Page 18 - Example Journals

14
1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
B Squadron
Last year Major Farebrother stated in the journal that 2014 promised to hold many challenges for B Squadron. Our last minute inclusion in the order of battle for Op HERRICK 20 had spun the world on its head, but rolling with the punches the Sqn had quickly completed an about-face and surged forward with Mission Speci c Training. The challenges multiplied; gone was the familiar Sqn lay-down of Sabre Troops and Sqn HQs also gone was the need to nd x and strike as our primary function, in came ‘soft skills’, engagement, confrontation management and negotiation. New vehicles arrived with no-one trained to drive them, new weapons arrived with no-one trained to re them. Luckily, as each new challenge crashed upon us, the Sqn rose to meet them head on.
Before I begin talking about Afghanistan, I must of course mention an extremely important event, hosted by B Sqn in March, somehow squeezed in between HORN training and Black bag issues! The Wives Exercise or Ex EAGLES MATE, organised by the SSM, Mr Gallacher, was a great success with 10 wives throwing themselves fully into the 2 days of fun. Bayonet training, a navigation exercise, a rations display as well as other army things all followed by a very slick and terrifying section attack on the playing eld. All of the ladies in attendance were enthusiastic, keen to learn and in many aspects better than their husbands!
Now on to the Tour. Through a good deal of hard work, understanding, co-operation and co-option, disruption
2 MERCIAN hand over as Brigade Advisory Team to QDG
and learning, many courses and one or two colourful Excel spreadsheets B Sqn met its targets and were able to continue our run up to Herrick. Drivers, Gunners and Commanders learnt their way around our new steeds, the HUSKY and FOXHOUND. These armoured patrol vehicles, speci cally designed for the Afghan environment, would take us well outside the protective wire and towers of Camp Bastion and into an Area of Operations (AO) bereft of ISAF forces. Consequently, excellence in their operation was required and in every case found. Gunnery, both mounted and dismounted, was completed in a wet couple of weeks at Castlemartin. Blank exercises followed in Thetford, placing the Sqn in an Afghan scenario; allowing us to operate in and out of our new vehicles for extended periods. Meetings and negotiations with Afghan actors, made deliberately dif cult and challenging, added much needed realism to the training whilst Gurkhas acting as Afghan National Army (ANA) did their level best to un-nerve the soldiers in their roles as Guardian Angels (effectively bodyguards for the Advisors). One particular Gurkha took great delight in repeatedly throwing
stones at Cpl Kaikadavu, much to this friendly and good-natured Fijian’s distress.
In the blink of an eye, or so it seemed we, arrived at our nal test exercise, Ex PASHTUN DAWN, which took us on another long coach journey to UK, this time to Salisbury Plain. Again, we mounted our vehicles, again we were tested and again we performed well. There we stood, boxes ticked, exercises attended, the Colonel of the Regiment’s stirring pre-tour speech ringing in our ears, B Sqn was ready for Herrick 20.
The Commanding Of cer had always stressed that Herrick 20 would be a tour of uncertainty. Few of us could have guessed, stepping off the Aircraft into the warm Afghan night, that Op HERRICK 20 would be so different from previous tours. B Sqn settled into its new accommodation, Troopers in one block and NCOs and Of cers in another. We were to live in Camp 501, the oldest and best established sub-camp within the Bastion complex. Consequently we had the relative luxury of our own laundry, gym and (patchy) wi , a far cry