Page 32 - The Bugle 2018

TRUE TO FORM, ALL
RIFLEMEN JUMPED AT THE CHANCE TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW
Operation SHADER:
Building Partner
Capacity
This year has provided some excellent opportu- nities for A Coy. With Operation SHADER 5 on the horizon the company began in earnest collecting the relevant driver and commander qualifications it would need in time to deploy. True to form, all Riflemen jumped at the chance to learn something new and absorbed as much as they could in time for the Company battle camp in Caerwent training area. With the Mortar Platoon doing their best to provide a difficult and sometime uncooperative audience, we were able to test both the Guardian Angels (close force protection) and training team instructors. The use of fluent Italian and Fijian speakers from within the Coy provided an excellent training tool for those that had not used an interpreter before.
The mission rehearsal exercise (MRX), combined with a particularly warm, dry summer provided a perfect example of why getting a tracer ban lifted is not advisable unless operations dictate. Never- theless, by the end of the range package not only did the company have some excellent top cover gunners it also had an impressive firefighting record! As usual the level of investment in the MRX was commendable and the substantial, knowledgeable and largely native Iraqi and Afghan audience provided some of the most realistic training the Company could ask for.
With pre-tour leave a distant memory and after a short stop in Cyprus, the Company arrived in Iraq to an incredibly toasty 50 degrees Celsius summer. Sweat drying as fast as it would form there was hardly time for the Coy catch a breath, but after an impressively comprehensive hand over from 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, training began. The Coy delivered a series of 4-week long Wide Area Security courses to the Iraqi Border Guard Force who proved to be a very hospitable and welcoming training audience.
With training under way and the rest and recuper- ation window in full swing, the chance for a training
team to go to another camp developed and as such, Lieutenant Gillard found himself dusting off his GCSE French as he took a training team to Camp Monsabert, a French camp in Baghdad, to instruct an Iraqi Non-Commissioned Officers cadre.
As the campaign to defeat ISIS in Iraq continued it became clear that the Iraqis were struggling to develop their urban fighting skills and Al Assad Airbase didn’t quite have the correct facilities to deliver the training required. Captain Nattriss was therefore set the task of developing an urban fighting facility that tested a training audience in both a surface and subsurface environment. With a little help from the Royal Engineers, the Danish Engineers and a few Riflemen that were carpenters
38 SECOND BATTALION
THE RIFLES
Corporal Moretti-Bonas clearing students off the range
Some of the Iraqi Border Guard learning to master a new weapon system