Page 83 - Mercian Eagle 2014

first all-ranks Mess Dinner held in the
ARC to celebrate the St George’s Day, a tradition from A (Fus) Coy. Junior soldiers regardless of rank were encouraged to participate, probably the first ever formal dinner, bringing with them their partners or next of kin. It was a very good opportunity for non Mess members to learn about the Mess protocol and get to know what the officers and the seniors would normally
do in their messes. The Mercian Regiment Band was also invited to play the music
at the Dinner. Regimental marches of
the attached services were also played
at the end of the Dinner. Undoubtedly everyone present experienced and enjoyed a pleasant evening. Unfortunately, the CSM, WO2 Hedges, had decided to leave HQ Company and the Army Reserve after the Dinner so that he could concentrate
his commitment in his civilian employment with the ACF. We also saw the departure of
Operations
WO2 Moody and Sgt Brockhurst who have reached their age for glorious retirement.
Over the last year, we have seen the safe return of WO2 Moody, Sgt Newell, Ptes Connolly and Tompkins
from Op TOSCA. As
22 years of loyal service with the regular. Also having completed the regular service proudly was WO2 Lamonby, whose duty as SPSI was taken over by WO2 Hoey. WO2
newcomers we have
Maj Watters as Coy
2IC, Capts Atherton
and Koniarski as Ops
Offr, Capt Rossiter as
IO, Sgt Gilmour and
Cpl Thomas, all of
whom are ex-regulars.
Other soldiers who
have recently joined us were Lt Needham, Cpl Bate, Ptes Boyes, Crowther, Lane, MacDonald, Maddox, Major, Mercer, Noorani, Tinsley, Vernon and Wymer.
We also welcomed CSgt Powell from
3 MERCIAN to become the SigsPSI taking over from CSgt Dodd who retired after
Lamonby has become a member of the Reserve to become the ROSWO.
The Battalion would soon be deploying soldiers to Cyprus on Op TOSCA with the 2nd Battalion. WO2 Harding, Sgts Green, Helliwell and Talbot (recently returned from
HERRICK), Cpl Troth and Ptes James, Jakeman, Nash, Pinson, Preston and White have volunteered to go for this UN operation. We wish them a safe and successful tour.
Short Term Training Team (STTT), Uganda, April 2014: A JNCO’s View By Cpl Henshaw
Prior to our deployment to Uganda as part of the STTT, lessons had been allocated
to each of the instructors, with plenty of time to prepare and rehearse. There was also a weekend for pre-deployment briefs to include safety, history, tasks and admin as well as rough outline of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). This allowed us to understand the terrain and environment that the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) would be working in. Overall the briefing weekend left me well-informed and confident to continue with my planning and preparation. Once complete our lessons plans were handed in to our team leader to confirm that the quality was up to standard. This concluded all preparation for the lessons we were teaching and in addition to the packing
list, devised by those that had deployed to
Uganda before, we were now as prepared as we could be.
On the day of travel we made our way from relevant Army Reserve Centres to Battalion HQ and departed for London Heathrow. All aspects of travel and the journey were well planned and as a result
of the rank range deploying everyone was given free time in the airport and was not required to stay together. Our flight was via Nairobi, which added some time but was not unbearable. We had a welcome party on arrival in Uganda where our baggage was loaded and we drove the three hours to our camp that would be home for the next two weeks.
Once we arrived at the camp we were met by the Advance Party and given
the relevant safety and admin briefs.
I was pleasantly surprised with the
accommodation and facilities in our part of the camp: there was cold water available
at all times and the food was of a very high standard throughout. All the local camp staff were very helpful and aided our time there with providing laundry facilities, as well and general cleaning and maintenance of the camp and tents. Unfortunately the showers were cold for the duration but all efforts were made to get them working again.
Before the training took place we had a day of preparation which gave us a chance practice and meet our translator/instructor as well as our demo troops. I feel we
were particularly lucky with our allocated instructor because he was an excellent English speaker and had just returned from Mogadishu with a wealth of experience. CSgt Hill and I gave him our lesson plan and explained how we would be giving the
STTT group Photos on the training area
The Battalion would soon be deploying soldiers to Cyprus on Op TOSCA with the 2nd Battalion.
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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