Page 19 - Cavalry Regiment

the berms when the DS eventually called endex. Our high confidence carried us onto good performances for the rest of the exercise, with one regrettable excep- tion when a well-sited Rifles OP forced us into an unplanned 14km detour to get onto the objective in one piece. Tpr Wood excelled with ‘the General,’ in one phase taking nine of the top ten longest kills. Numerous midnight encounters with dangerous cats were complemented by the wonders in daylight of giraffe, zebra and gazelle roaming across the plains. Truly a beautiful place.
The affection for the country was slightly dimmed when a revolution in Sudan affected the planned military flights to pick us up and we were looking at four weeks until the next gap in the RAF’s diary. Fortunately, after a few anxious days, Army HQ authorised for everyone to return on civilian flights. It still took a couple of weeks to get everyone back though, happily still just in time for Easter leave.
Return from Easter leave saw us tak- ing the fleet back from the ROG and a mad scramble to get them ready for Regimental ranges in Warcop. After a few fraught stables parades and the odd late finish, they were good to go and we headed off up north to Cumbria. The newly arrived 2Lt Lewis was RCO for the mounted range and under the guid- ing hand of SSgt Beal ran an excellent shoot. All crews passed ACT and sec- tion first time, with a few achieving 100% scores. Lt Cooper, LCpl Foster and Tpr Astbury were top crew by a small margin. With time and ammo to spare at the end, we ran a section competition and after a nailbiting finish Sgt Welfoot’s and Sgt Evans’ sections came joint top. Happily the weather was fine throughout, despite low cloud covering the top of ‘the back- stop’ and often threatening to sweep down. The same cannot be said for our dismounted week, which started with gale force winds and added lashing rain as we reached the section attacks on the Wednesday. Ah well – if it ain’t raining, it ain’t training – though I have never seen so many people crammed into such a small crew shelter. With quite so many half-frozen sausage rolls. The SQMS’s tuckshop made a handsome contribu- tion to Sqn Funds that week.
Back at RBSM we finished handing over the remaining vehicles for A Sqn in time
C Sqn’s role was to provide the camouflage and weapons
stands for the Families’ Day.
At the Thiepval Memorial
1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards 19
No boys, you can’t bring him home