wireTHE April 2014 www.royalsignals.mod.uk The Magazine of The Royal Corps of Signals ROYAL SIGNALS INSTITUTION Deane-Drummond Prize Essay Competition 2014 (Closing Date - 31st July 2014) 1st Prize - £1000 2nd Prize - £500 3rd Prize - £250 Context: “Operations in Afghanistan have served to highlight the vital role of information on the modern battlefield. Indeed, the richness of the operational information now routinely delivered at all levels of command down to sub-unit and below has fundamentally changed the information landscape to such an extent that it may be time to re-examine the current division of responsibilities for information management (IM).”. Question: Should all information necessarily be treated in the same way; which aspects of the information landscape belong to commanders and their staffs, and which are best left to R SIGNALS personnel? The essay should demonstrate understanding of the IM challenges and the steps to be taken to mitigate against them, highlighting specific recommendations for R SIGNALS. Rules of the Competition: Entrants must be serving (regular or reserve) members of the R SIGNALS or the QG SIGNALS. Essays should be between 1500 – 2500 words and submitted in electronic format. Classified matters must not be included. References and quotes must be in accordance with the Harvard System of Referencing. Essays should be sent to the Corps Adjt under unit arrangements. The closing date for entries is 31 Jul 14. APRIL 2014 Vol. 68 No: 2 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. 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Remittances should be made payable to Royal Signals Benevolent Fund CONTENTS Page April Edition Adventurous Training News from Operations 2 In line with the new policy of Wire submissions instead of News from Blandford 10 formal PXRs, we have several AT reports from Units in this edition: News from Training 14 Ex ALPINE BUFFALO - 3DRS skiing in Austria News from Regiments 22 Ex MOUFLON'S LOTUS - 14 SR trekking in Chile News from Squadrons 76 Ex TIGER HANUMAN DIVER - British Forces Other Units 84 Brunei diving expedition to Bali Ex NORTHERN GEO ADVENTURE - 2 & 32 SR Adventurous Training 85 skiing in Austria Ex DIAMOND MANSKI - 1ADSR skiing in Bavaria Last Post 97 Obituaries 98 FRONT COVER 2 Sig Regt Ex Northern BACK COVER Gokyo Keys exped to Everest Base Camp. Photo LCpl Aaron Rouget (30 Sig Regt) smashing taken at the summit of Kalapatar with Mt down the Giant Slalom course at the Army Everest and Nuptse in the background. Champs 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. Printed by Holbrook Printers Ltd, Norway Road, Hilsea, Portsmouth © Crown Copyright NEWS FROM OPERATIONS HEADQUATERS JFCIS(A) We had to wait all afternoon for the results of the competition which were finally released at 1700hrs. When the DComd Lt Col A E A Corkery results were shown we were all shocked to see that we ended RSM WO2 Robertson up in fifth position and only 40 seconds from 3rd place. Considering the competition we had been up against which Camp Bastion Superstars X-Fit Competition included the Danish, Estonians, and many other British teams – by Cpl Paige AGC(SPS) we all felt we had done ourselves proud. As we were the top placed British team we now have the bragging rights for the next competition which hopefully will take place in Apr 14. HELMAND ICS SIGNAL SQUADRON (220 SIGNAL SQUADRON) OC Maj P Stowell MBE SSM SSgt Miller Helmand DA – by Sgt Keers The XFit team looking rather fit! JFCIS(A) decided that they were going to enter a team in the inaugural Superstars Xfit competition that took place on Tue 14 Jan. The team consisted of Flt Lt Hawley, WO2 (SSM) Robertson, Cpl Dean and myself as team captain. We only decided that a team was going to be entered 3 weeks before the event so training time was of the essence. Our team name was “21 seconds to go”. We only managed to have 2 training sessions as a team before Sgt Taff Collwell, Sgt Micky Keeps, LCpl Plummeret-Page the event took place so spent a little time assessing strengths and weaknesses of all participants. We were all delighted to find that we had a team that overall could compete strongly in On my arrival into Theatre all I heard from the Sqn Yeoman all events that the competition had to offer. was that LCpl Page is glad you are here. Slightly wary, I thought it cannot be all that bad, can it? My first day in the The day of the event arrived and we were all understandably office revealed what the next seven months or so was to have nervous, waking up realising what lay ahead. The competition in store. We oversee a Crypto account that covers the whole itself consisted of a 500 metre row for each member of Helmand as well as accounting for almost 3000 secret (eughhhhhh) followed by 40 reps of bench pressing 50Kg. documents. Luckily LCpl Page came over for the handover After this we moved on to the farmers walk (or should I from 3 (UK) DSR so all was well! say run). Two 25Kg plates in each hand covering 20 meters before turning around and making our way back to the start After I settled in and completed RSOI I started my handover. line counted as 1 rep. We had to do 40 as a team. This was Thankfully LCpl Page is a wealth of knowledge and things the longest time exercise of the event as a whole which was started to run smoothly after we got our heads around what followed by 50 tyre flips which involved flipping a MRAP was required. As we work inside our own little compound tyre. These tyres weigh approximately 100Kg. 200 box jumps things can get a little bit boring throughout the day, but we followed in which all team members had to complete 50 were kept entertained with some classic one liners from LCpl before moving to the next team member. Page such as, “Isn’t Paul Daniel’s married to that Mystic Meg?” or “1666, wasn’t that the Battle of Hastings?” - It’s the The penultimate event was 200 squat thrusts, which was the little things that keep us entertained throughout the day! same as box jumps, involving each team member completing their amount of reps before the next team member could go. The Christmas period was busy and there was plenty The final event was a 400 metre sprint. Each team member organised to keep us all entertained. We all took part in had to hold a baton and pass it on to the next member at running home for Christmas to raise money for charity and the end of their sprint. Cpl Dean went first followed byFlt Lt there was a sports day organised on Christmas day to keep us Hawley, the SSM followed and I went last. We started behind all amused. I, on the other hand, decided it would be a good the Estonians but beat them to the line which was a nice end idea to take part in the Christmas day half marathon after to the competition. doing very little training. 2 THE WIRE, APRIL 2014 LCpl Page has now decided that he has had enough so he is KABUL CAMP SOUTER ICS DETACHMENT (214 SIGNAL off back to Colerne to be replaced by Cpl Smiejkowski. All in SQUADRON) all we have had a busy first three months working hard trying to backload as much equipment as possible as well dealing OC Maj Bennett with our eighty accounts and trying to keep them all happy. SSM SSgt McDermott MOB PRICE – by Cpl Rodway Souter ICS Det in festive sprits MOB Price communication towers and assets The ICS Det has now settled into tour life and the learning curve has begun to even off a bit. As January draws to a close the pace is constantly on the rise Having just lost Sig ‘Arthur Tour’ Hunt (a member of the Det for the ICS detachment at MOB Price. With units moving who got an early ticket home), we were fortunate to gain LCpl location to accommodate the closure of camp this is the start ‘Rusty-nuts’ Harrison as replacement morale.