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9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2001 - Page 0028

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Regiment 9th/12th Lancers
Year 2001
Transcription 28 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S)
Headquarter Squadron
Since the last journal notes were written, there has been a host
of changes to the HQ Squadron line-up. The majority of
these will be mentioned in the department notes, so I shall just
mention those that won’t. From the top, Major Fooks moved
over to allow Major Hartwell into the Squadron Leader’s office.
In fact, he had not even moved out before the new furniture was
being moved in - being the outgoing QM does have its advan-
tages of course. The first Squadron 21C to leave us, Captain
Harrison, took his own office furniture with him to the QM(T)
department before handing over to Capt Croft. He remained for
a couple of months before reluctantly(?) handing over to Capt
Corcoran who had just returned from his Kosovo tour with ‘C’
Squadron. He quickly settled into his very smart office!
February saw W02 Dent happily vacating the SSM’s chair to
become RQMS. This allowed W02 Henderson to escape from
MT Troop to become the new Squadron SSM.
How all the departments within the Squadron fared during the
year is described later on, so I shall confine these notes to a
brief look at what the Squadron has been involved in during
the last year.
The Squadron was, as usual, very busy supporting a myriad of
Squadron, Regimental, and Divisional Exercises ending with
the very successfiJl Ex SAIF SAREEA 2 in Oman.
Mons Moy weekend and parade were a great success and it was
good to see the old comrades amongst us again. Unfortunately,
commitments next year mean we are unable to celebrate Mons
Moy until 2003.
Preparations for the BATUS tour next year are well underway
and it looks like a nice relaxing year ahead. Yeah, right!
The Squadron Leader wishes to congratulate the Squadron on
the way it has supported the Regiment in 2001, combining
enthusiasm with hard work whilst retaining a sense of humour
to ensure ongoing success. Well done everyone.
Squadron Headquarters
2001 has been a busy year for SHQ Troop. With the moving of
Sgt ‘Andy’ Machin to the RAC Signals School, and the hand-
over to Sgt ‘Daz’ Linwood things were off to a good start.
Both Tpr ‘Shrek’ Edwards and Tpr ‘Jacko’ Jackson have now
completed their Command Operator Course which is good news
Cp/ Packwood , ”/t’s hard tn/rng to teach an o/d dog new tr/oks"
wax u“ “2'? '-
F/na/ day of the Quartermasters Hand er Week One’ happy face
for us all - as long as Tpr Edwards doesn’t write the journal
notes! There were also plenty of exercises and a gunnery camp
during last year, and the troop has done very well throughout,
especially with the changes of both the OC and 21C. Now with
Maj Hartwell and Capt Corcoran firmly in their seats, maybe
things will settle down for a while.
The highlight of the year must have been Ex SAIF SAREEA 2
which everyone from the Troop deployed on. Most of the time
was spent sitting monitoring the various nets, however, when
action was required, such as helicopter evacuation, the Troop
did very well controlling things. The rest was essentially
‘Ground Hog Day’, but even then, lessons were learnt. First, the
problems with communications in the desert and secondly,
don’t say you’ll never get stuck, Chalky, because its sure to hap-
pen and finally, learning to survive in the desert without becom-
ing a heat injury statistic. I said everyone deployed which isn’t
Cp/ Phr///ps on hrs sports afternoon , F/FA 2007
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