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What are you doing this weekend?

What are you doing this weekend?
by Leigh Petters of the Jersey Evening Post

Leaving his comfortable office behind, Leigh Petters, deputy news editor of the Jersey Evening Post joined the island’s Territorial Army Unit on weekend manoeuvres. Apart from the change of scenery and the prospect of a good feature for the paper, Leigh was enticed by the fact that the TA were ‘invading’ the Isle of Wight and Leigh used to work for the IoW County Press.

TWO days on exercise with the Jersey Field Squadron left me in no doubt that I would make the most woeful soldier if conscription was ever reintroduced.

Against that, the manner in which the island’s Territorial Unit went about their mission reflected great credit on them. Not that I’m an expert on military strategy, but watching plenty of war films over the years has left an impression.

Past experience has shown that it is all too easy to knock the TA, particularly when their role comes under frequent scrutiny in view of the £1m States funding they receive. They may be part-timers drawn from all walks of life – their number includes a traffic warden, teacher, lorry driver and several bank managers – but in the field they transformed into a professional, well-drilled squadron with a strong esprit de corps in everything they did.

Certainly the weekend’s manoeuvre was no tea party. On Friday night, as most islanders were probably settling down to a cosy evening in front of the TV, 40 members of the squadron set off on a 48-hour exercise, when they could expect to get soaking wet and freezing cold, be caked in mud and go without sleep for two nights. And still come away smiling – well almost.

It was my job to tag along for the ride. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts to blend in, I stuck out like a sore thumb.

Admittedly my first taste of Army life did not get off to the best start when my waterproofs fell round my ankles as we traipsed through the bogland from hell.

It was not the most opportune moment – we had just invaded the Isle of Wight, and as the rest of the unit became engaged in a tactical assault strategy, I was unceremoniously lying flat on my back waving my legs in the air while two people struggled to pull the trousers over my boots. For someone with the grace of a gorilla in stiletto heels, there was further ignominy when I failed to negotiate a barbed wire fence and ended up momentarily sitting on it. My backside felt like a pin cushion.

The day had started at 3 am with a Solent crossing from Marchwood military base in Southampton in a huge landing craft the Army uses to carry tanks.

Not surprisingly, it was very slow. Forget the blood and guts of the Normandy landings depicted in Saving Private Ryan, our invasion had about as much drama as a shampoo advert. With a top speed of five knots, a baby in water-wings could have swam faster and it took two-and -three-quarter hours to reach the target zone.

In fact the trip was only notable for the bitter, sub-zero cold. Thankfully, the Solent was as flat as a millpond and the landing would almost have been perfect if we had not beached up about 10 metres short. It meant that everyone got their knees wet, although one poor girl, fully laden-down with a heavy backpack and rifle, slipped and took an early-morning dip.

We had landed at Newtown Reserve, a huge tract of land owned by the Ministry of Defence which is regularly used by the TA for manoeuvres and comprises an estuary, marshland, forests and loads of sheep. The area, which is about the size of St Ouen, is off-limits to the general public and was to be the theatre of battle for the next two days.

The exercise gave the Jersey Field Squadron, along with TA units from Sheffield and Bradford, the chance to put their infantry skills to the test. It doesn’t happen very often because the unit’s primary role is to build landing pads for Harrier jump jets. The work is not as glamorous, but having strong links with the RAF clearly has its benefits when it comes to calling in favours.

Not only were the Jersey troops airlifted from the island in a Hercules transporter, but the exercise concluded with a seat-of-the-pants trip back across the Solent in a Puma helicopter flown by a rather flash South African pilot seconded to the RAF.

It all contributed to an action-packed weekend, the highlight of which was a mock battle with thunder flashes, smoke grenades and blank ammunition, in which the TA attacked a cell of terrorists.

In fact they were fresh-faced students from the Southampton University’s Army officer cadets corps, who appeared to have visited their local charity shop to buy the apparel of a modern-day guerrilla outfit, including a Dolly Parton-style blond wig.

If anyone questioned the resolve with which the Jersey unit approached the attack then they should have seen the moment when one of the terrorists took his role-playing a bit too far and decided to resist capture by throwing a hapless female sapper to the ground.

The forceful manner in which he was then pounced on by her comrades left him in no doubt about how seriously they were treating the mission.
To be continued…..

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