Page 41 - The Bugle 2018

LIGHTER
IN THE WALLET BUT RICHER IN EXPERIENCE
advance. Clever deployment of the AT sections and snipers defeated Geronimo’s main thrust with C Company taking no casualties and multiple enemy vehicles destroyed.
With this, the dry-phase of the exercise ended, both in terms of the change of ammunition and the weather. Dramatic thunderstorms and torrential rain had arrived, which came as a shock to those used to Northern Irish drizzle. It was time to test out the American Gortex that had been swapped by some members of the company for their own ‘SAS/SBS/Para/ Marine/Arctic-warfare’ waterproofs. The live fire phase was an excellent climax to the exercise, culminating in a company attack on an enemy held village complete with ballistic concrete giving 360° arcs to the Riflemen clearing the compounds. The machineguns and mortars provided cover for the company approach before the assault pioneers blew a (colossal) breach in the wire. The company method- ically cleared the compounds with support throughout from the snipers, eventually finishing with an enemy counterattack as the plastic ‘Ivan’ targets advanced on the village before being repelled.
After all this hard work, a well-deserved break was awarded to C Company, with section commanders given the freedom to plan and deliver exciting rest and recuper- ation packages for their sections. Cars were hired and riflemen made their presence known from Dallas and Austin in Texas to New Orleans and Lafayette in Louisiana. Most seemed to be searching for ‘student towns’, presumably to further their own education and see the impressive facilities of the great univer- sities of the South. With great sorrow, the C Company Group dragged themselves away from rodeos, honky-tonk bars and Bourbon Street and made their way back to Fort Polk. All were lighter in the wallet but richer in experience and had the
beads to prove it!
Captain Tom Reynolds Intelligence Officer
Waiting for the enemy on Exercise RATTLESNAKE
Defensive phase on Exercise RATTLESNAKE
Lt Hudson converses with an American counterpart on Exercise RATTLESNAKE
Ready for anything