Regimental Histories - Year 1960-1985 - Brockbank - Page 0091
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A Short History of the 9llz/12th Lancm Kapelle” kit on ITV’s Hughie Greene Show in September. The author was lured from his Ministry of Defence office to introduce them, Padre Tom Hincy noted that the Regiment contributed very greatly to the quality of Church life in Omagh. They were, he said, the only regiment to hold Padre’s hours within a decade. He, in his turn, did much to assist the Regi- mental Youth Club under Sergeant and Mrs Moring, REME, which set out to help local children around Omagh. The club promoted community relations and did much to increase other regimental efforts in this task. It was not possible to hold Mons/Moy days, to which Old Comrades could come, during the tour but the Colonel of the Regiment was present at the Remembrance Day service in Omagh in November. Operations continued rcmorselessly as the year wore on and the tempo of PIRA attacks increased particularly in County Fermanagh, 4 Troop B Squadron (Lt Linnell) were ultimately rewarded in August when they captured two wanted men — Rory O’Brady and Sean Keenan — at a vehicle checkpoint. A patrol led by Corporal Nash from the same troop lost a Ferret scout car to a culvert bomb in November. The crew, Troopers Cox and Ostrowski, were saved from serious injury by their helmets. Later in the year a Post Office at Derrylin was com» pletely destroyed by a bomb, Lt Harden’s troop (A Squadron) in the follow up drove into an ambush. The leading vehicle was hit by a culvert bomb and came under fire, which was returned, without positive results. Small quantities of arms and ammu- nition continued to be found by all squadrons. In January 1977 Lt-Col Pye took over from Lt-Col Vere- Laurie. The latter had had an interesting period in command with a year in BAOR when he was able to command the Regiment on formation exercises and a year in Ulster. His experience in the Province enabled him to establish a very sensible balance between operations, training and normal life in an accompanied station: all ranks benefited. Lt-Col Pye arrived almost in the same aeroplane as Miss 9/12th Lancers, a honey blonde eighteen year old beauty queen from Leicester- shire. Miss Kim Moore swept around the Regiment over a long Weekend bringing charm and beauty to some dismal places. All 88 |
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