is to commend the Platoon on being the immovable rocks in the winning Support Company tug-of-war team proving that size sometimes really does matter!
Reconnaissance Platoon – Capt Grant Brown
The consequences of firing in mud - support to the CALFEX in Otterburn
firepower assets including fast jet, attack helicopter and the complete FST grouping. Every serial was critiqued thoroughly in an after-action review and gave a real insight into the battlespace management of a busy air space in an operational theatre. This training is to be recommended to all mortar platoons and FSTs prior to tour.
Congratulations go to LCpl Percival who passed the Mortar Standards Course and Sgt Burgess who passed the Mortar Platoon Commander’s Course. Goodbye to Cpl Wright, Ptes New, Lloyd, Hinsley and Fenton who will not be deploying with us to Afghanistan. The last thing left to say
The Reconnaissance Platoon, like all members of 1 MERCIAN, has been extremely busy during the last year preparing for our deployment to Afghanistan on Op Herrick 12. Following our return from the Falklands in early 2009, a Basic Recce Cadre was held in an attempt to select and train the right calibre soldier. The first part of the Cadre was mainly classroom-based but had a number of practical exercises and navigational tests on the local Catterick Training Area. The second part was held in Kenya during Ex Grand Prix; this was a demanding environment which perfectly suited our need to stretch young soldiers and identify their strengths and weaknesses. The Platoon returned from Kenya with a renewed sense of enthusiasm which was just as well, because PDT was getting into
full swing and the pace of life meant that elements of the Platoon were spread around the country on various courses. The focus has been getting as many drivers qualified on the Jackal vehicle as possible, as, at the time of writing, this will be the vehicle of choice for the Reconnaissance Platoon in theatre. Whilst drivers were being trained, commanders and gunners were receiving tuition, and concurrent to this, all members of the Platoon were busy training on communications systems, First Aid, marksmanship and TTPs for Afghanistan.
The Platoon has been on a number of exercises in the build-up to deployment and this culminated in the MRX in Salisbury Plain during a very cold January. This was the first time that the Platoon as a whole had been able to get on to the ground and was a great opportunity to utilise the vehicles that we had been training to use. We were all very impressed with the mobility of the vehicles and, despite the best efforts of Capt Brown and CSgt Horton, not one vehicle got bogged in! The Platoon is now ready to deploy and I imagine will be incredibly busy conducting whatever tasks are thrown our way. We are excitedly anxious and we look forward to a safe and productive tour.
Javelin Platoon – Captain Rupert Pye-Watson
Since the last edition, the Javelin Platoon of 1 MERCIAN has come on in leaps and bounds. We have been training hard in multiple roles to meet the requirement for Afghanistan, far surpassing many of the standards.
From an early stage, Fire Support Platoon and we started cross training on our respective weapon systems (GPMG SF, HMG, GMG, Javelin) in anticipation of forming Fire Support Groups (FSGs) ready for deployment. This crucial role is the punch provided to the Rifle Companies to assist them in all the Operations and tasks they could find themselves doing in theatre. Starting from scratch, we conducted a Rifle Platoon exercise (which can be a forgotten art within Support Company!),n we conducted cadres on Javelin, GPMG SF, HMG and GMG. Thrown into the mix was JACKAL driver, crew and commander training – giving us a highly desirable weapons platform that is really proving itself within Afghanistan.
Mortars doing what they do best - sitting down!
More recently, we have just been topping up the training with range days, allowing all the soldiers time behind the weapon systems (less Javelin!) engaging targets at varying distances – something which Capt Raven touches upon in more detail in his article. The Platoon has had a good year and is in good shape for the forthcoming tour. No-one is under any illusion that it will be easy and we have trained well for it. The training obviously continues right up until our deployment and even in theatre and
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