17 Port & Marine Regiment The Royal Logistic Corps

Southampton

CO: Lt Col V Crompton MBE • Adjt: Capt D Levens • RSM: WO1 B Sweeney

With 17 Port & Maritime Regiment RLC back from Ex AUSTERE WOLF 22, the welfare team was ready to support the soldiers, their families and the local communities to get into the Christmas spirit. This started off with sending Christmas presents to the soldiers deployed in the Falkland Islands running the military port.

To ensure none of the Regt’s service families were left out, the welfare team supported Santa Claus to ensure over 300 presents were hand delivered across the service families’ accommodation. To support the single personnel in barracks on Christmas Day, the welfare team ensured they felt some Christmas cheer with a personally delivered present. Finally, supporting the wider civilian community, the Regt hosted a Christmas Fayre to help small local businesses.

MacMillan Mighty Hikes

In September 2022, Capt Neil Scott, SSgt Dervan Butler and Cpl Tim Nuttall from the unit welfare team raised £1,426 by completing the 26-mile MacMillan Mighty Hike across the Cornish Coast. The charity was chosen due to its excellent ongoing support to 17 P&M Regt families. This has included chemotherapy, counselling, family trips away and specialist beds to improve the lives of those battling with cancer.

The Goggins Challenge

On the 28 Sep 22, Sgt MacPhee along with her support crew, Lt Nott, Cpl Navoka and LCpl Harding took on the Goggins Challenge to raise money for ABF The Soldiers’ Charity. This challenge involved covering four miles every four hours for 48 hours. The team completed 24 miles running and 24 miles tabbing with 15kg, with members of the Regt joining in throughout the challenge. The team raised £1,300 for the ABF.

Marchwood Scouts

For the past five years, Sgt Fisher has been actively involved with the 5th Marchwood Explorer Scout group. He started volunteering as an occasional helper when his son joined and last year he become section leader. They meet once a week and at weekends in the summer months. This is a great opportunity to pass on his personal skills as well as those learned serving in the Armed Forces. The Scouts work to the same Values and Standards as the British Army, so helping young individuals develop these comes naturally. Their biggest goal of 2022 was to work towards the Survival Skills badge. This involved teaching basic survival skills and all of the training was put into practice during the summer over a three-day camp. As the group is a registered charity, it spends portions of the year fundraising through various events, which is a great way of engaging with and giving back to the local community.

Ex MARINA REVIVE

The 17 P&M Regt Dive Team conducted Ex MARINA REVIVE, an exercise that helped the elderly residents of Hythe Marina in cleaning up the marina berths and recovered lost items following Storm Bara. After 27 dives, the team spent 1,379 mins below the surface recovering lost engineering equipment. Whilst on task, the divers also assisted Solent Dolphin Charity, by conducting an in-water hull survey of one of its vessels, MV Alison MacGregor, which had been fouled at sea. Solent Dolphin is a fantastic charity which supports the wellbeing of people in the community who have learning disabilities and life limiting conditions, offering free boat trips on Southampton Water. The MV Alison MacGregor is a purpose-built catamaran for 12 passengers and the inspection ensured that any damage was accounted for, so she could continue to operate safely and remain seaworthy. Without the divers’ efforts, Solent Dolphin would have needed to contract out the work, using up much needed funds.