squadron. An interesting and informa— tive afternoon, the Famas was found to be, both light and accurate, as well as adaptable for 1eft«handersl The squadron were complimented on their high level of competence with an unfamiliar weapon, however certain individ— uals including the author were identified as being unlikely to contest any potential sniper vacancies. The contingent was happy to return to Valence, because time was given to go shopping, to the cinema and to carry out some personal administration during the Sunday afternoon. The week started the following morning with a bracing jog around Valence, before an interest— ing presentation by Lt Charrue on the structure of the French Army. A tour of the barracks illustrated the extent of the excellent facilities on site in Valence, and a visit to the Regimental Museum revealed that the Spahis once paraded on Horse Guards at the end of World War II! Half a morning was dedicated to the weapons, vehicles and sighting systems, which are in current service in France, and this was to prove extremely interest— ing. Despite the obvious language barrier, both Household Cavalrymen and
Spahis learnt during the course of the two weeks how to make themselves understood; skills which will soon be put to good use with both Squadrons shortly embarking on operational tours. The French had taken defeat at the hands of the English National team
Section Commander and involved OPs, CTRs and Ambushes. My section consisted of 6 diggers (troopers to me and you) and 3 LCpls, one ofwhom had just come off selection for the Australian
SAS but failed due to injury and 2 who tried last year. They were hugely keen
and those made my life easier. My section was picked to do the longest patrol with an overnight OP and then an ambush, followed by a 5 km tab back to the RV. We were the only ones to finish
in time. Then it was a week in camp get-
..
_ 7
. . "~ ::>"r'~ ' 55‘- ‘ i A San aboard La Foudre museum especially for our visit. After an rather badly, and so were eager to interesting account ofthe action, we were redress the balance of power. A rugby lucky enough to examine some of the match had been arranged in the local extensive memorabilia in the museum. stadium, against the regimental team. Fortunately, the grudge match was can Le Premier Regiment de Spahis were celled due to a deluge of epic proporwonderful hosts to the Regiment tions. Slightly less fortunate, was the decision to play a game of ‘touch and throughout, and our thanks go to Prehold’ seven—a—side rugby in the gym. mier Escadron Leader for organising The match was fiercely contested with such an enterprising visit. The the home side running out winners by Squadron was given a fantastic send-off three tries to two. The Squadron having in the Warrant Officers and NCOs Mess, preserved her honour, the participants with mementoes of the exchange being then gathered to conduct a post—match given to all ofthe Seniors. A highly sucanalysis over a few drinks. cessful trip, many relationships were forged during the two weeks, and the The final day was spent visiting the Squadron was fortunate enough to witMaquis museum at Vercours-Vassieux in ness first hand the professional attitude the mountains above Grenoble. The displayed by our counterparts in French caretaker, who was the son of one of the Formation Reconnaissance. We wish leading resistance fighters from the vilPremier Escadron well on their forthlage, was extremely kind in opening the coming tour of Chad. '
. . "
ting ready for the next step, which was for the section to integrate with the sabre troops. We were to carry out all the OPS and CTRs plus any defile drills for the troop leader we were working with at the time. This is because there are only 24 recon scouts in the Regiment who conduct the majority of the dismounted work, we therefore had to work with each sqn for 4 days with a day off in between. This was all blank firing, but then next time we did the exercise it was “live” with covering fire from 20mins and .50 Cals.
The author with guards:
they would lose the world cup to us! “There still crying now”. When we returned it was straight into the last bit of build—up training. This was firing camp and also the first time their health and safety regulations stopped me from commanding their Vehicles. They did however let me fire the GPMG from the ASLAV. All this build-up was for the last exercise of the year, the Keldi Cup was the regimental exercise and ran into their div exercise against the USMC. This was when I said goodbye to the recon scouts and moved to 3 Tp C Sqn. I became the tp Sgt’s gunner for my last 4 weeks. During this time fired the 20mm cannon including a 38km battle run which
After the exercise, the Division was given 2 weeks off. I spent this with my family leaning to surf and sight seeing, I even managed to see the Crocodile hunter. This meant that I finally man— aged to go swimming, you can’t swim in the sea in Darwin because of all of the crocodiles and box jellyfish. I also drove up to the west coast with some of my section, and stayed at some oftheir family houses. I also experienced their love for rugby firsthand, who was to know
included the use of dismounted scouts for clearing defiles and bunkers. This had to be the highlight of the exercise. After the Keldi Cup it was a weekend of fishing and admin before flying back to Darwin and bidding farewell to 2 Cav Regt. I spent 2 days handing kit in, then it was of to a mates for some snowboard— ing before departing for Sydney for a quick look and then onto England. This was an amazing experience which I thoroughly enjoyed and even though I was a “Whinging Pom” I was welcomed into 2 Cav Regt as one of their own. Their hospitality is superb and l have made a number of very good friends. I would recommend Ex LONG LOOK to
anyone.
