Page 95 - Cavalry Regiment

The Gymnasium has had a variety of jobs this year and tasks to keep the department busy. Aside from day to day delivery of the Regimental PT programme the Gym has helped support the sporting events of the Army in the North.
Events such as UK North X Country on the 23rd Jan, with well over 100 competitors in attendance and British Army Warrior Fitness event on the 20th Feb with over 15 teams taking part. The department has also been busy screening suitable potential All Arms Physical Training Instructors (AAPTI) to attend courses this year. After two successful pre-courses the Gym has managed to successfully load onto course and qualify four AAPTIs LCpls Barr, Tate, Leake and Battle. Now freshly back into the fold of Regimental life the newly qualified AAPTIs are delivering PT with to a high standard and plenty of confidence!
The QMSI also organised a triathlon sports tour to Mallorca in October taking along several members of HQ Sqn including, Maj Stott, WO1 Buchan, SSgt Costello and Cpl Stevenson. It was half- ironman distance event called Challenge Peguera. All members performed well at the triathlon event and then enjoyed a couple of well-deserved days in the Mallorca sunshine having a beer or maybe two!
With the implementation of the new Role Fitness Tests (Soldier) in October of this year, the Gym Staff have been delivering plenty of preparation training to get the Regiment ready to tackle the new standards. There is a little apprehension of the different and the unknown but after several tests the standards have been met with good reviews and pass rates! More work to be done in the future with the Regiment deploying to both Mali and Poland in 2020. A busy new year ahead!
MH
The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
Gymnasium
Regimental Careers and Manning
The Regimental Careers and Manning Office continues to be busy. A new team took over at the start of the year with Captain Simpson, the new RCMO, and Sgt Johnny Allen the new Assistant. This year has been a very challenging land- scape in terms of our recruitment. As the year has evolved and the prospect of a large Operational Commitments in 2020 the department worked hard to ensure balance, cohesion within sub units and the posting’s both in and out are maintained. Despite Army wide difficulties with manning inflow from recruitment through to basic training and onto the Field Army, the regiment’s popularity has seen our numbers increase slightly. We are an exception to the rule and shows that within the RAC and wider Army, The Light Dragoons is still a regi- ment that offers variety that appeals to all.
2019 started with delivering career courses and prepara- tion for conducting numerous overseas exercises and finish preparation for deployments to Op CABRIT, Poland and Op NEWCOMBE, Mali in 2020. In turn this presented its own problems with orbats and pushing along with the normal run- ning of career progression, including the normal career courses like Crew Commanders. However as always, the Regiment moves forward and maintains its readiness capability.
Retention is always a challenging obstacle to overcome and our success rates of reversing people who have ‘signed-off ’ has been good, a combined effort across the board. Our net outflow
is low compared to those across the Brigade and Division but our re-join and transfer statistics are envied across the RAC (especially RDG as they have helped in transferees before their move). The steady flow of Fusilier’s is maintained, and we wel- come to the LD family in the last six-months thirteen transfers from across various cap-badges. This has seen us recruit our first female NCO from the reservists and our first female sol- dier from Bovington.
Overall manning has now increased over the year. This is fan- tastic news when most are feeling the manning burden. Our extra regimental employment commitment is steadily increas- ing across all posts. Our support to the Queens Own Yeomanry remains strong and we are looking to strengthen these with further postings to promote the LD brand. Our current com- mitment externally remains at a healthy level despite a slight drop in the coming year as we say farewell to a strong cohort.
2020 will no doubt be a challenging period but as always within the RCMO’s office our priority is to ensure that the Regiment is equipped with the manning required to deliver on its out- puts but most importantly it serves our soldiers in terms of MS reporting and Career Progression. We continue to work across the Chain of Command to ensure that Career Management is always at the top of the priority list and we sincerely thank all those involved for their continued efforts.
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