9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2002 - Page 0029
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2002 |
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REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) Z7 Hohne Cpl Dibs Derbyshire and Cpl Lefty Wright, who contin- ued to gain excellent MEI reports with the assistance of the one and only Tpr Baz Brooks, headed the team. Sgt Moxie Rutherford and Tpr Doubts Doughty controlled ET all under the watchful eye of the RQMS (T). All the hard work was reflected during a recent LSI Advisory visit by the Brigade Spares Advisor. The dept also saw some radical changes to the establishment; we demanded through the system some new stock and were given a stores drop well within the pipeline time. Receipted ‘on’ were LCpl Aide Garner from the Welfare office (their loss or our gain?) and Cpl Rob Hill from A Sqn SIMS. Tpr Brooks came from B Sqn and since joining the dept has improved his numer- ic skills immensely, when first asked what “two bolts and two bolts added up to”, his reply was “some bolts” now its “a few”, keep it up. We issued off account WOZ RQMS (T) Pegg back to Canada to take up the position of RQMS (T) Batus, however was this only a temporary issue????? Watch this space!! Also issued off (after a quick upgrade) was Sgt Rutherford to Norway to become Brigadier Short’s housemaid, eh I mean House Sergeant. There were a lot of up grades returning from REME workshops starting with SSgt Geordie ‘why aye man’ Young to RQMS (T), Sgt Ritchie Ramsden to SSgt, Cpl Rutherford to Sgt, LCpls Loz Lawrence and Lefty Ian Wright to Cpl (is that THE Ian Wright?) Also up-graded was Cpl Hill who just happened to for- get to telephone his wife with the good news, so that was left to the jungle drums. Returning from ‘temp loan’ was Sgt chindo Johnny Anderson complete with new car and new wife to take charge of the ET account with the help of his right hand man Cpl Prinna (when he manages to get him out of the ‘Candy Club’). We disposed of one member of our elite force that was Tpr Doughty to civilian life somewhere in Germany, with a fond farewell and a hearty handshake. The dept is headed by no other than the QM (T) Capt Mark Harrison who, when not looking for the marbles he dropped the day before, is working tirelessly to keep the dept on a steady footing, helped ofcourse bythe RQMS (T) who ifyou notice is beginning to look more and more like WOZ Pegg, don’t you think? It only remains to say well done for another excellent year and a look forward to a well-earned Christmas break ready for the New Year whatever it may bring. RR Command Troop Once the beer had been washed out of the system and the dec- orations put away for another year the Regiment returned from its holidays. For Comd Tp this meant kicking offwith its usual round of inspections and the facilitation of several exer- cises. Ably lead, albeit only until the middle ofJanuary, by Capt (I am Cambridge man myself) Carpenter the troop began to gather momentum for its year ahead. And its year ahead cer- tainly looked a busy one. Once the troop had bid good riddance to their old leader, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, along came the fresh-faced and eager Capt Campbell-Collins to assume the much-revered post of Regimental Signals Officer The following two months were a well co-ordinated blur of preparation for BATUS and Canada, peppered with assisting in Plunger’s Claw 2 (The Revenge of Bailey) and several minor exercises including the 7 Armd Bde Recce Concentration. It was also during this time that the new Comd Tp Sgt arrived in the guise of Sgt (Don’t call me shorty) Andrews who took over from the brief tenure of Cpl (I’m brilliant me) Mansfield. Naturally all of these shenanigans were conducted under the steely gaze of the RSWO WOZ Martin. Thankfully the majority of the preparation for BATUS was completed without the intrusion of the new troop leader and Comd Tp’s deployment to Canada went rather smoothly. The manning of Comd Tp in Canada meant that there would be several old hands who would see the whole season through, among these were Tpr (now LCpl) (Cheech) Marples, Tpr (Benny boy) Russell and LCpl (Stavros) Hallas. With such a crowd what could go wrong? For these lucky few BATUS meant seven months in Canada, four MedMan exercises as OPFOR, and several Adventure Training packages, as well as the usual tale of fun and games in Medicine Hat. Halfway through, between MedMans 2 and 3, the orbat of the Troop changed and we had fresh blood from Germany Sadly we lost Tpr Murrell to the double whammy of marriage and fatherhood (we all wish him the verybest and can’t wait for the party he has promised us), Cpl (now Sgt! !) Wick, and Cpl (he’s a Sgt too! !) Brooksbank as well as the old stalwart LCpl (Yozza) Hughes. We welcomed in Cpl (he’s been at the screech again) Johnson, LCpl (Butch) Cassidy, Tpr (Ginge) Parker, our repair guru LCpl (Tackleberry) Milner, the fresh and eager Cpl Minto and the now not so new Tp Sgt, Sgt Andrews. We also said goodbye to the towering figure of WOZ Martin whose warmth compassion (and bruising blows) had kept the Comd Tp ship sailing well ahead of the wind. Indeed the second half of the season in Canada proved slight- ly more demanding than the first. Opfor was doubled in size with an influx from the QLR and the last Medman was double the length. However, see off the enemy we did in glorious style under the ever radiant leadership of Chairman Martin and the new ZIC Major Woyka. After resounding victories under our belt Opfor sped from the prairie to beat the mad washdown rush and thankfully Comd Tp was not too far down the queue (except 02 who were delayed by a certain driver conducting a rather long shovel recce at an inopportune time 7 more fool the commander I say). With the exercise over we were near the end, but not before the troop made a gargantuan effort to clear and clean up, particularly in the repair cell. Now we are back in Germany and are welcoming in some more folks and saying goodbye to others. The RSWO has gone and has been replaced by RSWO WOZ Thomas, Cpl Minto and Cpl Johnson has left for good now, as has the young pup Tpr Russell. Their replacements so far have been Cpl Blunt and Cpl Pritchard 7 welcome to the madhouse. And so another year has swept by, leaving us all rather breath- less (most notably Cpl Swift). It has been a good year for Comd Tp who has benefited considerably from an Opfor season: characters have grown, personalities developed and a team has been forged. It is with a great deal of pride that I look back now on memories of a slightly bizarre but extremely hard working and, in truth, outstanding Troop. It is a credit to themselves and the SNCOs that the Troop has done such a fine job in Canada, and I hope that it continues into next year and beyond. |
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