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9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2003 - Page 0028

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Regiment 9th/12th Lancers
Year 2003
Transcription 26 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S)
the UK. The remainder of the Troop was dished out to the Sqn
for a very successful CATT and CAST. Sgt Pumford was
whisked away to Bosnia as a replacement for a couple of months
leaving the Troop in the very capable hands of Cpl Hughes, deal-
ing with the every day running of things, until shooting off to
Bovington to finally do his thicky Mech instructors, where he
achieved a B grade. Wouldn’t expect anything less!
The Troop would like to welcome the following personnel. The
new Tp Ldr SSgt Emery from the training wing as former RGSS
(finally somebody in the troop who knows something about
30mm!) Cpl Cassidy from the Regimental radio repair cell type
thingy what ever that is! LCpl Plunkett from, dare we say, a
Sabre Troop, but we won’t hold that against him as he did prove
himself on Firing camp. LCpl foster from some attendance
courses in Sennelager! LCpl Sadler who successfully tunneled
his way to freedom from Easy Coy to good time C Sqn. And
finally Tpr Hand fresh from his 77 day extended tour of
Croydon and 55 days at Her Majesty’s pleasure. Apart from
those few changes the Troop remains pretty much the same with
all the old sweats refusing to leave GW and clinging on to their
youth and hair! Unfortunately Cpl Johnson won’t be coming
back to the Tp he’s destined for greater things and Tpr Stephens
has been exiled in B Sqn much to the disappointment ofhis sofa
in the Tp cage!
The boys would like to bid a fond farewell to Cpl kusbish who
as we speak is annoying folk on civvy street! And also Tpr Iliffe
who will be sorely missed especially from the Regimental rugby
team and the Sqn bar!
The Troop is currently training for OP TELIC 3 so all that
remains to say is to have a good safe tour all come back to pull
up a lamp and swing a sandbag for next year’s journal!
Sgt Pumfo rd
SHQ Troop
The troop returned from Christmas leave in the full expectation
of taking the call to get ready for Operations in Iraq. When it
came the troop set about it in a thoroughlyprofessional manner.
Unfortunately this was not to be and it was two weeks into our
preparation that we were stood down. To say that this was dev-
astating is an understatement. The Sqn and the Troop quickly
began to shed manpower to A and B Sqns to aid with their
preparation for Bosnia. The troop went down to two stalwarts.
Cpl Orr-Munro and LCpl Dorn. They did everything.
The ‘Troop’ conducted some low level trg on Ex SPRING
CHARGE. This was designed to build up the low level dis-
'iw
mounted skills of the new troop-
ers. SHQprovided a valuable ene-
my. It was not long before the Sqn
was stood by for Op FRESCO.
Within seven days of having been
warned off the Sqn was trained,
kitted out and sitting in 6 Tempo-
rary Service Fires Stations in the
centre of Sheffield. SHQ however, -
was almost out ofa job. Unfortu-
nately to save time the Sqn level of
operational command was cut out
of the despatching role. However
the Troop manned an Ops room
for the less glamorous but equally
important job of Sqn administra- ‘
tion. Unfortunately Op FRESCO
was cancelled and the firemen
turned up to work and we packed our bags and came back to
Germany. The Sqn deployed on exercise on the Monday and
spent a week near Uelzen undertaking Sqn level trg. This was a
cracking week only marred by the pursuit and eventual capture
and ‘shooing’ lTp Ldr took from a bunch of anti-war activists.
(delete activists insert four grannies). Not to mention the pink
paint his scimitar was covered in ..... SHQ spent an uneventful
week in a static ‘hide’ on a railway siding and were not caught.
/t happens a// the t/me
By this stage of the year the troop now numbered three. Cpl
Johnson joined us having removed the Brecon Beacons mud
from his flip-flops and started setting about making some noise.
Oi, OI... are you ******* DEAF! Cpl Johnson worked tireless-
ly as Tp Sgt before handing over eventually to Sgt Styles. The
Sqn was stood to for Op TELIC 3. There followed on the 21 Jul
a near avalanche of men, from whence they came it is not
known, however the troop numbered 27 by the time we were
ready to deploy. Sgt Styles has been the backbone of the troop
and organised and conducted all the training and administra-
tion of men and vehicles. Notable hoods include: Cpl ‘Mad
Dog’ Skinner, LCpl ‘Rosy Breath’ Reeves, LCpl ‘shouldn’t I be
in Sp Tp’ Smith, Tpr ‘Thin’ Galvin, Tpr ‘Jacko’ Jackson, Tpr
‘Sick Note’ Astill, Cpl ‘MEDIC!!’ Cahill, LCpl ‘Bertie’ Bertham,
not to mention old creaky bones himself LCpl Dorn. Cpl ‘Mat’
Brassington is currently away tackling the finer points of
Arabic. Capt ‘Denny’ Denton has joined us for the tour as our
Intelligence and Liaison Officer. Pte Foster and Cpl McLeod
(1 BW) join us at the last minute. The troop is now complete and
training completed with lLI our hosts for the next six months.
We wait with bated breath to see what happens in Maysan
province.
HLS
SHQ prepanhg for operat/ohs m the desert
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