Page 14 - Example Journals

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1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
over from Sgt Mitchell as SQMS. This occasion was marked by a particularly memorable pre-deployment squadron party held on 20 March in the squadron bar (an institution that will be sorely missed on our move to Swanton Morley). It was decided (by popular demand) that the party would be fancy dress resulting in an unplanned light-sabre showdown between Luke Skywalker (Tpr Evans 143) and Darth Vader (Maj O’Brien).
After a couple of weeks of pre-operational leave, the squadron reassembled on 14 April at an otherwise empty Dempsey Barracks to conduct our nal administration. On 16 April we piled onto a coach, in front of a small audience of wives, children and the Commanding Of cer for an epic journey across Europe by road and ferry to Brize Norton from where we eventually ew (via Cyprus) to Camp Bastion in Helmand.
Unfortunately Capt Lough, the Sqn 2IC, was not among us, having contracted chickenpox; a truly frightful sight on a person in his late 20s. Instead 2Lt McKellar was called back from a romantic week’s leave in Belgium (two days before deployment), quickly issued kit and deployed to ll the gap until Capt Lough had suf ciently recovered and could be loaded onto a ight.
Our rst few days in Afghanistan were taken up with Reception, Staging and Onward Integration (RSOI) training and moving into our accommodation in Camp Leatherneck, the US part of the wider camp of which Bastion formed the UK part. As can be imagined, the USMC (and by virtue of residing in Leatherneck, A Sqn) lived in a style not seen in Bastion. We were accommodated in a mixture of CORIMECs and metal prefabricated accommodation buildings, all comfortable and mercifully with working air-conditioning. The USMC cookhouse (known as a DEFAC or more simply ‘chow-hall’) also initially appeared to be more appealing than its British equivalent in Camp Bastion; although a couple of months in and several of us were hankering after British food in
favour of the deep-fried and processed American style cooking. A Bastion curry was a rare treat and well worth attending meetings in Bastion for!
The RCBS Security Forces Assistance and Advisory Team (RCBS SFAAT), as the combined A Sqn and USMC training team was known comprised about 90 people, 30 from A Sqn, 30 USMC and about 30 US civilian contractors and interpreters (known as linguists). Additionally, our outer cordon force protection in Camp Shorabak was provided by two Pls from a USMC weapons company (analogous to a UK infantry support company).
No sooner had we learned our jobs and got to know our Afghan counterparts than it was time to bid farewell to the incumbent USMC team and welcome their successors, with whom we would nish the tour. Unlike the British Army, the USMC forms advisor teams by throwing together a group of individual augmentees and training them in a process more or less akin to CMST. They also routinely conduct 9 to 12 month operational tours (often without R&R). Both of these factors can generate a number of frictions that we Brits do not routinely experience. However, we got on well with both USMC teams and it was a sad day when we nally parted company.
Fortunately, the tour passed without major incident; with A Sqn soldiers workinginCampShorabakattheRCBS and on the ANA ranges in the desert just outside, six days a week. Huge progress was made, both in terms of the quality of the instruction delivered by the Afghan instructors and the resulting increase in quality of soldiers being provided to 215 Corps and the organisation and planning conducted by the RCBS headquarters. When we rst arrived, most of the training courses were already functional, with only a few that needed further instructional development or coalition hands on instruction. However the RCBS headquarters was unable to plan its own training programme in advance and allocate scarce resources, such
as ammunition and fuel to facilitate the training. By the time we left Afghanistan in mid-September this situation had been recti ed, in no small part due to the effort of the A Sqn advisors.
Throughout this period, the squadron maintained an R&R plot, resulting in each (entitled) member of the squadron taking two weeks of R&R. On 10 June the rst of a number of personnel changes took place. First to join us was Lt McKechnie (who had commanded his troop on Exs PASHTUN TEMPEST and PANTHER), to replace Lt Carter mentoring the RCBS Infantry Battle School, in order to release the latter for a posting to Bovington as a Tp Ldr at the RACTR. Next was the short notice departure on 15 June of the SSM (WO2 Davies) due to a minor injury. Despite being “non-urgent”, his evacuation happened so quickly, that no replacement had been considered. Fortunately, SSgt ‘Barney’ Costello was available and fully trained and so he ew out almost immediately (with acting rank on) to ll the large shoes left behind. Finally Tprs Farmer, Mole, King and Carew deployed out to replace others requiring career courses back in Germany. This meant that despite the squadron being established on Op HERRICK 20 for just 30, a total of 36 QDGs and attached arms were able to bene t from what could be the last operational experience for some time and will be able to pass on the bene ts of that experience to the next generation.
One of the hazards of living with Americans during the summer months is their propensity to celebrate their rather regrettable departure from the British Empire on 4 July! This event was not be missed, even in Afghanistan, and the Leatherneck chow-hall was duly decorated and special food laid on for the occasion. By this stage we had developed close friendships with our USMC colleagues and so it was decided that A Sqn should host a party (sadly dry of course) for the USMC component of the RCBS SFAAT. The afternoon was a great success with a barbeque and some potted sports. More widely