THE wire June 2013 www.royalsignals.mod.uk The Magazine of The Royal Corps of Signals FUTURE MOVES OF CORPS UNITS On 5 Mar 13 the SofS announced the Army Basing Plan as part of the Army 2020 programme. The R SIGNALS element is shown below: Serial Unit (Future Title shown) Future Location 1 HQ 1 (UK) Sig Bde Innsworth 2 HQ 11 Sig Bde and HQ West Midlands (WM) Donnington 3 1 Sig Regt Stafford 4 2 Sig Regt York 5 3 Sig Regt Bulford 6 10 Sig Regt • RHQ – Corsham • 225 Sig Sqn – Lisburn • 241 Sig Sqn – Bicester • 243 Sig Sqn – Andover • 251 Sig Sqn – Aldershot • 81 Sig Sqn – Corsham 7 11 (RSS) Sig Regt Blandford/Lyneham 8 14 Sig Regt (EW) St Athan 9 15 Sig Regt (IS) • RHQ – Blandford • GCN Sqn – Corsham Sqns to be renumbered 233, 259 and 262 Sig • GIS Sqn – Blandford Sqns • LSST – Bicester • LICSG(V) – Corsham 10 16 Sig Regt Stafford 11 18 (UKSF) Sig Regt Hereford 12 21 Sig Regt Colerne 13 22 Sig Regt Stafford 14 30 Sig Regt Bramcote 15 216 (Para) Sig Sqn Colchester 16 204 Sig Sqn Colerne (as part of 21 Sig Regt in 2015) 17 299 Sig Sqn (SC) Bletchley 18 628 (NATO) Sig Tp Wesel (tbc) TRANSFERRING TO THE RESERVES By the time you read this edition of The Wire, I hope that further details of the future structure of the Corps, in particular, our Reserves will have been announced. For those whose regular service is about to come to an end, you may wish to be aware that there are a number of incentives for you to transfer to the TA within three years of leaving the Regular Army. Not only will you normally be able to transfer in your current rank but there is also a transfer bonus! Further information can be found in DIN 2013DIN01-095 which outlines the procedure for transfer to the TA. If you would like to express your interest in transferring to the TA you can send an email to [email protected] which should include your name, your civilian email address and any location preferences and HQ R SIGNALS will pass your details to your local TA unit for them to get in contact with you. Further detail on resettlement can be found through the RSA website at www.royalsignalsassociation.co.uk Further detail Reserve Opportunities can be found at www.ms.dii.r.mil.uk/reserves/opportunities/index.htm JUNE 2013 Vol. 67 No: 3 The Magazine of the Royal Corps of Signals Established in 1920 Find us on The Wire Published bi-monthly Annual subscription £12.00 plus postage Editor: Mr Keith Pritchard Editor Deputy Editor: Ms J Burke Mr Keith Pritchard Tel: 01258 482817 All correspondence and material for publication in The Wire should be addressed to: The Wire, RHQ Royal Signals, Blandford Camp, Blandford Forum, Dorset, DT11 8RH Email: [email protected] Contributors Deadline for The Wire : 15th February for publication in the April. 15th April for publication in the June. 15th June for publication in the August. 15th August for publication in the October. 15th October for publication in the December. Accounts / Subscriptions 10th December for publication in the February. Mrs Jess Lawson To see The Wire on line or to refer to Guidelines for Contributors, go to: Tel: 01258 482087 http://www.army.mod.uk/signals/heritage/1311.aspx Subscribers All enquiries regarding subscriptions and changes of address of The Wire should be made to: 01258 482087 or 94371 2087 (mil) or [email protected]. Remittances should be made payable to Royal Signals Benevolent Fund CONTENTS Page News from Operations 2 News from Blandford 13 News from Training 14 News from Formations 21 News from Regiments 23 News from Squadrons 84 Royal Signals Association 97 Last Post 104 Obituaries 104 FRONT COVER BACK COVER Cpl Davies of 216 (Para) Sig Sqn calling in a A gentle day out on the river for Merlin during CT2 training 200 Sig Sqn north of Nairobi Authors alone are responsible for the content of their articles. The opinions expressed in the articles of this publication are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the policy and views, official or otherwise, of the Royal Corps of Signals or the Ministry of Defence. All articles and submissions are published at the discretion of the Editor. This publication may contain official information. It should be treated with discretion by the recipient. THE WIRE, JUNE Printed2013 by Holbrook Printers Ltd, Norway Road, Hilsea, Portsmouth © Crown Copyright 1 NEWS FROM OPERATIONS 2nd SIGNAL REGIMENT CO Lt Col Vaudin RSM