Journal 2008 - The Journal Royal Highland Fusiliers - The Royal ...

ForewordIt gives me pleasure to introduce our Journal and tocommend Colonel Bobby Steele and his team at HomeHeadquarters not only for producing this publication butalso for providing the glue that continues to hold the fabricof our regimental family together. This Journal is publishedjust before the second anniversary of the formation of TheRoyal Regiment of Scotland. Far from being overwhelmed orsubdued by the consequences of this latest reorganisation ofthe Infantry, I am pleased to report that in the ranks of theserving soldiers, and in the extended family of the branches ofour Association, the Royal Highland Fusiliers are setting thepace and doing their bit to keep our torch burning brightly.This spirit draws its strength amongst the serving men fromthe challenges of contemporary operations and an absolutedetermination that our best traditions will be carried forwardin their day and generation. From what I have seen on myrecent visits to the regular and TA battalions, professionalism,unswerving comradeship and a genuine sense of benevolencetowards our comrades, past and present, remain strong strandson the golden thread of the Royal Highland Fusiliers.The regular battalion has had a frantic and at times frustratingyear. In the course of ten months they served in four differentbrigades in four different divisional headquarters. Rather thanbeing blown off course in such choppy waters, their mindsetis best summed up in a passage taken from a letter written byLieutenant Colonel Paul Harkness on relinquishing command.“Operations are what the Jocks live for. They are never happierthan when they are doing what they joined for, which shouldcome as no surprise in a volunteer professional Army. Itdoesn’t matter how cold, wet or hungry they are, they remainindomitable. In fact the worse the conditions the more cheerfulthey are – we are a peculiar breed of people who seem to thriveon adversity”. During 2007 they nimbly switched their effortsbetween training exercises, public duties and state ceremonialin Scotland and their preparations for operations in Iraq andAfghanistan. As you read this they will be testing their mettleat the start of a difficult and dangerous operational tour inHelmand Province in Afghanistan and until they return inlate September they will remain in our thoughts and prayers.Such operations are not without their costs and at the end oflast year we lost Captain John McDermid. I am grateful tothe many, many hundreds of you who travelled to InvernessCathedral on 26th November 2007 to pay your respects and tosupport Gill and the rest of the family in their darkest hour.Away from operations, they have excelled on the sportingfield either as champions or as finalists in hockey, squash orthe Army’s Rugby Community Cup. These efforts are bestsummed up by the remark made to me on a recent visit to thebattalion when the Quartermaster said “not bad for a footballbattalion”! We should also rejoice that once again an all-ranksgroup travelled to the Republic of South Africa to study thebattlefield and to compete in Exercise Swartzkopf Challenge.This gruelling exercise mimics the heroic acts of manhandlingthe wheeled artillery at the Relief of Ladysmith in February1900. The aim of the competition is to haul a one-and-a-halfton cannon up a high vertical slope as quickly as possible andin 2007 the Jocks saw off the South African Defence Force,South African Police and the Royal Navy Field Gun Team towin the competition.The TA battalion has had a testing time on operationsproviding a force protection element in Kabul as well asindividual reinforcements for Iraq, the Balkans and Germany.They played a significant role in Exercise Summer Challenge;designed to offer fast-track training and entry into the TAfor those who can make themselves available for six weeksintensive training in Scotland. In addition the battalion onceagain took a lead role in supporting Glasgow’s Service ofRemembrance in George Square. I was pleased to see so manyRHF veterans marching behind the Standard of the GlasgowBranch and hope that numbers will swell yet further in 2008.Our Royal Colonel has taken an active interest in all areasof our activities visiting the Royal Highland Fusiliers ofCanada in May, hosting an all-ranks reception at the Palaceof Holyroodhouse during His Royal Highness’s appointmentas Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of theChurch of Scotland. The Duke also visited the 2nd Battalion THE ROYAL HIGHLAND FUSILIERS