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9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2003 - Page 0029

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Regiment 9th/12th Lancers
Year 2003
Transcription REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) Z7
Admin Troop
The training year started off with C Sqn SQMS troop compris-
ing of two people, SSgt (SQMS) ‘snowy” White and LCpl ‘spot’
(also known as mini Q) Hackney. The first item of business on
our agenda was a low level troop training exercise. Q White
drove the bedford and LCpl Hackney was tasked as the illustri-
ous bedford commander.
Then came gunnery camp, or more commonly known to the
Sqn as the ‘Sqn Ice cream camp’ (due to the uncommonly hot
summer burgers unsurprisingly played second fiddle), however
a tidy profit was made. Encompassed in this manic part of the
year the SQMS’s helped administrate various other activities
such as recruit firing and the Uppingham school cadet visit.
C Sqn was alerted its involvement to the forthcoming Op
TELIC 3. The troop was consequently increased by nineteen to
include the following characters: Cpl ‘Lee the b*****d’
Machin, LCpl ‘Rog coppertop’ Whittaker, LCpl ‘Dr Death’
Meadows, LCpl ‘Dangerous Dave’ Bloom, Cpl ‘Cowboy Bob’
Hill, LCpl ‘Champs’ Champkins, Tpr ‘Sal’ Salih, Tpr ‘Tomo’
Thompson made a comeback, Tpr ‘Blue’ Peters, LCpl ‘Melv’
Melvin, Tpr ‘Stumpy’ Cholerton, Tpr ‘Luffers Baby Bloom’
Loughman, Tpr ‘I’addy’ O’Kelly and the following slop jock-
eys: Cpl ‘Can’t Cook’ Passmore, LCpl ‘Won’t cook’ Allen , Pte
‘not another one’ Salih and LCpl’ Bertrum’ Bertham.
We all happily deployed on Ex RUSTY LANCER where we
watched carried A Sqn dump halfan UBREs’ worth of fuel over
German soil and then spent a good deal of time digging the soil
back up again, ‘Luffers’ snapped the towing eye of the bowser
through excellent driving skills and the LAD initiated a rather
unusual stand to, Sgt Holt, but no names clearly are allowed to
be mentioned.
We then embarked on a sustained round of operational training
in preparation for our looming deployment. The SQMS have
had a slow start to the year but have more than earned theirbeer
tokens on the run up to the 6 month holiday in Iraq.
MaSaalama.
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LAD
The year started with the introduction ofa new Tiffy SSgt Codd
joining the old regulars of Sgt Neil Holt, Cpl Dinger Bell and
Craftsman’s Easterbrook and Anderson. It was a bit of a baptism
of fire with the imminent deployment to Iraq that saw us work-
ing and training hard for a deployment that was not to be.
The next thing on the cards was OP FRESCO which saw the
Tiffy in charge of a fire crew and the rest of the section deploy-
ing as flying fitters Neil Holt keeping up the good name of
White Van Men everywhere (definitely a job with the AA on the
cards when he gets out).
From FRESCO, we were straight into Spring Charge, which saw
the Tiffy being towed on to the exercise area (not a good start)
but even worse being towed back in again! (two crates). The
peace protesters were out by now and Mr Docherty managed to
keep us busy with worth, driving into trees to try to avoid some
civvies with an abundance ofpink paint.
The end of April saw a flurry of football matches for the LAD
played in quick succession to keep us in the Craftsman’s cup
competitions. This culminated in us booking a place in the final
of the junior competition for May 28th, which we subsequently
won 2-1.
June saw the annual firing period, which culminated in an inter-
national cricket match; C Sqn fitters V’s the Dutch army, the
night before the FTX. The gentleman’s game soon deteriorated
into “who can throw the ball the quickest at the Brits” as the
Dutch had no concept of bowling over arm. This turned into a
very sociable evening with the losers supplying the drinks (with
L/Cpl C-C bowling and Bernie “Bradman” Winters batting we
were always going to win).
Busy as usua/
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