9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2003 - Page 0005
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2003 |
| Transcription |
REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) Foreword by the Colonel of the Regiment It is a great privilege to return to the Regiment as Colonel, after the years in the wilderness since handing over command. In the journal of that year, 1989, I commented on the widespread speculation concerning possible cuts in the Army. In 2003 rumours are again rife of reshaping, cuts and squeezes. Plague, pestilence and famine are revisiting the land, it seems. Yet to join the Regiment for the Mons/Moy celebrations was to enter a different land. Though the overall military landscape had altered dramatically, here in the Regiment nothing had changed. When questioned about the frustrations of the Regiment in being removed from the original Iraq Order of Battle, the Regimental Sergeant Major, W01(RSM) Barnett reached the heart of the matter. He said simply “The men have put it to one side. They are preparing for what is to come next” - as it surely did. He and his fellow warrant officers and non commissioned officers had not lost sight of their key and vital role: to make and shape the man, our most precious asset and the decisive factor in war. Nothing had changed and I understood why. It is the responsibility of the wider Army to provide regiments with the best resources possible and to shield them from external disturbances. With Brigadier Martin Rutledge as Director Royal Armoured Corps we are well served in this respect. The responsibility of the Regiment is to shape the man to give of his best, and to prevail. The methods and standards transcend the generations and must not change. I serve in a foreign country whose inhabitants have no natural reason for heaping praise on forces from far off lands. Yet I am proud to say that they are unstinting in their admiration and respect for our Army - and our soldiers in particular. |
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