Page 18 - Cavalry Regiment

18
1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Although there was plenty of time in ownership of the Regiment’s Jackal fleet, the main theme of this year has been dis- mounted soldiering, with playing enemy in Kenya and taking part in the Cambrian Patrol. There has been plenty of time when the Squadron has been quite dis- jointed, with troops employed on a multi- tude of tasks, but we end the year back as single team and with a focus firmly on deploying as Light Cavalry on Salisbury Plain in February. Along the way there was a lot to enjoy, a lot to laugh at and a lot to be proud of too.
The year began with return from a gen- erous four-week Christmas leave (bol- stered by the last bit of Cabrit POTL) and we kicked off with taking over the vehicle fleet from B Sqn. Even after their valuable work in the autumn there was still a lot to do and the boys spent a good deal of time on the tank park or up at the LAD. In the meantime Lt Kite and Sgt Evans ran a C Sqn-led PNCO Cadre on Stanford Training Area during some particularly cold weather that saw student numbers whittled down severely. From those that lasted the course Tpr (now LCpl) Daley was the pick of the bunch and was duly rewarded with commanding the other
C Squadron
survivors through some unnecessarily complex drill on the pass-off parade. Needless to say, it was done with the expected style and panache. The other training event in this period was Ex Askari Eagle, run by Sgt Welfoot to pre- pare the Squadron for their dismounted role in Kenya. Although it was just on the RBSM airfield, the final night of rain, a dawn attack and the inevitable casevac finishing up on the rugby pitch meant a testing and memorable time. This left just enough time to hand over the fleet to a ROG team led by the SSM WO2 Davies and Sgt Veasey before a week of pre- Kenya leave.
Deployment via South Cerney, Brize Norton and Nairobi to Nanyuki was long but smooth. Too smooth, we should have noticed, and feared the karmic backlash. But we were eager to crack
Too smooth, we should have noticed, and feared the
karmic backlash.
on, and after a week in Nanyuki acclima- tising and spannering a particularly dod- dery fleet we set off for the road trip to Archer’s Post. By the first crossroads at Chaos Corner we had lost three vehicles already but the rest of the trip went well and we ended the day setting up camp in a stunning spot, on a broad level piece of sand with mountains to our back and the sunset to our front. We were missing quite a few of our hierarchy at this point as they were needed as range team to run the CALFEX for 2 Rifles, so the rest of us were teamed up with the remnants from B Sqn for a bit of acclimatisation and training on the area. We battled the heat, the wild animals, bandits and eventually 2 Rifles at the famous ‘God’s Bridge,’ which we breached four out of the six times we tried.
With Phase 2 over we re-formed as C Sqn once again. Those who had stepped up to cover the command positions had performed well and the range staff return- ing had to be on top of their game! We had a strong start spending a good three hours defending a large ‘FOB’ against wave after wave of attackers. With a smidgen of cunning and a hefty amount of offensive spirit, they were still outside
Ex Peak Patrol, patrolling in the Peak District