9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2005 - Page 0020
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2005 |
| Transcription |
18 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) C Squadron ith the end of one year and the start of another, C Squadron cam back off leave ready for anything. Indeed, anything did happen: Capt ‘Spandex’ Carpenter returned from an arduous winter’s skiing to take up the post of second-in-com- mand; Capt ‘Guff-Nuts’ Milne Hume was spirited away to greater things; Capt ‘Ice-Man’ Kappler elevated to the heady heights of Battle Captain; and the Squadron said farewell to Maj ‘The Don’ Goggs, Capt ‘Slim Boy’ Panter and WO2 ‘Strider’ Welborn. However, the new arrivals included Maj ‘Ginge’ Fooks, W02 ‘Baron von’ Hatton, and Messrs ‘General’ Short, ‘E’LO, ‘Miss Good’ Knight and ‘Mr T’ Tripuraneni. However, the year really started on the 4th of April, when the Squadron paraded in its current form in anticipation for the forthcoming tour to Iraq. But no sooner had it reformed than a troop was dispatched to participate in the Divisional Engineer concentration in a Sennelager for a week and a gaggle waddled off to Northern Italy on Ex ARGENTA SPRING, a battlefield tour. Those left behind athletically participated in an RAC Sports week. And as the Spring turned into Summer, the weather warmed up and so too did the pace oflife. First, the squadron quick stepped through a brigade-run Command and Staff Training Exercise. Next came a rather compressed Annual Live Firing period, which saw the D&M fraternity doing rather better than their gunnery peers in a number of cases 7 shock horror! Then, no sooner had the squadron returned from this gunnery-fest than the pre-deployment training for Op TELIC 7 started in earnest. The squadron veritably threw itself into what proved to be a tough but worthwhile training package, and demonstrated a particular adroitness at welding baton and shield on the public disorder phase. But it was acts of derring-do during the squadron attack on a multi-storey block of flats at Sennelager, which will be talked about for years to come around the camp fires on the exercises in the forests of Southern Germany (or wastes of Northern England?! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge!) And so we return to the here-and-now, which is Iraq (although more precisely Shai’bah Logisitic Base). The squadron has been given the Az Zubayr area of operation (AO). This extends some 110 kms east to west and lOOkms north to south in the west and 50kms in the east. We have sent troops into the western desert (and they did come back), distributed shoes and cakes to the local children, enjoyed Iraqi hospitality and delicacies with the attendant stomach cramps and diarrhoea for several days after- wards, and become inured to the local children’s incessant demands for money and water. But saying that, so far (and given we’ve only been here two months) we’ve received 2 letters of appreciation for our efforts (namely form the Town Council and the Sunnis) and votes of thanks from the Iraqi Police Service and Iraqi Army, after recently participating in a number ofjoint (i.e. with them) security operations. But the latter part of the tour will be the real test, when the fallout of the national elec- tions become known in January 2006. So stay tuned and keep your seats for the next instalment of ‘ Op TELIC 7 7 a Regiment’s Deployment to ‘Eye-Rack’ (as the Americans say). WOF 1 Troop The troop formed up in the ORBAT for TELIC 7 in July, with the Tp Ldr, Lt Ed Lloyd Owen and the Tp Sgt, Sgt Nigel Saul and then, with the rest ofthe Sqn, we were straight into OPTAG Mala/7g Fr/eflds, Training. Whilst on OPTAG there were a few small changes to the troop as well as also working as a large multiple with 4th Tp whne doing such things as public order training. This period proved to be very hard work and we were happy to come back from that for some well earned leave. After sumer leave, it tran- spired that Lt Lloyd Owen had moved on to better things and was now in SHQ as the Sqn CIMIC Officer. So that left Sgt Saul troop leading with a new addition to the troop; Cpl Flint who took on the post of Tp Sgt. After a brief period of training with 3 RHA, our 2 Reservist members joined the Troop; Cpl Andy Kennedy and Tpr ‘Gibbo’ Gibbons. Finally, the troop was at its full man-power schedule of 12 men. After some more revision training and getting the TA members fitted in to troop, it was time for pre deployment leave. So leaving the troop in hands ofJNCOs all Tp Ldr and Tp Sgts went on leave before deploying with the advanced party. The Sqn command element arrived in Iraq on the 13th Oct, only to be hit by the humidity and smell of Iraq. Since their glorious arrival in theatre, the troop have been involved with carrying on routine patrols and good work of the Royal Anglians of Az Zubyer and Squadron tasks. This included one particular search OP were Tpr Monk, searching particularly diligently, found a hole to fall in to, only to discover what an Iraqi latrine looked like from the inside! Tpr Brewster is equally misfortu- nate, and during a search on a bridge, put his head into a hole under the bridge to be then attacked by a flock ofpigeons. The troop has also carried out a long range patrol into the western desert area of our A0 to investigate some bunkers, which in fact 7 7/3 find the besta/temat/ve to Snatch, |
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