Page 33 - AGC Journal 2018

AGC JOURNAL 2018

3rd Battalion The Royal

Regiment Of Scotland

The Black Watch

By Warrant Officer Class 2 Alan O’Neill
During an eventful and demanding period, we have delivered relentlessly
and in support of the multifaceted administration requirements of the
Battalion for United Kingdom based operations, and most notably the Iraq
deployment.

Operation Shader
Bikram Rai

January 2018 saw the first wave of the battalion deploy and Becky

to Iraq, an emotional, but somewhat rewarding time for Rhodes flying

those deploying, having conducted months of training and the flag
preparation. Over the following weeks the unit scaled their
strength in theatre up to the required level and all diligently
administered by the forward based personnel manned by the
late Captain Dean Sprouting.
Great Sadness
With absolute sorrow, Captain Dean Sprouting was involved
in a fatal incident on the tour. Despite his short time at the Captain
Battalion, his loss came as a colossal blow for all. This was an Paul Brown
exceptionally testing period for us, particularly, Lance Corporal offl oads the
Admin at Al
Becky Rhodes who remained in theatre and delivered time and Assad
again. The detachment commander from 2nd Battalion The
Royal Regiment of Scotland, Lieutenant Paul Hemsley joined
our team in theatre and provided the command and control Craig Jones
capacity up until the arrival of Sergeant Craig Alderson some and Mo Al- Rear Operations Group
weeks later. Mamun living
the dream Our troops have since recovered without further loss and
delivered with total success on Operation Shader. The
continuous delivery of administration throughout the Rear
Operations Group tenure has been frenetic at times and always
demanding. Our Detachment has seen significant gaps in

manning, but turbulence has remained at a minimum thanks
to the spirit and ethos of our people.
The Great Outdoors
Private Jimmy Bbaale has represented the unit on the La
Manga Football tour in Spain and has deployed on Exercise
Wessex Storm with the Royal Irish at Salisbury, both massively
rewarding endeavours, although the football was an
introduction to the Scottish social scene.
Private Lisa Smith has attended a rock climbing course
which saw her qualified to progress in this sport towards her

aspiration of Rock Climbing Instructor. During the course, she
tackled all that the Scottish Highlands had to offer including

foul weather, terrifying ascents and of course a night out by the

camp fire bragging about her rock climbing exploits. The only
The detachment. Left to right back row: Craig Alderson, Rob Ironside, Brad Drake, Mo issue with this is that she now wants to go back to Cameron
Al-Mamun, Stacey Simpson and Jimmy Bbaale. Front row: Tomo Thompson, Paul Brown, Barracks in Inverness to take advantage of the biking, hill
Pete Baron, Sharon Asiimwe, Bikram Rai, Becky Rhodes, Scott Hopkins and Al O’Neill walking canoeing and kayaking courses.

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