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On the 6th January 2003, I along with others
was recalled to Battalion from a posting to prepare for a
possible
deployment to the Gulf. At first it was not known what part
we would all play in this deployment as the rumours were
that 7 Brigade were going to leave us behind in 4 Brigade.
By
the middle of January it was decided that 2 Rifle Companies
with Sniper support would deploy with the Scots
Dragoon Guards Battle Group; 1 Rifle Platoon plus 2 Sections
of Mortars and 2 sections of Anti-Tanks would deploy with
the 1 Royal Regiment of Fusiliers; and 1 Rifle Platoon
plus 1 Section of Mortars and 2 sections of Anti-Tanks would
deploy
with
the
Black
Watch
Regiment. All of these Battle Groups are part of the 7th
Armoured Brigade (The Desert Rats). This left the remainder
of Support Company i.e. the Recce Platoon and the entire
Headquarter Company element without jobs. After frantic
searching and offering of services, the majority of the people
being
left behind managed to get themselves jobs to deploy with.
Most of the Recce Platoon, of which I was still part,
went to Number Two Company undertaking a variety of roles.
It was once all this had been sorted out that the real training
began. As well as in-camp training the Irish
Guards deployed down to Sennelarger, Germany for some 2 weeks
of live firing training. This progressed at a rapid rate
moving on from dry (using blank round ammunition) section
attacks to live Platoon and Company attacks dismounting from
the Warriors. During this training package there were bags
of ammo and enthusiasm but we were still unsure whether we
were going to be deployed or not. It was on the last day
of training here that the Commanding Officer; Lt Col Stopford
said his goodbyes to the Battalion as this was the last time
the Battalion would work together for some time. He was not
deploying with the rest of us and would be handing over the
Battalion in March when we could possibly be away and after
a moving speech, the Regimental Sergeant Major dismissed
us to the day's training. Little did we know at this time
that we would see our Commanding Officer again in Kuwait
on St Patrick’s
Day as he had secured himself a job up at Division along
with the Regimental Sergeant Major, the Battalion Second-in-Command,
the Drill Sergeant and the Adjutant!
After a few weeks in-camp training consisting of fitness,
Intelligence briefs and of course Nuclear Biological and
Chemical (NBC) we deployed with the Scots DG Battle Group
to Höne to get some SOP’s (Standard Operating
Procedures) sorted out as this was the first time of working
with this
Battle Group. It was strange training for a possible war
in the desert with an expected temperature of 35°C, in
temperatures of -17°C and a foot of snow on the ground
but that is what we had to do. It was alright for those of
us who had been to the desert before to train but trying
to explain the difficulties of working in such a hot climate
and the effects of sunstroke and heat exhaustion to the younger
members of the Battalion when they were on the verge of going
down with hypothermia was a real test of your instructional
abilities. Even as these 2 weeks drew to a close we were
still unsure as to whether we were going to go at all but
our hopes were raised slightly by the fact that the Black
Watch and RRF Battle groups had loaded their wagons on the
boats bound for Kuwait.
After returning to Münster we continued with the training
in between up-armouring the vehicles and then towards the
end of February we got word to load the wagons on the boats
and our flights were going to be at the start of March. It
was starting to look like St Patrick’s Day would be
in a hot climate this year……..
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