9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2003 - Page 0043
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2003 |
| Transcription |
REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) 41 Ex STILETTO LANCER 03 fter the success of last year’s Wives’ Club exercise there was a definite demand for a repeat performance. Major Reid kindly took the project on and the result was a weekend few of us will forget. On Saturday 20th September, 21 brave and unsuspecting wives gathered in the Regimental Square to be issued with our kit for the following two days. We were divided into two teams, Team A which was lead by Cpl Fleetwood and Sgt Arch and Team B which was lead by Cpl Robertson and SSgt Taylor. Having packed our bergens with the essentials it was off for a bit of light drill with Sgt Padgett. Not surprisingly this caused some mer- riment amongst the onlookers, although I like to think we almost managed to impress a few of them with some quite fancy footwork, even if our timing does need a bit ofwork This was followed by a quick lesson on how to make a basher, the use of night-vision goggles, a spot of life-saving first-aid and a lesson on the use of a compass and map reading (now whose idea was that I wonder?). Finally, having been shown how to set fire to our rations we were taken off to the ranges where we sat down in the sun and sampled some of the biscuits and other more tasty looking items in our food pack. After lunch we were divided into four teams and set off on a round robin of 4 different activities. One of the activities was paint balling which was not as easy as it looked. After a few practise shots, Capt Rhodes lead us around a course of targets in the woods which, depending on how difficult they were, gained us points for our team - or not. The second activity was ‘Blindfold Alley’ where one member of a pair would lead the other (blindfolded) through the woods, hopefully avoiding (but not always) trees, logs, foliage etc. whilst at the same time looking out for camouflaged items hid- den along the route. This was meant to encourage trust, ‘meant’ being the operative word! The ‘Memory Test’ was a nightmare. A rug was coveredwith 25 items which we had one minute to look at and memorise (I mean really!). We then had a minute in which to forget every- . ». . /’m not wear/Hg Cam Cream thing after which we were asked to recall the items. The less said about that the better. Finally there was a command task. This involved finding a lan- drover with only three wheels after it had supposedly struck a landmine! The fourth wheel was down a pit and surprise sur- prise not a wheel nut in sight. What to do? With no mobile phone handy on which to phone LAD it was time for a bit of improvisation. No problem, using a nut from each of the other wheels we had it fixed in no time. Before setting up camp for the evening our final lesson was a tac- tical one. We were shown how to leopard crawl and seal crawl across a very stubbly and prickly field. Little did we know how useful these knew skills would prove to be over the following 24 hours. After setting up camp (with a little help from our friends..) we had an interesting time with the camouflage cream before it was time for some Close Target Reconnaissance. We were ready for action, we had our walkie- talkies and we were not afraid » |
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