Page 58 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2019

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The last 12 months has been a hive of activity in MT as we, like the rest of the Regiment, focussed our attention on getting back to our core role of Armoured Cavalry. Noting the inherent challenges of providing real life support and resupply of the fighting echelon, the Troop adopted a back-to-basics ap- proach and tried to re-discover a collective skillset that was in need of a little fine tuning.
With a fair amount of movement within the Troop we bid fare- well to Cpl Bagshaw, LCpl Burgess, LCpl Burrows and Tpr Hill- ier who all departed for civilian life as well as Cpl Thompson and Cpl Brough-Jones now employed in Recruiting Group and Command Troop respectively. This opened up some space for fresh faces and a super enthusiastic young cohort. LCpl Drake and Tpr Newton joined us having transferred into the Regiment and we saw the long-awaited return of ‘force multiplier’ Cpl Gandidzanwa.
In addition to the myriad commitments that we have supported throughout the year the Troop deployed on Exercise WATER- LOO LANCER as a complete A1 Echelon and consolidated our own Battle Craft training in a JNCO lead event focussing on junior leadership. The training period covered a variety of aspects from convoy drills to contact drills and everything in
between with a golden thread of identifying tactics, techniques and procedures that need to be developed as we look forward to
Motor Transport Troop
2020 and beyond.
RJD
A1 Echelon BCS training
REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN)
Sgt Smith and Cpl Gooding (double trouble cruising) in Richmond
Post Castlemartin Ranges, Sgt Bailey departed on his ADR in- structors’ course, which he successfully passed, and then deliv- ered two weeks of eye-watering PowerPoint ADR courses to the Regiment in preparation for BATUS 2020. Following this, he was then put through his paces with LCpl Bragg to complete the Regimental BOWMAN BCIP 5.6 uplift; this was a daunting task with a great deal of driving to and from Warminster. Their ef- forts were not in vain, managing to complete the uplift smoothly with very few issues.
SSgt Nunn and SSgt Davies had their work cut out with the merger of the Royal Lancer and LAD UINs followed by a re- write of the Unit Equipment Table. We are gluttons for pun- ishment, undertaking a Combined Inspection week, i.e. the Logistic Support Assurance and Inspection (LSA&I) and Land Equipment Assurance (LEA). A testing time, and not one to be repeated in 2020.
The Destructor roars up to the finish line like Desperate Dan
December was soon upon us and Christmas week was loom- ing. The department completed all close-down procedures in preparation for some well-deserved leave. During this time, we saw SSgt (Davo The Destructor) Davies, put on a heroic per- formance in the Royal Lancers Soap Box Challenge of 2019. The Destructor came a well-deserved second place, after a very wobbly start, with extremely sore joints and bones after hurtling over the speed bump at Foxglove gate. He finished only one sec- ond off the winner’s time due to running out of steam (definitely not a weight issue). The year closed with the usual Christmas festivities and with an extremely busy 2019 now behind us, we are looking forward to the challenges 2020 will bring and for it all to start again.
PB