Page 23 - RADC Bulletin 2022

DEPLOYMENT
Op CABRIT
Capt Williams & LCpl Cacho
Apr–May 22
With the backdrop of events in Ukraine playing out in March 22, the need to increase boots on the ground in Estonia on Op CABRIT was all too apparent. In order to achieve this the outgoing Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) BG would extend their already six month long deployment and the Royal Welsh (RW) BG would deploy early, compressing their training cycle and FGen timelines. A second order effect of this CoA was the increase in NATO Cat 4 SP and the conversion of Cat 2s into Cat 3s as recall intervals lapsed. Dental provision and treatment quickly moved up both BG Comd’s priorities as morbidity increased. The Fwd Dental Team of 3 Medical Regiment in the shape of Capt Williams and LCpl Cacho was therefore placed at
a readiness state of R1 to undertake the tasking of a dental treatment surge on camp Tapa, Estonia.
The “balloon went up” for deployment
out to Theatre (Th) by 26th March. An all- too-common theme of G4 challenges did not take long to present however, which immediately began pushing timelines to the right. Deploying with 544 and 301 modules from 5 Med Regt meant a quick dash across the Pennines for the dental team. Any small issues were quickly compounded by the reliably unreliable procurement company (Ed: naming no names, but you know who we mean) being unable to source not less than 20 items of the 301 module and the RAF then not giving the dental kit priority for air freight. By hook or by crook, dental modules were on a road move across
Europe and the dental team were on their way, albeit two weeks late. Kit bags were also bursting at the seams containing CBRN equipment and full body armour as the team were held at R2 on a separate Op should anything in Eastern Europe get a little more “cheeky”.
On arrival in Th on 13th Apr, troops needing to see the dentist (NATO Cat
3 and 4) had swelled from estimations
of “around 120” to 267. The task at hand was clearly going to be a challenging
one. Fortunately the medical centre were very accommodating on arrival and had allocated a duty room to be converted into the dental centre. LCpl Cacho quickly set about creating a clinical space. Within an impressively short period of time, and with
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