Page 10 - Cavalry Regiment

10
1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
The Sqn Ldr congratulates Tpr Huish on not freezing to death
we all learnt a lot that will remain with us for a long time. Whether it be LCpl Murphy battling to get comms back to our US counterparts from just outside Kaliningrad to Sgt Edwards and Capt Alex Lewis (RA) leading a group on a battlefield study to Latvia we all returned home with stories that it would be hard to find from other parts of the world. A balance of trips away, to exercises and training made Cabrit a different sort of deployment. For young soldiers there remains the question of getting some form of formal recognition for this oper- ational tour, hopefully this will have been forthcoming by the time this journal goes to print.
After some well-earned leave the Squadron split into seven groups to con- duct Adventurous Training. Masterminded
After some well-earned leave the Squadron split into
seven groups to conduct Adventurous Training.
by Lt Tom Oakley but delivered by a range of people, we were able to get nearly every soldier away for a week or two. Their articles are contained in this journal, some impressive work done by some junior soldiers to organise challeng- ing trips abroad for their peers and sen- iors. Particular mention must go to LCpl Sims who is striding forward in organising climbing trips both at home and abroad.
As we returned from AT we settled back into regimental life, the first time all three squadrons had been in camp together for a number of years. There was no rest for the wicked as we packed up and headed off to Warcop in Cumbria for regimen- tal ranges. A superb couple of weeks organised by the Training Wing gave us a chance to practise both mounted and dismounted firing to a high level, some- thing we hadn’t been able to achieve in Poland. None more so than A Sqn’s Sgt Sudlow who delivered an excellent fire team and section attack range, complete with waist high water and dead sheep in all likely positions of cover. Cpls Hatton and Griffiths 147 were deemed to have executed the best dismounted section attack of the week while Sgt Speed and Cpl Hutchings claimed the award for the
The SQMS plans his retirement
Sadly the Training Wing hadn’t placed out targets
to test the anti-aircraft drills...
best mounted section. Amidst some hot competition and in the face of some ter- rible weather the SSM was pipped to the post by Cpl Jones 188, Tpr Logan and Tpr Smith as the best individual crew, a highly coveted award. There was much consternation at missed targets, inaccurate marking and accusations of underhand behaviour... Sadly the Training Wing hadn’t placed out targets to test the anti-aircraft drills some gun- ners wanted to employ. Thankfully by the end of the period the standard of firing was excellent and a significant amount of ammo had been used up.
As we returned from Warcop A Squadron took over ownership of the regimental vehicle fleet and picked up where we had left Poland in trying to fix vehicles with the LAD. Sgt Wilkins and Cpl Hatton took the lead on entertaining thousands of chil-
The Sqn on OPFOR