Page 63 - Example Journals

exercise was akin to a cavalryman meeting his new mount for the rst time. Yes there was a nascent expe- rience from a small number of soldiers who had oper- ated in Jackal in Afghanistan, but to most this was a new beast to be met, understood, tamed, and trained. From these early days of conversion the good ideas (as related to at the start of the article) began to come forth. The exercise was a proving event as much as anything to learn the new ways to deploy the vehicles into the eld. The associated photos to this article give a good, raw, idea as to the new ‘mounts’ the Regiment is working off. They’re reliable and tough vehicles, but can get bogged in surprisingly easily at this stage of relative inexperience. Give it a few months and crews will increasingly know the ground they can cover, what to avoid, techniques to keep them up and run- ning. Indeed in certain conditions the Jackal can be so mobile it risks tempting crews into the easy straight line from A to B at the expense of using the cavalry-
man’s ability for using ground to his best advantage. The Squadron will not let up on using ground to its best advantage, it remains a vital skill. Overall it can be safely said there is a general enthusiasm for the new vehicles; improvements to make, but a great vehicle for the Squadron to understand and develop.
From there we embarked on the rst Squadron level training event of Exercise Mounted Grey. Preceded by crew and troop drills, Troops deployed onto the Bergen-Hohne training area to begin understanding, developing and practising the newly written SOPs. Then onto the main conversion training event of 2014: Exercise Grey Jackal, a 9 day Troop level train- ing event, commanded and coordinated by Squadron Headquarters. The eet deploying was primarily Jackal and Coyote, but also included the lumbering Panther, agile Quad (the Sergeant Major’s ride – the revs heard from miles away), and a number of support-
EAGLE AND CARBINE 9
RSDG Year of 2014.indd 9
02/06/2015
16:35
Lance Corporal Magar on deployment parade