Page 18 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2018

16 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN) Operations Company
2018 started with Public Order training in advance of the squadron’s metamorphosis into the Operations Company, with the help of a B Squadron troop under Lieutenant Gray and Sergeant Younger, on Operation TOSCA 28 under the United Nations. This training was one of the highlights of the year, with an instructor group sent to Lydd ranges to undergo a week of intensive training against some fairly tall Coldstream Guards. This was immense fun and, divested of many daily responsibili- ties (JAMES / Tinder), officers and non-commissioned officers soon got into the literal swing of things with water pipe batons (who would have thought they came in so many painful vari- eties?), petrol bombs and other assorted projectiles / shopping trolleys / car tyres. Perhaps the best part was the roadblock clear- ance technique: all admitted it had an exceptionally slim chance of success, but in keeping with the general theme, it proved fun and made for some interesting photos – Sergeants Clements and Whitehead-Junior proved themselves to be particularly adept, as one would expect from our in-house Royal Engineers!
It was good that we sent so many on this excellent course as the training was put to immediate use on a self-run public order training package. Organised largely from the tank park under the direction of Captain Humphreys, with the management skills of Staff Sergeant Dyer and through the grip of Sergeants Short, Veale, Ellerby and France, the training and final exercise at the Catterick Fighting Village was excellent and a great dem-
onstration of what you can achieve with a bit of imagination and keeping the estate manager onside (looking after the train- ing area, clearing up and mostly biscuits). Progressing from dry drills without any protective equipment, this soon ramped up, and the troops were ‘inoculated’ to fire by being set on fire! And of course the troops rotated through playing civilian population as well – but it was all done in the right manner and thanks to the effort of the senior non commissioned officer instructors, any sporadic instances of the inevitable red mist were quickly dealt with. For some, the bruises remained until we flew to Cy- prus – note that skinny jeans do not handle water piping particu- larly well! It was also a great chance to spot those junior lead- ers in B and D Squadrons with potential, of which there were many, and whom we hoped to reward in Cyprus with command appointments.
It was good that this training was hard – it focused our minds ready for the mission rehearsal exercise (MRX) under a training team from Operational Training Advisory Group, the Army’s operational training establishment. As a direct result of the hard work from the squadron, we secured a green pass. So mission accomplished? Well we soon learned that this training required a vastly different approach than just being able to handle your- self in a riot. Indeed, reaching that stage meant that something had probably gone badly wrong and it was this ‘before the riot’ stage on which we now focused that relied upon the bread and