Peacekeeping in the Horn of Africa Exercise LONG LOOK 2003 LCoH Fitzgerald, The Life Guards was lucky enough to be chosen to visit Australia last year as part of Exercise LONG LOOK; however the trip did not
start auspiciously with the usual compulsory 24hrs at Brize Norton, and another 3 hours of briefing. I finally left for Heathrow to catch the Singapore Airline flight to Australia, with a 40 minutes stopover at Singapore to break up the 22-hour journey. When I eventu— ally got to Sydney I immediately felt at home, there was a huge rainstorm! The baggage was soon reclaimed and I met the reception party and who put me into to the group visiting Darwin. It was then back onto a C130 for another flight, this time only 6 hours! On arrival in Darwin I was met by the duty driver of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (Recon), which was to be my new home. I was
ne chilly day in late December 2003 I clumped into the Adjutant’s office
After a quick welcome beer I was told to
get much colder and some form of warm clothing will be required”. I was also briefed on my new Regiment; 2 Cav Regt are the main recce regiment for the Australian Defence Force and is broken down into 4 squadrons A,B,C,SP and RHQ Tp. Each sqn is further divide into 5 troops, 3 sabre troops, SHQ and admin (RAEME, RAOC.) Each sabre troop has 6 ASLAV (Australian Light
be at work at 0730, for a brief on the next 4 months and Darwin itself. I was $0011
Armoured Vehicle) and there are cur— rently 6 ASLAV variants in service with
told that “ as you will find out Australia can be a land ofextremes. You will be in country during the winter, although in Darwin it will be the “Dry Season”, and will be far from cold, as you know it. Daytime temperatures are generally steady around the 32 — 33 Deg Cel dropping to 24 — 25 at night. Southern states
2 Cav.
deposited at the Guard Room to meet my new troop Sgt, who was a monster of a man called Glenn Armstrong, he was 6ft plus and about 4ft wide and had served 20 years with the unit and still as keen as they come. My troop was the Recon Scouts, who are like our support troop but with army divers (2 per section).
by Captain PG Leavey, The Life Guards
My first week involved small arms train— ing, getting qualified on the section weapons and using the 84mm Karl Gustafso that I could command an anti« tank ambush. I then deployed on a two week dismounted exercise where I was a
dition organised by Major General Eve» lyn Webb Carter.
in Knightsbridge to dismount Queen’s Life Guard. The Adjutant looked at me suspiciously. This made me nervous. I tried to hide a rather tatty pair of cotton whites behind my back. The Adjutant then asked me: ‘What are you doing over New Year?’ This made me very nervous. The Adjutant then smiled. Adrenaline coursed through my veins. I dropped my whip. While I tried to pick it up - without showing that my top
cloak button was plugged - he told me that Brigadier James Ellery was offering up a place on a three week holiday in Ethiopia at very short notice. He had been forced to drop out as a result of potential upheavals in Sierra Leone. A week later I found myself riding a 12
hand mule across the Abyssinian Highlands as part ofa hugely enjoyable expe-
This enormous stroke of luck was fol— lowed by a second one about 6 months later. By now my extraordinary equestri— an ability had finally been recognised and I was attempting to run the Household Cavalry Musical Ride. I was summoned to the Commanding Officer’s office. I decided that there was no way he could have heard about the incident with Tpr Blevins on the Big Wheel at the Bath 8: West show. I could not think ofanywhere to hide as I knew that Captain SA Instone LG had reserved the space under his bed for the afternoon. I went. Two weeks later I found myself in Asmara as the ADC to Major General Robert Gordon CBE who is the Commander of the military force element of the United
Nations Mission to Eritrea and Ethiopia. I had hoped that my posting arose by virtue of a recommendation from General Evelyn or perhaps my new-found experience of the Horn of Africa. However, Captain Instone said he had heard rumours that the Commanding Officer just wanted me as far away from Knights» bridge as possible. In 1952 Eritrea was federated to Ethiopia, then ruled by the Emperor Haile Selassie. Its subsequent annexation as a mere province of Ethiopia sparked a 30-year independence struggle with little support or even interest from the outside world. However, only 7 years after its successful conclusion a border war erupted. This ended under UN auspices in June 2000. An international force of 4,500 soldiers now patrol the disputed area. The Genes a1 commands this from his two headquar-
Household Cavalry News
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Household Cavalry News
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