jest
battling with the heat, intense humidity, and horrifically heavy downpours, the end state was everyone being damp for the entire 15-day exercise.
The US forces were hamstrung to the roads and so once we walked 200m off them, the enemy did not look for us. At one stage, A Squadron Troops were over 16km (10 miles) ahead of the American front line. We all absolutely loved this,
though it caused for some very still lying as enemy trucks drove past - it felt like proper reconnaissance and the BG were amazed when we gave our grids back to them. We were so far ahead that the enemy didn’t even think to expect us, and that meant we had a lot of freedom as we understood their dispositions. That was all of us bar Lt Carter, who had a lot of KFC once he was captured!
Broadly speaking the exercise was very enjoyable, especially the Troop Cohesion that we enjoyed on swamp tours and having photographs with baby alligators. As a result of it, the soldiering skills of everyone in A Squadron devel- oped considerably, and it saw us going into pre-deployment training with all cylinders firing.
ZAK