Page 9 - MERCIAN Eagle 2020

CO Foreword
Lt Col Dean Canham OBE
During an unprecedented year, 1 MERCIAN has risen to the challenge of uncertainty and change. Soldiers and officers alike have reacted to profound, short-notice changes of both our forecast and working practices with humbling enthusiasm.
At the beginning of the year, we were on track to deploy to Afghanistan on Op TORAL to provide security in Kabul. The Battalion shifted its focus
to re-qualifying onto the wheeled Foxhound vehicles for this, while never compromising on our core armoured infantry skills as part of the UK’s vanguard armoured forces. Then the onset of COVID-19 and national lockdown forced radical changes in how we conducted our business – companies going to great efforts to keep their soldiers engaged, fit and cared for while they worked from home. Meanwhile, there were still operationally crucial driving qualifications, range packages and other activity that needed to continue. The Training Wing have been white-hot all year in ensuring the activities were provided in a professional and socially responsible manner, with the safety of our soldiers and the health of their families always foremost in their minds.
Then, all change. Demand for the Battalion’s armoured infantry skills was greater elsewhere and we were given a change of mission: Op CABRIT in 2021, deploying to protect NATO’s eastern border
in Estonia, at the forefront of collective security along with our allies in the Baltic region. Preparing ourselves for this new task required deploying to Germany for build-up training at only a few weeks’ notice; a tall order, but we will never risk deploying our operations to defend the UK with anything less than the most thorough preparation. Within days of being told, elements of the Quartermaster’s department and training wing were in Germany, setting the conditions for the highest quality training and welfare for our soldiers.
The rest of the Battalion soon followed, hurling themselves into the training with complete determination, while also making the most of the fleeting opportunities to explore Germany and conduct adventurous training. The close of 2020 saw us returning home for Christmas for rest and time with our families, ahead of the redeployment to Germany in the new year, gathering momentum as we conduct mission ready training exercises before rolling forwards in Spring 21 to our base in Tapa, Estonia.
We emerge from 2020 having experienced
an entirely different year to that which we had anticipated and planned for. As an armoured infantry battalion we are trained, ready and keen to get on operations to protect the UK’s interests, both at home and abroad, as the heart of England’s Infantry – at the very heart of NATO.
Lt Col Dean Canham OBE, Commanding Officer, 1 Mercian
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
1MERCIAN
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