Page 57 - KRH Year of 2021 CREST

The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars 55
Project Balaclava was the brainchild of Maj Parkin, to address the shortfall in personal development that is afforded to our SNCOs outside of the ALDP process. The weeklong event was to coincide with the WOs being away on Ex CULLODEN HAWK, which in turn would allow us the Regiment to empower the JNCO cohort to ‘hold the fort.’
The task fell to SSgts Harrison, Harris, Gillon, Gainford, and Green, to deliver the learning objec- tives in a fun and meaningful way, a difficult ask in the middle of a pandemic whilst everyone was wary of hosting large groups. After many reiterations, the plan was set and on the 22nd of November, the Mess embarked on their journey of discovery.
After an award-winning opening address by Capt Pople, we had a remind and revise session from our attached ETS Officer. Whilst the majority are proud to have a JPA pass certificate for L2 literature and numeracy, it was clear within minutes that this ses- sion was long overdue. The afternoon saw us focus on our leadership skills. Once SSgt Harrison had finished with his Brendon from coach trip routine, we made our way to the escape room. Unsure if SSgt Harris had sent us to the wrong address a group were blindfolded and handcuffed to radiators, before hear- ing the door slam shut. The experience was both novel and enlightening, allowing us to see how each person ticked and how our leadership style naturally comes to the forefront in an alien environment.
SSgt Handy Gillon organised a day at the Defence Academy Shrivenham, hosted by our old friend WO2 Pete Pollard. Giving us an insight into current, and future threats alongside what our current and future capabilities look like. This allowed us to break into focus groups, climbing over the kit to prepare for our back briefs and discussion groups. Our wet behind the ears ETS One Pip, was in awe of our knowledge and just seemed excited to see something other than a classroom.
SSgt Paul Green brought us back to our roots and focused on our culture. Our day opened with a ses- sion with an outside coaching and mentoring agency. They aimed to pull from us our working culture and deliver some mental resilience training. As always with these things, it felt more like therapy, it was revealing, uncomfortable but overall allowed us to take a deeper look at how we conduct our day-to-day business and set strategies to move forward. Paul then slipped into what can only be described as something from “Time Team” as he proceeded to tell us about the conception of Peninsula Barracks, before allowing us to meet the Regimental Museums assistant curator. His knowledge of our Regimental history put us all
SSgt Rymer in his Emmental
to shame and I for one wouldn’t like to meet him on a Ten to Ten parade. A highlight for mess members was seeing the collection of Ramnuggar medals all displayed together for the first time.
Thursday was what we affectionally referred to as ‘boats and hoes day’. SSgt Gav Harrison had organ- ised a day of nautical adventures. Our day started with a focus session with ‘re-traders’ that had moved from the RAC to Port and Maritime. The mission is to see why Port and Maritime has one of the lowest NTT rates and the highest influx of soldiers transfer- ring into their ranks across the Army. The soldiers were remarkable in their honesty as to why they had transferee and gave us examples of some poor leader- ship that made them fall out of love with the RAC. As for why no one leaves the Unit, well they’re not called sport and pastime for no reason.
The week culminated in a very special evening aboard HMS Victory, we were given a private tour before being hosted in the Senior Rates Mess on board. It was an absolute privilege to be able to be aboard such a historic ship and even more so to be given the rare opportunity to eat and drink in a mess where Lord Nelson once stood. So, with sore heads, an ETLS officer with an arm full of marking, our first-ever development week was complete. It turned out to be a fantastic opportunity, allowing us to get away from the day-to-day job, bond as a mess cohort after a busy and difficult year, but above all achieving our aim. Each of us walked away feeling like we had learned something about ourselves and could identify an area that we felt that we could work on to make ourselves a better SNCO going forward.
Project Balaclava