Page 14 - MERCIAN Eagle 2021

OC Maj Paul Marriott
2IC Capt Adam Keenan CSM WO2 Mark Sumner WSM WO2 Dave Kolodynski
12
B (Malta) Company
To open I would like to note that none of the successes of 2021 would have been possible without the excellent team that
I have around me. While it is impossible to thank them all by name, I would like to say that I could not ask for finer support than that provided by the Company’s ‘top corridor’ and Capt Keenan, WO2 Sumner and WO2 Kolodynski.
The Company spent from January to March this year in Sennelager. Yet while our time there in late 2020 had been excellent, our experience in early 2021 was somewhat less rosy. Exercising in the Combined Arms Tactical Trainer was ruined by, well, being
in the Combined Arms Tactical Trainer,
but also by so many computer bugs that the Company spent more time in the
nearby café than in our simulators. Then, just as the we thought we were free of that nuisance, COVID began to work its way through us, with infections and isolation
effectively removing the Company from all activity until the final blank-firing exercise. Yet even that was cut short, with another COVID outbreak on the eve of the exercise reducing the Company down to just a single deployable platoon...and, annoyingly for me, putting me into isolation too. It was an awful experience to hand over the Company just before an exercise to another OC, although the blow was
Estonia...and in the grip of another COVID outbreak. Our predecessors in Estonia had taken the somewhat novel approach of deciding to test their people only after they had been in close proximity to us while handing over accounts and stores.
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
somewhat softened
by the realisation that now someone else would have to put up with WO2 Kolodynski’s snoring in the troop shelter for the next few days.
After the briefest of pre-deployment leave periods, the Company then found itself in
5 Platoon selected Roman gods and amongst that rich panoply of fearsome names to choose from, Lt Fossey opted for his Warrior to
be known as Cupid
The ensuing glut of
positive COVID tests saw large elements
of the Company go through rolling isolation periods in our early months in theatre, to the extent that I was unable to see some of my Platoon Commanders for several weeks at a time, so I suppose it wasn’t all bad.
For those of us outside of isolation, Estonia was an
Sgt Groom manoeuvres his Warrior in the Estonian mud, Tapa, April 2021
excellent experience. Having the
entire Company based in the same long corridor helped to develop a real sense
of camaraderie as well as giving me a fascinating, if entirely unwanted, insight
into the activity and habits of the men (and officers) in their down time. We also had
our own full fleet of Warriors, Bulldogs,
and other wheeled vehicles for the full six months. With true vehicle ownership came increased proficiency and reliability. Platoons and crews worked hard to maintain their Warriors, even naming them, with each platoon choosing a different genre of gods. Of note, 5 Platoon selected Roman gods and amongst that rich panoply of fearsome names to choose from, Lt Fossey opted for his Warrior to be known as Cupid.
The Company was brilliant on exercise too. Clearing Estonian woodblocks is
all about infantry mass and I have rarely been prouder than when being asked by observer mentors if my Cpls and Sgts could be ‘a little less aggressive as they are scaring the Estonian conscripts playing enemy’. The boys worked hard in defence too, including taking the scalp of holding
a defensive position against an Estonian Scouts company who are based next to the main training area and who delight in turning over the British. Other highlights included conducting an armoured link-up with an American 82nd Airborne brigade after they had jumped into a nearby training area, deploying on range packages to locations which had been nuclear weapons silos during the Cold War (where the troop shelters were the original missile bunkers) and routing the Estonian conscripts on their own final exercise.
Upon our return to the UK the Company has remained in fine fettle. Our last week before some well-deserved post operational leave provided me with two highlights.