Page 87 - RAPTC Year of 2019

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5 MILITARY INTELLIGENCE BATTALION (5 MI)
SSgt (SSI) R Evans RAPTC Regular to Reserve
Ijoined 5 MI in March 2019 after finishing my time with the Regular Army. My first year has been a great experience and I highly recommend it to any RAPTCI leaving the Army,
especially if they are going to be self-employed.
As a Reserve MI Bn they lay on a great deal of challenging training events, from green skills, Int skills, Adventurous Training and Leadership activities.
To pick a few events that I attended this year, the Bn conducted their Annual Camp with the United States Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. This event is biennial and gives the guys a chance to integrate with the USMC and see how their intelligence training is conducted.
From a PT perspective I had the opportunity to work with the USMC MARSOC strength and conditioning trainers, see how they instruct and programme their marines, I could also see how our APTS is very similar to their PT ethos with the element of lone training programmes as a main factor in the marines’ PD.
The gym facilities on camp were second to none and the camp itself had amazing facilities that sprawled over 156,000 acres next to a cracking sandy beach.
One of the other activities the Bn conducted was AT in Bavaria during which we completed a week of multi-activities including Mountain Biking, Hill Walking and Kayaking. It gave me a chance to find out a lot about the 5MI soldiers and the variety of civilian jobs they work in, there are a few student accountants, police and even a scientist who makes paint.
The Bn has a similar year of activities planned for the 20 / 21 training year with the annual camp being conducted in Edinburgh and again off to Bavaria for some AT as well as AT in Aviemore and the Lakes as well as good old military training.
To finish off, the Reserves is a great opportunity to carry on PT/AT instruction (which is what we love to do) but also move on to a civilian life and still be part of the with Army brother/ sisterhood.
PRIMARY CARE REHABILITATION FACILITY KINLOSS
SSgt (SSI) CW Paterson RAPTC
Wow, the last 12 months have literally flown by since I last wrote PCRF Kinloss’s article for Mind, Body & Spirit. There has been so much happening at the PCRF and on a personal level that it seems surreal that my last notes were 12 months ago. However, I will do my best to sum up the last year without boring anyone.
Firstly, within the PCRF itself, there has been a turnaround in staff. With Mrs S Hedgeley, one of the physio’s unfortunately leaving us. Thus, leaving us with one physio, Mrs Bev Ellis; luckily, she is brilliant! She has done superbly making sure that the reduction in staff has not meant a reduction in the duty of care or service provided (Selfishly, I was concerned a reduction in staff would have a drastic reduction in my gym time but thankfully, I am still managing to squeeze this in).
As we came to terms with our reduction in numbers, our focus was on increasing the output of our patients onto level 2 reconditioning PT without having a reduction in their output standards as they transition across. We have successfully managed to do this by looking at our quality improvements, audits and patient feedback. After scrutinising what we had gathered, we could see a noticeable trend. Although, our rehab patients were pain free and achieving desired outcomes, their lack of CV fitness meant that they were having prolonged periods on level 2 PT. Utilising this, we increased the amount of Class Therapy sessions which the ERI conducts throughout the week, focussing on CV sessions and being ERI led; not a mind-blowing initiative but it has proved extremely effective in its simplicity.
Additionally, being situated within the main gymnasium I have witnessed the great work that Staff ‘Ricky’ Lennan and the PTI’s have been doing with the Army Physical Training System (APTS). They have also been working hard, annoying 51X SO3 PD with
SSgt Paterson and sidekick exploring