Page 24 - Cavalry Regiment

24
1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Anyone got any blue camcream?
the training burden that MT has – how- ever, the MTO and the MTWO WO2 Tommy Hughes along with Sgt (Sonic) Davies have all grafted hard to ensure MT is current and competent to deliver its role as A1 within the BG concept. Matt will allude to his build up and training pro- gression in his article. Just to finish with MT Capt Chud Ruddock has now left the Army and the Sqn would like to wish him all the best for the future. His right hand man WO2 Mitchell also has left the Army, so all the very best and thank you for your efforts within the Department.
Both the QM & QM(T) Departments have been equally busy in the sustainment and demands of the Regiment. They have re-invigorated tired old policies with realistic new ones. This enables the Regiment to operate more efficiently in all that it does. The QM (Capt Chris Homewood) has been working hard liais- ing with DIO ensuring that the camp is always looking pristine and fit for purpose for our families and soldiers. The QM(T) (Capt Jason Bongo Davies) has ensured that all the demands of the Regiment (2ic Maj Jerome Tyson) have been met by tactical liaison with the Land Training Fleet Warminster (LTF(W)). This has been a team effort with the LAD (Capt Scott Dougal EME) to ensure that the vehicles we receive are in a taskworthy condi- tion, with fitter teams pushing forward to Warminster to conduct work on the vehicles, prior to them coming to the Regiment. Also, our Health and Safety Advisor Capt Martyn Flitcroft has done a sterling job preventing anyone going to jail, ensuring we toe the party line while conducting safe and legal training.
Picking up tips on promotion
All the Fijian soldiers organised a great cultural
experience for all of the regiment to enjoy.
October saw the celebration of Fiji day. All the Fijian soldiers organised a great cultural experience for all of the regiment to enjoy. This was the first time the QDG Fijian soldiers have had the opportu- nity to celebrate in RBSM. It started off with a traditional welcoming ceremony that is always done to Fijian chiefs or chief guests, so for this day it was the Commanding Officer Lt Col.Hugo Lloyd, HQ Sqn Ldr Maj Paul Jones and Welfare Officer Capt Butch Davies. It involved a traditional drink kava (grog) ceremony, a church service and a brief history of Fiji which the CO addressed to all the guests. Fijian civilian guests and their families were invited to the day as well as serving soldiers from the Regiment. Food was traditional, mainly cooked by the men in a “Lovo”, an underground oven which had been fired up at 6am that morning, but not forgetting the delicious cooking of the wives just to add up a variety of dishes on the day. The Fijian solders have been our brothers in arms as Commonwealth soldiers for a long time and it was great to get a more in-depth historic knowledge of their traditions and life back home. Thanks go to Sgt ‘Sky’ Korovulavula and his team for a great day.
The RCMO and ARCMO have ensured that all MS within the Regiment has been
The dream team
faultless and delivered in a timely manner. Soldiers reporting is important and both have worked extremely hard to meet demanding timelines. In the autumn the ARCMO swapped over with SSgt Gaz Roberts moving to C Sqn SQMS and SSgt Steve Walker coming the other way.
The year ended with the traditional Christmas Day celebrations with the Sqn CoC waking up the single living in soldiers with gunfire and bacon rolls. Later we indulged in some light PT with games, seeing HQ beat everyone in the tug-a-war, followed by a church service, lunch and then the traditional mess vis- its. A great day had by all. To conclude it has been a very busy period indeed, we have refreshed and rehearsed our core role, ensuring the echelons are fully trained and that we have the trained people to do this. The hard work of the Training Wing and RCMO Dept has really paid off as BGHQ are well established and can operate efficiently as a now more dynamic and agile group, who can deliver communications at reach. We look forward to the challenges that 2020 has to offer with firstly, a deployment to Germany for CSTTX in Sennelager. Secondly, a test exercise in SPTA on WS 1/20 for six weeks. The Regiment is also due to deploy to Mali later on in the year which will bring pre-deployment training over the summer. More will follow through the HHQ updates.
I hope you have enjoyed catching up on what the Squadron has been up to.
Thank you.
PDJ
The famous ‘conceptual training’
LCpl Jones seeks out Bongo