Page 44 - RAPTC Mind, Body & Spirit

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Football Federation and the League Manager for the professional manner in which I approached the fixture. Their kind words made me extremely proud to be representing my Corps and the Army although it was a sad time for me being back at home.
It was back to the UK for me in mid-October to prepare for my PDA as well as begin planning for the Christmas festivities which included Football, Rugby and the annual ‘fancy dress run’. We decided to make it tougher this year by introducing cold dry minced pies at the start and halfway around the route with a mini
obstacle course at the end for them to navigate. There were some pretty interesting costumes.....
This period also saw several RAPTCIs, including myself; within the Midlands area receive the 7th Infantry Brigade Commander’s Coin for services to Physical Training and Sport within the area. It certainly feels good to be recognised for all your hard work and as my time at 170 Engineer nears the end, I look forward to the fun and challenges that lay ahead in my next post.
WIMBISH STATION (33 ENGINEER REGIMENT (EOD), 101 ENGINEER REGIMENT (EOD) & WIMBISH STATION SUPPORT UNIT)
101 Engr Regt (EOD) combining trade with PD
Wimbish Station Gym Staff at the Highland Games
SSgt (SSI) JJ Bowater & SSgt (SSI) CS Sharpe RAPTC
Gun Run on a frosty morning Cpl Preece promoting Army Cycling at the Station Health Fair
Individuals being put through their paces on the biannual RSM’s River Run
16 AIR ASSAULT
THE SECOND BATTALION THE PARACHUTE REGIMENT (2 PARA)
SSgt (SI) DJ Farrugia RAPTC
For the last 12 months we have been at high readiness which has meant being on the end of a phone ready to deploy to anywhere at any time. This is something myself and 2 PARA
have been keen to do, we sit and wait. The pace of life as always is unrivalled to anything I have seen, countless UK and overseas exercises as well as plenty of large scale battalion events and plenty of sport with adventurous training thrown into the mix.
In Sep 17, 2 PARA deployed to Germany on a large scale multi nation exercise involving the American, French, Dutch and Italian armies to name a few. Prior to the main exercise we did pre- training on a camp which had a pretty impressive Obstacle Course which lent itself well to the paratrooper due to the height of some of the obstacles, it was also stretched out over 1.6 miles which meant the course record was beaten several times by the companies we put through.
Over the last 3 years I have been involved in countless exercises where gym kit is chucked in the locker and cam cream is deployed, this exercise was no different and COs Tac being made of such individuals they pride themselves on being not only the best in the British Army but the world. This means plenty of training prior to deploying on the ground, conducting sweep up training, covering room clearance and prisoner handling drills, anti-tank drills, marksmanship and night training. During my time in COs Tac on exercise I’ve done the Platoon Sergeants role, lead scout, and this time, I was the patrol claymore man, not your usual RAPTC job! 7 days in the field followed living out of a day sack and belt kit (oh we did have bergens for 1 night!) this was hardcore soldiering just carrying your fighting kit tabbing around the German country side. This exercise became known in Tac as, tab, dig, stag repeat...
#TeamBreya, Sgt Ollie Ward who serves at 2 PARA was struck by the devastating news that his little girl Breya was sadly diagnosed with Stage 4 high Risk Neuroblastoma, a very rare Cancer that