Page 53 - RAPTC Mind, Body & Spirit

51
12TH REGIMENT ROYAL ARTILLERY ‘STORMERS’
SSgt (SSI) K Boyd RAPTC
Having now served with the Regiment for nearly three years, I find myself well established with this fiercely proud unit. The CO, Lt Col Graham Taylor has been that impressed he has
personally recommended me to help out Theresa May with Brexit. However, I had to turn down this offer, as I’m way too busy with Regimental life.
The unit has now found itself in a unique position with Op Cabrit in full swing with ze Russians air threat just over the border, the Regiment is suddenly at the forefront of any commanders planning. The Regiment is part of JT GBAD (Ground Based Air Defence) One Bty up in Estonia, one in reserve and one Bty in its training year the boys and girls are very busy. We also have 12 Bty who are permanently good to go as part of 16 Air Assault Brigade providing their close Air Support defence.
The CO is a firm believer on taking time out to reflect. This years forced stop consisted of a battlefield study to Scilly. Being the CO’s personal body guard thanks to the training by Chuck Norris himself I felt the need to go to protect our very own commander in chief. This was an enjoyable trip for the entire Senior and Officer cohort seeing the sacrifices made by the British Army invading Hitler’s soft underbelly.
I couldn’t ask for a better top corridor, the 2IC and CO provide me with their full backing and let me portray my character providing fun exciting challenging PT. Unlike a lot of units we have 12 AAPTI’s across the Regiment and usually I have 4-5 AAPTI’s posted into the gym with around 3 potential (Green belt warriors) training for the next AAPTI cse. In its simplest form, as I sold it to the hierarchy the more AAPTI’s the fitter the Regiment. As of yet we have no PID’s in the gym however I have a close relationship with the BSM’s and it works well. To aid this I ran our first potential AAPTI
3 day course for the station, teaching anatomy and physiology to how to deliver a lesson. This gave us a chance to look at them but also for the potentials to look at us and decide if this life is for them. Ultimately it will give us a more rounded AAPTI.
Sporting life, 12th Regiment are massively punching. We are currently sat at the top of the Victor Ladoroum Competition, which is an internal Royal Artillery sporting competition ran over the year for both male and female. Earlier in the year the rugby team travelled to France as part of the world memorial rugby completion along with the British Army team. This was to commemorate the fallen professional rugby players who died in WW1 alongside our French counterparts. We opened up the tournament playing in front of well over a 1,000 people against the French National Police. With a few red cards and a few polite fisty cuffs the game ended 17-17, I was more than happy just to get a 30 min run out in what was a very dirty game and come away with all my teeth. The British Army then played the following day against the French Pacific team and absolutely battered them. Post match we were hosted very well with as much free beer and wine what could go wrong. For me this was a massive honour and one of the perks of being in the Army. The rugby team are currently in the Semi-finals of the Army premiership and we are looking to retain the Army Premiership for the second year running.
Away from Rugby, I hosted another station boxing event raising over £9,000 for charity. We organised the first UK South female festival of sport which was a great success, and we are looking to make it bigger and better this year. For the second year running as part of my secretarial appointment I also organised the UK South Volleyball completion with the winners 14 RA (Team Fiji) beating 10 QOGLR (Team Gurkha) in the final. Another highlight of the year, I helped organise and host a three day package for Warwickshire
SSgt Boyd Copehill Down SSgt Boyd taking battle PT Regimental AFT Thorney Beach
SSgt Boyd in front of Mount Etna Sicily Memorial