The following article is taken from the latest issue of the Globe & Laurel magazine.
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Ten Bootnecks and two ABs embarked on MV Hurst Point RORO in August to provide force protection for its 145-day deployment, seeing the team circumnavigate half the globe. Sailing from the UK to Africa, through the Strait of Hormuz (SoH), past Singapore, on to Australia and back. This would certainly tick off the week one, day one Nod’s expected response of ‘Travel’, when asked, ‘Why did you want to join the Corps?’.
We departed Marchwood making our way to Gibraltar. The open seas saw us conduct integration and readiness training, giving us the opportunity to fire all our GPMGs at sea, replicating a ‘Quickdraw’ in response to an enemy threat. Commands were hailed from the bridge, giving gunners direction as to the bearing and type of enemy along with rate of fire. Although the RN has this opportunity regularly, the team thoroughly enjoyed this serial, getting the chance to fire live rounds at sea and provide the crew with a capability demonstration of what we had to offer.
Following our stops in South Africa and Mombasa, which was a first time to Africa for most of the team, we entered the Middle East Joint Operational Area. The number of dhows, skiffs and other vessels dramatically increased. This saw watches become an integral part of our day.
Our first SoH transit, accompanied by HMS Lancaster, saw our posture modified for the threat presented by the narrow waterway of the Strait. Iranian vessels were quick to react to our movements, resulting in the team being ‘stood to’ several times throughout the day and night, keen to demonstrate our capability while they watched us.
While in Bahrain for a second time we were fortunate enough to receive tours of UKMCC, TF3 HQ and training facilities and we also spent a day training in the US Coast Guard ‘ship-in-a-box’ facility…………….
To find out more about 42 Cdo RM and further RM activities across the globe, catch up regularly with all the news in the Globe & Laurel Magazine, the Journal of the Royal Marines.
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Globe & Laurel – RMA – The Royal Marines Charity (rma-trmc.org)
