Page 35 - The Bugle Autumn 2016 Issue 12

B Company
B Company continued a busy 2016 with a 7 week have displayed the ability to train with the ISF
deployment on Ex ARRCADE FUSION, a force protection task supporting the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps deployment to Latvia and Lithuania. As the ARRC forward-based to Lielvarde airbase, the Company supported the build and security of the site, with deployed Platoons in Adazi and Vilnius. An on-paper ‘unglamorous’ tour was broken up by regular PT events in the increasingly arctic conditions, the highlight of which was ‘Sharpe’s Shuf e’ battle PT event, with each team setting off to the sound of LCpl Naylor on his bugle. With Remembrance Day also supported by the B Company bugler, there was a strong Ri es showing to support COM ARRC, the Deputy Colonel Commandant, General Evans. The Company made it back through the cold and sometimes snow, just in time for Christmas, having spent 50% of 2016 away from camp.
Following leave, B Company then changed focus to Op SHADER, moving straight into a frenetic PDT package with the compulsory set of All Ranks Brie ngs, language courses, Team Medic courses and live ring on Castle Martin ranges in the rain - the perfect training for a summer in the Middle East. With the mission being to train the Iraqi and Kurdish Security Forces, a signi cant period was also spent training to deliver lessons in a foreign language, which was done using Gurkhas from the ARRC Support Battalion. Following successful MRXs, B Company Ri emen deployed in April and May, with some groups heading to Besmaya and Taji to provide Force Protection and Counter IED training. HQ elements and the majority of the Company deployed to Kurdistan, based in Erbil, providing infantry training to the Kurdish Security Forces. Throughout, Ri emen enjoyed the experience of working alongside a variety of coalition partners, whether they were the Spanish (and their fondness for Paella), the ANZACS (who ‘graciously’ lost to Eng in the rugby) or the 7 Nations of the Kurdistan Training Coordination Centre (KTCC). The Ri emen
and KSF and have earned a reputation of being top quality trainers and ‘good coalition partners’. Providing training to Iraqi troops conducting opera- tions in Fallujah, to Kurdish Security forces securing the FLOT and capturing ground as the counter- attack to Mosul gains pace, B Company will nish its tour handing over to S Company, successfully contributing to the ght against Da’esh.
Maj Colin Oliver MBE,
Of cer Commanding B Company
C Company
We all join The Ri es to deploy on operations as part of a forward thinking, professional and successful organisation. The past year has therefore been a perfect example of sandwiching in the core ingredients required to motivate and retain ri emen of all ranks. In September 2015, after a compressed period of pre-deployment training, C Company deployed to Iraq on the rst rotation of Op SHADER. Initially a Company sized commitment; we were split between the Kurdish Region of Iraq and training bases near Baghdad. In short our role was to deliver training, as part of a broader international coalition, to both the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi Army to help defeat Da’esh (ISIS, ISIL, IS or the pithy ‘self-styled Islamic State’ as the BBC seems to refer to them). Being progressive, we were not satis ed deliv- ering a templated western version of training. Signi cant effort was therefore invested by members of the Company to deliver relevant training; not just through an understanding of the Iraqi and Kurdish cultures but also through an understanding of the operational requirements for that training. For the Iraqi Army this was larger scale combined arms capability whilst for the Peshmerga, a naturally mountainous militia force, training required was focused on low level conventional and counter-insurgency tactics.
As expected, delivering this training required a set of qualities I believe is unique to soldiers of this regiment. It needed energetic, engaging, rounded and empathetic instructors who could capture the imagination of Kurdish and Iraqi soldiers who were underpaid and often exhausted by their commitment to on-going operations. I am proud to re ect on the achieve- ments of the entire Company, not just the instructors. With constraints on troop numbers, we had to be self-suf cient for force protection, movement and logistics. This required each member of the Company to demonstrate the exibility to ful l a range of roles. It also required a measure of diplomacy not just to operate amongst the Iraqis and Kurds (noting that 2016 was the 100 year anniversary of the Sykes Picot agreement) but also amongst a coalition with different cultural approaches to delivering training on Opera- tions. 1 Ri es now holds a nucleus of trained and experienced ri emen who will prove mission critical to future tasks to train, advise, assist and accompany indigenous forces.
Major R Streatfeild, Of cer Commanding C Company
Partnering Peshmerga
Capt Keating manages
a CBRN attack during
the Mission Rehearsal Exercise, Op SHADER PDT
THE RIFLES
FIRST BATTALION 33