The Royal Anglian Regiment Association

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THE ROYAL ANGLIAN REGIMENT MEMORIAL DEDICATION CEREMONY: 12 SEP 10

The Royal Anglian Regiment Memorial will be dedicated in a ceremony at the Imperial War Museum Duxford commencing at 1130 Hrs Sun 12 Sep 2010. It will be an all ticket event, replacing the Regimental Gathering 2010, which has been cancelled. Further details will be promulgated after the Regimental Council Meeting on 7 May 10.

3rd BATTALION MEDAL PARADE: SUN 23 MAY 10 IN BURY ST EDMUNDS

The 3rd Battalion will conduct a Medal Parade for 11 and 12 platoons between 1130 and 1330 hrs on Sun 23 May 2010 in Bury St Edmunds.  The Parade will march onto Angel Hill from Abbey Gardens at 1130 hrs; the Mayor of St Edmundsbury and GOC 5 Div will make short speeches; medals will be presented by GOC 5 Div; the Parade will then march to St Mary’s Church for a Thanksgiving Service which commences at 1300 hrs and should finish by 1330 hrs.  CO 3rd Battalion has asked the Regimental Family to proudly support his TA soldiers’ return from operations by attending both the Parade and the Church Service; and he also requests that word of this important Regimental event is spread.

The Regimental Officer responsible for the Medal Parade, to whom any queries should be directed, is: Capt Sam Devitt, ROSO 3rd Battalion (Tel: 07584 302247; email: 3ANGLIAN-ROSO@mod.uk )

1st BATTALION HOMECOMING PARADES

The 1st Battalion, accompanied by the Minden Band, will conduct Homecoming Parades over the period 14 – 18 Jun 2010. The outline programme is as follows:

The Regimental officers responsible for the Homecoming Parades, to whom any queries should be directed, are:

These are Regimental events. You are therefore asked to support The Vikings’ homecoming and encourage others to do likewise. If they are not coming to your town or county, then please make every effort to attend whichever parade is nearest to you. In particular, please pass this message on to your contacts.

APPOINTMENTS
RHQ has been informed of the following appointments:
BATTALION ACTIVITIES

2nd Battalion

This month has once again seen The Poachers spread to the four winds as individual training continues in preparation for Theatre Reserve in Cyprus and Op HERRICK deployments. This has involved a large proportion of the Battalion being back in the UK at one point or another during the month for various courses and training packages. Those remaining in Germany have also been busy with weapons, language and cultural courses being run in Trenchard Barracks. The Poachers have now also well and truly begun to form links with 16 Air Assault Brigade as the Battalion prepares to support the Op HERRICK 13 rotation. In addition to combined training activities, this has involved a good portion of the Battalion Headquarters spending a week in Colchester attending the Brigade Commander’s Conceptual Cadre.

Much to the delight of the attending officers, the Commander’s Conceptual Cadre coincided nicely with The Poachers victory over 2 PARA back in Celle in the semi-finals of the Army Boxing Competition, a fact which was announced to a room full of maroon berets and a handful of cheering Poachers. Particular credit for the Battalion’s boxing success needs to go to Cpl Isaacs, Pte Reeve and Pte Morgan, all of whom achieved impressive wins by knock out.

This month has also seen some substantial changes within The Poachers, with all three rifle company commanders departing the Battalion. Major Ian Chance will be returning to London, Major Pete Smith is due for a posting to the Middle East and Major Lawrence Ives will deploy shortly to Afghanistan.

The major event for The Poachers in April will be the final of the Army Novice Boxing Competition, with the Battalion due to box 3 PARA in Aldershot. If the quality of the boxing and the enthusiasm of the spectators are anywhere close to that of the semi-finals, this promises to be an impressive evening. In addition to the boxing, the Battalion will take two weeks leave over the Easter period, before re-commencing preparations for the move to Cyprus and the deployments to Afghanistan.
Editor’s note: The results of the Army Novice Boxing Final was 6 - 3 in the favour of 3 PARA.

3rd Battalion

12 Platoon continue to patrol in Musa Qalah District Centre and the surrounding area.  On 2 March they were involved in a heavy contact in the area of Talibjan and fired 7,000 rounds, plus indirect supporting fire from 81mm Mortars and 105 mm Light Guns, in order to extract from contact.  They have since handed over to the US Marine Corps and returned home for POTL and the Medal Parade on 23rd May.   

The CO visited the 11 soldiers who are attached to1 MERCIAN in Catterick as they prepare to deploy.  They have been split into a 6 man group who will work with the RGR BG and a 5 man group who will work with the MASTIFF Platoon in the RDG BG.  In addition, contact has also now been established with WO2 Farthing, who has already deployed with his Training Team.

The remainder of the Battalion has continued with its Patrolling themed training on alternate training nights, whilst conducting robust physical training on the nights that are not paid.  This regime will finish at the end of the month, when pay is re-instated for all training nights.  The only major training event of the month was Ex POLAR FOUNDATION II, a Brigade sponsored, low level skills/MATT weekend.  The Battalion was responsible for providing the logistics, range teams and a Battle Exercise for this event, which was based at Beckingham.  This weekend was also the final part of the Battalion’s Combat Signals Cadre, which saw 16 men qualify.

The Battalion hosted a visit by the GOC, who flew in, on the Queen’s Helicopter, to Bury St Edmunds, for tea and cakes with the Permanent Staff after the CO’s O Group.  The Battalion also had hosts at the Army Presentation Team events at Lincoln, Peterborough and Norwich, at which the Battalion also had the lead for the admin and hosting responsibilities. 

In mid March the majority of the Permanent Staff deployed straight from Ex POLAR FOUNDATION II to Capel Curig Training Camp, for a four day adventurous training package.  On Day 1 everyone climbed Snowdon, by 3 different routes depending on ability.  The top was covered in snow and was very cold, due to the wind chill.  On Day 2 a small group went Mountain Biking, whilst the main group climbed the North Face of Tryfan - no mean feat with the amount of snow and ice on the mountain.  On Day 3 a large group went Mountain Biking with a local expert guide and a small group had a gentler hike.  Finally, the whole group went White Water Rafting at the National White Water Centre, before returning home.  All in all a few good, but challenging, days were had by the team.   

April will see a return to full funding and the Battalion beginning the COIN Ops training period, which is the start of the glide path in to Op TOSCA (UNFICYP).  The key training events in April will be Ex STEELBACK SHOT, the Battalion SAAM, which has been reconfigured around the new Army Operational Shooting Policy; and Ex STEELBACK ENFORCER I, a COIN ‘Train the Trainer’ weekend aimed at giving commanders the knowledge that they need to teach their soldiers.