Page 160 - Bugle Autumn 2014

Hereford and Worcester ACF
Suvla Barracks TA Centre, Harold Street, Hereford HR1 2QX e-mail: ceo@hwacf.com
Honorary Colonel: Brigadier (Retd) M S Vine OBE Cadet Commandant: Col A S Taylor
Deputy Commandant: Lt Col A W Booton
Cadet Executive Officer: Maj L Glover
Training Major: Maj N Walker QRH
OC A Coy: Maj H Smail MERCIAN
OC B Coy: Maj J Hyde MERCIAN
OC C (Rifles) Coy: Maj A H Ayres RIFLES RSMI: WO1 (RSM) A Chwalinski
C Company (RIFLES) has had a busy year both in the field and on ceremonial duties. Last summer we won the Champion Company in the battalion competition that is run over the year and includes all aspects of ACF life from first aid through drill to military skills and sport. Consequently, Maj Tony Ayres, our new OC had a lot to live up to when he took over the company in Sept 2013 and we are pleased to say that, we are expecting to pick up the trophy again this year at Annual Camp.
We have been very busy this year on ceremonial duties including marching in the six market towns of Herefordshire on Remembrance Sunday, the appointment of our new Lord Lieutenant’s Cadet Cdt Sjt Melissa Jenkins and Service Award for Merit to both our previous OC Major Bob Harrison and our current CSM, WO2 Simon Gryntus at the same ceremony. We were also on parade for Armed Forces Day this June in Hereford with nearly one hundred all ranks on parade.
Herefordshire has traditionally always been a Light Infantry county and had an LI presence until the formation of The Rifles at which time the TA in Hereford was re-badged to Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry (RMLY).
From the formation of The Rifles until earlier this year C Company (RIFLES) Hereford and Worcester ACF have been the only RIFLES badged unit in Herefordshire. This year, after a lot of negotiations RMLY Hereford re-badged to Rifles to become 10 Pl, E Coy, 6 RIFLES.
As the custodians of the RIFLES heritage in Herefordshire C Company was asked to form part of the re-badging ceremony of our Army Reserve colleagues on a parade one evening in April attended by many local dignitaries, including Lady Darnley, the Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire and the Commanding Officers of both the RLMY, 6 RIFLES and Commandant Hereford & Worcester ACF.
Major Tony Freeman, OC RMLY Sqn and Major Tony Ayres OC C Company along with their CSMs devised a unique parade at which the cadets ‘welcomed’ the Army Reserve back into The Rifles family by presenting them with their new RIFLES berets and then after a number of speeches by both the civil and military dignitaries the two units symbolically marched off together under Rifles Drill.
Afterward there was a joint reception for both 6 RIFLES and C Coy cadets – An excellent example of the Rifles family working
Sjt Jenkins Climbing - Cdt Sjt Jenkins and the team climbing in North Wales ‘The best week of my life!’
together. Since then a number of initiatives have been discussed for the cadets and 10 Platoon to work closely together to support both recruitment for the Army Reserve and recruitment of Adult Instructors for the ACF. – It’s great to have the RIFLES back!!
It sounds as if most of what we do is ceremonial, it isn’t the majority of our work is on military skills primarily fieldcraft and shooting. This year we have had five weekend camps during which time the cadets have learnt a lot of skills and experience in the field as well as numerous expedition and adventurous training weekends. We have now fully adopted the new fieldcraft syllabus that really stretches the cadets at an early stage, and they love it!
As we write this we are about to depart for Annual Camp, which this year is a shooting camp at Altcar and we would like to thank
1 RIFLES for supporting us with a Section from Support Company with ‘lots of toys’ for the cadets to play with!!
All the other great stuff we do can be found at our facebook page Facebook.com/HWACFCCOy
Maj Harrison, Sjt Mjr Gryntus - EX OC, Current CSM and Claire Bond the Suvla Bks Manager receiving their awards for Service and Merit from Lady Darnley, Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire
Lt Hatch with her Close Protection Team - Cdt RSM Spragg and Cdt Cpl Sampson
Fieldcraft is Fun!
158 CADETS
THE RIFLES