Page 38 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2019
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                                REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN)
   Dame Kelly Holmes meets a sporting legend
hind the bar. Needless to say, there were more than one or two sore heads during the following day’s parade.
Excellence in the mounted role alone was not enough and we still needed to develop our other fighting skills, namely in the dismounted role. Capt Marriott had been busy planning since January for the Squadron to deploy to Scotland and had crafted a training programme that saw us conduct a week of live fire tac- tical training on the Tain ranges near Inverness, before moving north for a week-long dismounted exercise near his home stomp- ing ground of Golspie in the Scottish Highlands. Most training areas are well known by exercising troops and are sterile, with- out any people or the infrastructure that surrounds them. Ex- ercise WOAD LANCER was to be very different. An unknown area, with locals living and working across it, the troops would be operating as they would be in any future theatre of opera- tions. In addition, Capt Marriott had sourced members of the local community to help facilitate the exercise. Particular thanks must go to Maj Gen Patrick Marriott, Keith Jones (ex 17/21L), Ms Tracy Murray (Police Scotland), and Mr Ross Whitehead (ex RM). The RSO, Capt Clarkson, and RSWO, WO2 Browne, took the opportunity to conduct their own Command Troop training, playing enemy forces whilst doing so.
An excellent range package under the direction of Lt Reed and the Dismounted Close Combat expert from the Training Wing, SSgt Quinn, set the exercise off to a superb start. Conducting break contact drills over the sand dunes and wetlands overlook- ing the Dornach Firth was no easy thing and all found it tough, but no doubt one of the best ranges they had taken part in. On moving north, the Squadron based itself out of a barn on the out- skirts of Golspie and prepared to operate across privately owned land around Loch Brora. Before we deployed, we first thanked the local community for their help and support by conducting a small service at the village war memorial and met the military veterans of the area, played a game of football against a local team (in which we were resoundingly beaten), and LCpl Glass took the opportunity to demonstrate some of our kit and equipment. A hugely successful event, and a great way to show our appreciation.
The Highlands are visually stunning but physically exhausting to operate in and during the exercise phase everyone was pushed to their limits. First, the Troops had to covertly insert and es- tablish Observation Posts (OP) to observe and identify potential ‘insurgents’ operating around the Golspie area before tracking their movement and extracting once more under the cover of darkness. The information they gathered led to an intelligence briefing delivered by Ms Murray, the local police officer, with subsequent orders to once again identify and observe the insur-
Exercise TUNIS LANCER - Salisbury Plain
gents from their new suspected locations on the far side of Loch Brora. This involved a long insertion tab over unforgiving ter- rain, carrying all the equipment required to establish 48-hour OPs. Once the key insurgent, who bore a striking resemblance to Keith Jones, had been identified as being static at a particular location, the Squadron was recalled in order to conduct battle prep for a hasty attack. Just how unforgiving the terrain is was highlighted by the fact that Tpr Jaques-Smith, having fallen and broken his ankle, couldn’t be extracted without use of a Search and Rescue helicopter. But the show had to go on and, as dawn broke, the Squadron launched its attack. As the insurgent was captured, the police arrived with blue lights flashing to conduct the arrest. Ms Murray certainly enjoyed locking the arch-crim- inal insurgent Jones in the back of her wagon! A fantastic end to what was undoubtedly a highlight of A Squadron’s training year. Once again, our thanks go to all the people of Golspie who welcomed us with open arms.
The final preparation for A Squadron came in the form of the Regimental Gunnery Camp in Castlemartin. Here the Squad- ron conducted mounted ranges for all platforms. After brilliant tuition from our Regimental Instructors Gunnery, Sgts Horne and Kilburn, and with the steady hand of Capt Luke as Range Conducting Officer, it was no surprise that the ranges were a great success. All crews achieved a first time pass in their An- nual Crew Tests, and they should be congratulated for their ef- forts. Particularly noteworthy was the top scoring crew of Lt Buchanan, LCpl Binns, and Tpr Wallbridge, who produced an unmatched score of 100%. Unfortunately, the top crew were not available to compete in the Commanding Officer’s shoot, so the second place crew, comprised of Cpl Marshall, Tpr McAllen and Tpr Hughes took their place.
As ever there have been a number of changes in the Squadron throughout the year. Capt Marriot moved across to become C Squadron 2IC, SSgt Jones left as SQMS on promotion to WO2 and an SSM role at the RAC Training Regiment. Cpl Richards and LCpls Clegg, Bonell, Imber, Kirtley, and Robertson sought pastures new outside the Regiment. Cpl Gaunt and Tpr Klein left for new roles at ERE, and Cpl Kirkby and Tpr Atkinson trans- ferred to the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers. We have also shown the developing strength of our junior soldiers with Tprs Bennet, Bell, Mohin, and Smithson promoting to LCpl, and LCpls Binns and Cavanagh able to add a second stripe.
In sum, an excellent year for A Squadron. We started the year with the aim of improving across five themes of development, and we absolutely delivered in spades.























































































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