Page 45 - Bugle Autumn 2014

Riflemen on over-watch from a Foxhound Armoured vehicle in Lydd and Hythe ranges
I Company overview
I Company has had an exceedingly busy
12 months. Following on from its position of saving the Rifle Company’s bacon in BATUS the previous year the Rfn have continued to graft and have regularly picked up numerous support tasks and exercises. Members of the Company have travelled
to Oman, Denmark, Canada, Singapore, Kenya, Germany and Cyprus for exercises and short-term training deployments, some chosen few even managed to get back
to the UK Mainland for Op FORTIFY and support to 7 RIFLES.
Though the Company were informed that they would not deploy on Op HERRICK
20 as a formed Sub Unit, 3 adventurous mortar men have deployed in support of other 20X units and the Recce Pl chain
of command once again appear to forget where they were and deployed alongside A Coy to Camp Bastion
in support of RSOI. A
OC I Coy withdrawing from contact to protect his VIP, Padre Jim
further 40 individuals have been conducting MST and will deploy to Kabul as members of the KSU.
Sniper Pl diligently spent their year honing their skills and managed to get almost the whole Pl badged
have trained under OC Recce in preparation for their deployment to Kabul.
Sniper Pl diligently spent their year
honing their skills and managed to get almost the whole Pl badged (no comment). They
Though much has
been achieved over the
year there has been a
big change in the Company personnel and either individuals are trying to get away from the OC or they have all excelled and gained promotion or postings to pastures new. Over the year the OC has carelessly lost three Pl Comds, two WO2s, one CSjt, two Sjts and numerous Cpls and LCpls. We wish all of them well and hope to see them again.
then turned their eyes to taking over B and C Coy Pls as they prepare to deploy alongside the Company’s to Kabul. On Completion of the final exercise Cpl Glean stated “probably the best MRX I’ve done and to be honest we have probably just seen more action than Recce saw when they deployed”.
The Fire Support Group Pls have had
an emotional 12 months. First of all they gave their Guns to the Rifle Coys and then some of their JNCOs but in return they were reborn as Javelin Pl and Assault Pioneer
Pl. The intention was then to spend the
conditions of the welfare village please see A Coy’s pages. Cpl McNulty MC summed up the deployment as “not that hard but
it had its moments, especially when the RAF Reg came on the ranges”. Those from the Pl that did not deploy with A Coy
year retraining and focussing on the new specialist roles however the reality has been that the Pls have provided a number of key personnel to deploy and the remainder have supported various training events.
Mortar Pl have had an action packed year and somehow only selected the more exotic exercises to deploy on. The Pl supported the Queen’s Royal Hussars in Oman, something about similar waistlines and fitness regimes... The Pl also provided an Inf Sect to 3 RIFLES in Kenya who were apparently unable to entice a Reserve unit to join 3 (Lowland) RIFLES on exercise. Maj A Ficke
OC I company abusing his COS powers using the youth of BHQ to plan his next cycle route around Caerwent.
Recce Pl joined A Coy for the majority of the year in preparation for their short deployment to Afghanistan. For a detailed read on how arduous the deployment
was and the daily struggle in the austere
THE RIFLES
SECOND BATTALION 43