Page 48 - QDG Volume 9 No. 5

46 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Op INTERFLEX Training Delivery
Unit (TDU) 3
From June to December members of
HQ and A Sqn have been deployed on
Op INTERFLEX to provide a Training
Delivery Unit HQ in Wathgill Camp, York-
shire. The efforts of all of those involved
saw the QDG and a number of indi-
vidual augmentees enable the delivery of
training to over 2000 Ukrainian soldiers
during this time.
The tangible output of Op INTERFLEX
has been extremely rewarding, with
the QDG providing the framework and
support to enable our Dutch and Norwe-
gian partners to deliver training. This
was not made entirely clear to all of our
individual augmentees, with Maj Fischer
(RY) slightly surprised to find that his
role primarily consisted of discussing the
power usage of the average laptop rather
than crawling through trenches.
As ever, the delivery of a seemingly
simple task is never such. During their
time in Wathgill the G7 cell led by WO1
Wilson ably assisted by Sgt’s Turner,
Lunness, Howells and Rose have
produced almost 200 exercise instruc-
tions, dealt with the ever-changing
demands for training estate from the
TDSUs and managed (with varying
degrees of success) relationships with
DIO.
The QM’s Department led by Capt
Thomas, WO2 Navunisaravi and WO2
Fisher have worked tirelessly to ensure
that the equipment and materiel vital
for the delivery of high-quality training
was always to hand. MT, under the lead-
ership of WO2 Ewbank and Sgt Powell
have become adept at ensuring that
upwards of 600 personnel were in the
right place on a daily basis, all whilst
trying to explain to the Dutch that in
Britain trees do not just jump out into the
middle of the road to destroy 4x4s and
attempting to track down Norwegians
to issue speeding tickets. Lastly, and
by certainly no means least a plethora
of QDG JNCOs and Tprs provided the
sometimes mundane but absolutely
critical General Duties personnel, driving
PANTECs, BFAs, conducting checks of
the accommodation and all of the work
behind the scenes to allow TDU 3 to
continue to function. As ever, the positive
attitude, work ethic and professionalism
of all those who deployed has been a
massive credit to the quality of soldier
that the QDG continues to produce.
The delivery of INTERFLEX has
primarily been split into two parts. As
expected, the delivery of training to turn
civilians into soldiers, taking them from
weapon handling through to trench clear-
ances, C-UAS and a live fire package was
delivered by the G7 cell and supported
by the G4 team. The second, and far
more mundane element has been the
management of the various issues that
arose with infrastructure management,
policy constraints and the inevitable
frictions of working with nations with
differing safe systems of training.
The Dutch Ops Room was one of the
significant issues that arose. Following
a blown fuse DIO immediately assumed
that the six laptops being used in this
room presented the most significant
risk to training estate within northern
England. After weeks of back and forth,
offers of compromise, counter offers
and diplomatic engagement from the
Dutch Ambassador the issue was finally
resolved through a rebrand of the room
to the Welfare Room.
We have dealt with everything from
drone sightings to the delivery of Russian
Bibles, a number of Ukrainians taking
part in the unofficial high jump over the
fence in the early hours of the morning
and the unpredictable Yorkshire weather
throwing plans into disarray. It has not
been without entertainment, with the
revelation that the Team at South Cerney
runs to Brize Norton in fleets of PANTEC
provided more opportunity for enjoy-
ment than the HQ had initially assumed.
Op INTERFLEX has been immensely
rewarding for the QDG, with a tangible
output that was evidenced by the
progression of civilians to soldiers of
the Ukrainians time in Yorkshire. It has
been a pleasure to work alongside our
Dutch and Norwegian counterparts
throughout. The success in the delivery
of training comes down to the hard work
of all the individuals involved in TDU 3,
and is once again a credit to the calibre
of individual within the QDG.
FLJH
WO1 Wilson’s diplomacy at its finest
Grenade!