Page 62 - Example Journals

8 EAGLE AND CARBINE
A SQUADRON
The old A Squadron had returned from a blizzard of post Operation Herrick 19 recovery events, well- earned leave, and parades in Scotland. Now for a squadron completely new in all but name and the story begins, oddly, in 1944 Normandy...
During the weeks immediately after D-Day, a US Army 102nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron sol- dier by the name of Sergeant Curtis Grubb Culin III had an idea. It was to enable the manoeuvre elements of the US invasion force, metaphorically bogged-down by the extremely close and tough vegetation of the Normandy bocage, to attach to American tanks the spiked metal of the beach obstacles they had already crossed and thereby enable them to cut and ght through the hedged lanes and taking the ght to the Nazis. His idea worked, and as a result the US Army regained the initiative and ultimately enabled the break-out from the Normandy beach-heads. What Monty could not achieve, an American SNCO could.
What on earth has this to do with the new A Squadron the reader may understandably ask? It is demonstra- tive that capability development can and must be driven at all levels of the Chain of Command – and that means A Squadron soldiers. Good ideas are not the sole preserve of Capability Directorates and RHQs, rather all ranks can contribute and it is with this in mind that the new A Squadron approached conversion to the Regiment’s new role as Light Cavalry. A blank slate needed lling. The Squadron was to train in a new role where everyone’s good ideas would count.
In early April the new A Squadron formed ready for its conversion training to begin. New because all bar the name and the Squadron lines had changed; the man- power, the equipment, the training requirements, the Standard Operating Procedures – how the Squadron operates in almost all respects whether in barracks or in the eld. On forming, the new Squadron Leader stood in front of the Squadron and stated to a some- what bewildered group of men that their Challenger 2s were no more, that they’d be increasingly be working on their feet, reminded them that they were leaving Fallingbostel, and that the new Squadron Leader was not even a thorough-bred Royal Scots Dragoon Guard, but rather an outsider posted in for two years.
And so unsurprisingly training has been the name of the game, both individually as drivers, gunners, com-
manders on Jackal, Coyote and Panther, and together up to Collective Training Level 1 (Troop level com- petence). Individual courses are integral to the con- version processes. Also is the ability to work on our feet, not just from vehicles, and indeed often a mixture of the two (as per many a de nition of ‘a Dragoon’). Although the Regiment has operated dismounted before, there is still a dismounted skill set to develop. To that end Lance Corporal Glasgow attended the Section Commanders’ Battle Course in Brecon. Not easy and well done him – he has carried it off with aplomb and will be relied upon to spread his knowl- edge. Indeed he completed some of it with a broken nger. Proof indeed that the RAC soldier can compete with the best of his infantry counterparts. In itself this is just one example of the (too numerous to mention) individual courses attended. All have become small building blocks for collective training, both mounted and dismounted. To further ingrain the dismounted training a composite A Squadron Troop, led by Mr Dawson with Sergeant McCall, performed outstand- ingly on Exercise Lion Sun with B Squadron in Cyprus. By all accounts they were particularly wicked (and therefore good) at using their guile whilst work- ing as the enemy – nding the weak point, thinking as the opposition would. This has assisted the Squadron in beginning to attain the important dismounted skills that are not naturally embedded within a former Armoured Squadron.
A Squadron’s Exercise Breslau Herald was the Regiment’s rst Light Cavalry mounted exercise. The
Boggied on Ex Grey Jackal
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