WO1 (RSM) Mason 219 SIGNAL SQUADRON OC Maj Davis SSM WO2 (SSM) Stansfield HQ ISAF ICS Det – by Sig Comack It has been a relatively quiet month for the HQ ISAF ICS DET. With a few of the louder members away on R&R it’s been a nice chilled atmosphere, although it has felt strange not hearing the penetrating laugh of Sgt Chris Taylor echoing throughout the Det since he has developed an unhealthy addiction to LOL Cats, an internet website. We’ve also missed out on Cpl Chris ‘Welly’ Welburns weekly tantrums, usually over small trivial things like the cookhouse has run out of Tang powder or someone’s taken his spinning KAIA – by Cpl Watson slot at the gym. Safe to say, when he unleashes the inner beast it’s best to vacate the room as water bottles (empty) The past 2 months in KAIA have seen the half way mark of the will be launched. tour go by. The weather is constantly changing and fooling everyone and we recently had a football match between the The Det has been impacted with the change over of Brits and the Americans and a surf and turf BBQ. personalities. Cpl Stew Pierson RAF has sadly departed us and has been relieved by Cpl Shane Weir RAF. Stew was a The weather in Kabul over the last two months has being good addition to the team as he had a special relationship random to say the least. One day the sun will be out and with the Staff Officers and was always there offering support you’ll be contemplating sunbathing, then the next the rain and comfort when panic set in. We have it on good authority will come then it will be sunny again. Every time you ask a from him that Shane is more than capable of stepping into his local they tell you that the snow has finished and by the end shoes and with his Irish accent it won’t be long before he wins of the day it’s snowing again. It makes you wonder if these the hearts and minds of the Staff. people do actually live here. We are into month four now and much to everyone’s surprise The varying change in weather has turned the ISO Park where LCpl Bentley ‘Hulk’ Hames has managed to find himself in the ICS Det stores are kept into a mud bath. LCpl Bass unfamiliar territory… the gym. Most people set themselves managed to get bogged in whilst taking a trip to fetch reasonable and achievable targets when first starting out, not equipment, then as Sgt Dave Dowson and Cpl ‘Watty’ Watson LCpl Hames: “By the end of tour, I want traps like Tom Hardy” recovered him a second vehicle, they got bogged in and had was his bold statement. While his attitude is to be admired, I to be recovered by LCpl Pete Bass. Thinking we had learnt can’t help but feel that all the protein and testosterone in the the first time, we then waited for it to dry up but obviously world won’t be able to help him in his quest. not long enough as about 2 weeks later Watty did the same thing and so did LCpl Rachel Carwardine. As the half way point in the tour has been and gone, the KAIA ICS Detachment have more than settled into a routine that seems to be a bit like living in the film ‘Groundhog Day’. To break the routine, someone had the idea of organising a BBQ, as the weather at the time seemed to be warming up. After a few days of planning we settled for a Saturday night. So with food prepared and a few non-alcoholic beers to wash it down with, we got the BBQ lit just in time for the weather to turn sour and the snow to start falling. But we endured the weather and went for it anyway. Just as things got going one of our Brit counterparts in KAIA arrived with a big box of king crab which he had managed to swop for a pair of boots and this made for a memorable night with everyone huddled around the BBQ to keep warm and tuck into the crab and steak. On an early Friday morning in Feb LCpl Pete Bass joined a few other last minute put together Brits to play a game of football 2 THE WIRE, JUNE 2013 Suresh Limbu, SSgt (FofS) Pratap Ghale and SSgt (FofS(IS)) Kay. The visit of the RGR Pandit and Lama provided a very welcome opportunity to get together as a Squadron and as a wider Gurkha community at Camp Bastion last month. As a Christian celebrating a combined Hindu and Buddhist temple service in a Muslim country I can say I had a truly multicultural experience! The service was an excellent opportunity to take a little time out to reflect on the tour so far and to catch up with old friends over breakfast.