Page 37 - Mind, Body and Spirit 2016/17

them top of the group. However, the coach, SSgt Curtis (SSI) made a tactical error in dropping the in uential LCpl Harrison, Resulting in a 1-0 defeat to our local rivals.
SSgt Curtis soon saw the error of his ways and recalled the playmaker. After a ne display from the team in the knockouts, they made it to the nal, where a sublime bit of individual skill from Spr Dinnage, resulted in the ball being lobbed over the
goal keeper. However, trying to defend a 1-0 lead was tight and extremely nerve wrecking.
Nevertheless, some great defending and rst class saves from goalkeeper Spr Gregory helped them to see out the close fought nal. An all-round solid display from 36 Engr Regt Football Team secured them the trophy for the rst time since 2010, and only the third time since the competition began 34 years ago.
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SSgt (SSI) G Lewis RAPTC
In June 2015 I was given the opportunity to lead the P&RTC for the largest unit in the British Army, 27 Regiment. Posted in as a mainstream SSI with an extensive rehabilitation background
it quickly dawned upon me it was going to be a very steep professional learning curve.
The unit has transitioned well from High Readiness to Other Tasks managing a relentless operational tempo. To quantify how busy the soldiers have been please consider that in the period of Jan- April 2017 the regiment had accrued the equivalent of 30 years and four months away from home.
27 Regt has a proud sporting history following a ‘sport for all’ philosophy which sees unit Sports Of cers driving grass roots sports to all ranks. Within the last two years we have won back to back Army Inter-unit athletics tournaments and secured lots of other silverware during both the alpine and Nordic ski season. These and many other successes contributed signi cantly to our 3rd placed nish as major unit in the Army UK Sports Trophy. With much of our achievements occurring during testing times where most of the unit have been deployed we look forward to pushing for more honours throughout 2017/18.
In January 2017 we welcomed the new Commanding Of cer Lt Col J C West following the departure of Lt Col J de V Sunderland RLC. The CO was quickly welcomed into his rst dine-in by a blaring rendition of the Corps March by the RAPTCI.
March 2016 saw the Gym staff and QM’s department work together to deliver the RLC boxing championships, 27 Regt fought incredibly well, against some extremely tough and disciplined
27 Regt on PT
opponents across the RLC. Preparations for the 2017 competition and Inter-Squadron championships are already well underway.
Upon my arrival 27 Regiment sat at 60% Medically t to Deploy (MFD), as such the CO’s direction demanded a focus on increasing deployability and reducing MSKI. Using my experiences as an ERI It enabled a well-educated gym staff to implement structured, speci c, rehabilitation package to our level 1/2 PT cohort. Signi cant investment and procurement of over £15,000 of rehabilitation equipment has added outstanding value to our soldier’s recoveries. Since this process started and in combination with other vital facets of unit health, we have seen an increase in deployability of 24%.
27 REGIMENT ROYAL LOGISTIC CORPS
16TH REGIMENT ROYAL ARTILLERY
SSgt (SSI) B Steels RAPTC
This being my rst tour as an SSI in a eld force unit it has certainly been a steep learning curve. Thorney Island Station is a bit of a weird set up as there are two major units and a minor support unit on the island, which are all Artillery.
One of the rst things I noticed when walking around the station gym was that the resistance training equipment and location needed an uplift and relocating to a suitable location that could facilitate the number of users we could potentially have through the door. Given that there are over 900 Military personnel on the books, what we had just didn’t cut it. After going through the Physical Training Equipment (PTE) DIN it was clear that we were massively under scaled. I then set about putting a request together to bring us in line with the scaling which was accepted and an order was placed. Since the new kit and equipment has arrived the facility has drastically improved and we now have a lot more regular users. The majority of these were previously paying
16 Regt on PT