Page 23 - QDG 2023

1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
21
I don’t know sir, why did the chicken cross the road?
finger and squaring themselves away so QDG had to pick up the slack, but the camaraderie of a small Regiment and close knit Squadron showed the QDG soldiers at their very best, gaining high praise for the cheerfulness and motiva- tion of troops, especially after 7 hours of fairy liquid and a 2-star general asking boring questions.
Pick a spot on the wall...
The middle of Texas is well known for a lot of things, big cars, big people, big spaces, BBQs, but unfortunately, we came a cropper on one of the more infamous: big winds - tornados. In the preceding weeks we had warnings sent to us by the government early warning system on our phones that were typi- cally ‘amber wind warning’ which usually resulted in a stiff breeze, so when a siren started playing across the camp and on our phones, accompanying the message ‘extreme winds, danger to life, seek cover below ground immediately’ we knew something serious was coming. It was decided to move all troops out of the giant marquees (rattling foreshadowing about to become somewhat relevant) and into hard cover before all hell broke loose. One marquee caught the wind broadside and was lifted along with several tonnes of concrete blocks over another marquee, before smashing back down
into a third, completely
destroying both in a pile of
twisted metal, canvas, kit
and cot beds. The following
scene more resembled a
disaster relief episode than
a large portion of the UK
Army deployed on exercise,
and it doesn’t bear thinking
what might have happened
if the troops weren’t evacu-
ated. After this little episode
of near death and soaking
kit, we weren’t too fussed
about having a breeze block
room with no windows. A further task assigned to us by the ever-increasingly angled shoulder of the Divisional Signals Regiment was to create an electronics checkpoint at the entrance to the 3 Div headquarters. Never one to do anything
by half measures, the SSM WO2 Roberts took it upon himself to rival GCHQ for security and the Div staff were mightily impressed with the efficiency, profes- sionalism and turnout of the QDG troops.
A special mention goes to Tpr Day for turning away the DSR Ops Officer who didn’t have the right paperwork for her laptop, and after a brief discussion ending with “I don’t give a damn who you are, Miss”. The QDG PED trap remained impenetrable and Div HQ un-compro- mised!
Four of them were in on the joke
emergency riding lessons, and finally realisation that an all-expenses paid trip to Palm Beach was definitely worth it for falling off a horse on international TV, and soon they were both at the national polo ground in Florida strutting their stuff in uniform on horseback. Only a couple of mishaps later and they had managed not to skewer a valuable pony with a drawn sword and had completed a great event that gained significant attention across the UK and US armed forces.
Our old friend the tornado was an unexpected ally when it came to closing down the exercise, and after yet another well-rehearsed scramble to get into hard cover, and yet another enormous hailstorm had blown over, we emerged only to find that one of the cookhouses comprising of 7 long green tents had been totally disassembled for us. What was a well organised and efficient cook- house that could do several thousand meals a day had turned into a mass of broken spars and torn canvas, and all that was left was to bin the whole lot, rather than pack it neatly into containers,
Texas is well known for a lot of things, big cars, big people, big
spaces, BBQs While it might seem obvious to a QDG, it wasn’t immediately clear to the Americans that British cavalry officers don’t all know how to ride a horse. So it was with great surprise that Capt Barham and Lt Asquith received an invitation to ride in the opening ceremony of an international polo match between the UK and US in Palm Beach, Florida. Cue panic, fear,