Page 40 - QARANC Vol 20 No 1 2022

40 The Gazette QARANC Association
I started work on this when I returned from OP TELIC 4 where I had been SO2 Med Ops and Plans for the Multinational Division (South East). It was an interesting tour for two reasons, it saw the unexpected upsurge in kinetic activity after a comparatively settled period, it also saw my tour extend from three months to six months and eventually seven months!
It did however give me the opportunity to observe the Field Hospitals as they rotated through the theatre, and it was clear that our preparation left much to be desired.
On my return to the UK, I made my observations known to 2 Med Bde through my post op report. The prevailing system at that time hadn’t changed since our Cold War
type of exercises with a limited acknowledgement to the operational theatre and was not fit for purpose.
I met with Col Peter Roberts, Col Robbie Paterson, Col Jim Ryan and Col Ken Gill in the Ship Inn near Strensall to talk through how we might improve the training and mission validation processes. By the end of the night and the use of a paper tablecloth, we had the outline of Ex ROSEDALE which utilised the unit diaries and casualty flow data to produce a week in the life of a deployed Field Hospital.
The output from the evening was to revolutionise how we prepared our units for deployment. There was still a long way to go before we achieved the sophisticated system that we now know, but it was the start point and not
a bad outcome from a fair amount of beer and a steak pie supper.
It provided the basis for some very creative and clever people to develop a system which bears comparison with the best in clinical and command training in the world.
Over the years since then I continued to support that development effort as the Chief Umpire, Exercise Director and went through the system as a CO when I deployed 205 Fd Hosp on OP HERRICK 11b.
As an aside the title Ex ROSEDALE was arrived at as we ran out of steam at the end of the evening, and we were struggling for a name. We agreed that the name of the street I lived in (Rosedale Gardens) would suffice as it sounded rather ‘Yorkshireish’!
I deployed as the Deputy Medical Advisor (DMEDAD) in 2006 to ISAF IX in Afghanistan with the NATO ARRC, a bit of a departure from the usual TA deployments.
I was the Deputy to Col Werner Lehnig and lead within a Branch of 16 Officers from the UK, US Army, US Airforce, Germany, Netherlands and Croatia. We supported 37 Troop Contributing Nations with an overall population of 33,250 personnel, plus 8,000 US personnel from Operation Enduring Freedom and 25 Provincial Reconstruction Team. Our patch covered an area of 650,000 km (sq).
This was a challenging role with the balancing act intrinsic to multinational operations in terms of culture, aligning planning and accommodating national political objectives. The best part of the job was that it allowed me to travel across Afghanistan validating the Medical Training Facilities, meeting the national contingents and learning how best to co-ordinate their collective efforts.
Developing this level of insight was vital in supporting our Med briefing to Gen David Richards. After surviving the first grilling from Gen David I thought that my job was done. However, my boss, Col Lehnig decided that since it had gone so well that I should take his place in future briefs!
Fortunately, after the first two weeks delivering good and bad news my terror abated and I began to enjoy the process much to the confusion of Col Lehnig. This was a fantastic job and an opportunity which came very much out of the blue.
Having been told that as an RAMC Nursing Officer in 205 Gen Hosp I had