Page 135 - RAPTC Mind, Body & Spirit

to improve and we look forward to carrying on the great progress the event has made in recent years.
Exciting times are on the horizon especially within the PD infrastructure bracket. The new 500k development of the station pool will see us gain a state of the art retractable roof giving us all year-round capability. With approval for a new running track at Happy Valley to complement recently finished projects the Station and surrounding areas are in a good place.
On a personnel level, it has been a busy and interesting period adapting to the different challenges with lots of great experience gained, I look forward to whatever might be around the corner in what is an exciting time to be within Episkopi Station.
DHEKELIA STATION
SSgt (SSI) S Mansfield RAPTC
Episkopi Station Improvements Team
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As I enter into my last 6 months of this tour I will unfortunately be the last RAPTCI to work as the SSI of Dhekelia Station before the PID closes in September 2018. The Station responsibilities will be handed over to the Resident Infantry Battalion SSI and the Station AAPTI who’s PID will remain in post for the near future. I have had a fantastic time working in Cyprus and it is a shame that the RAPTC will lose this interesting and busy post.
Dhekeila Station Gymnasium is a hive of activity and is the centre of all sporting actives within the wider community in Dhekeila. There is constant flow of people training throughout the day due to the many shift workers that we have. The schools are a primary customer as they don’t have their own facilities. Whilst arranging
Akrotiri Station Commander encouraging his Tug
of War team on
military PT may not be the daily occurrence, the needs of the wider community are probably greater than the average unit. Every day there is a fitness class taking place or sports clubs using the gym.
Dhekelia Station is small in military numbers of support staff, but extremely large in terms of the community. That aside we have managed to produce some excellent results on the sporting front in events across BFC. Our main achievements were the first mixed team in the Dhekelia DASH, (team of 14, each runner runs a mile), 1st mixed team in the Walk Down (26-mile race in a team of 4 from Troodos to Episkopi), the female team won the BFC Cross Country League and also had the first female and first, second and third vet in the league. The Clay pigeon shooting team got a first and second and many individual medals in the BFC Championships. All credible achievements with such a small military footprint.
Key to Cyprus is the wide number of events that take place, where the emphasis in genuinely on maximum participation. My role as SSI Dhekeila Station is responsible for several these events and