SAC Amy Witwicki
Exercise Altcar Challenge, the UKRFA’s annual International Military Skills Competition, is traditionally held over the May bank holiday weekend at Altcar Training Centre near Liverpool and attracts around 450 participants every year. Teams of four in male, female, and mixed categories compete against each other in challenging and varied activities, ranging from mental and physical command tasks to basic military skills, within an ‘Operational Environment’ theme. The competition is open to all UK Volunteer Reserve Forces and International Reserve Forces. Exercise Altcar Challenge provides a strong basis for teamwork, personal development and leadership and provides excellent military training, but most importantly it is also good fun.
Our Altcar training weekend began with a quick introduction from Sgt Hobbs before we were given grid references and individual and team kit lists of items that we had to have on us at all times. Saturday was spent going through things in slow time, as there were lots of new skills to be learnt! We started with pistol training, followed by WHTs on the Browning 9mm pistol and then various shoots on the range. Other lessons on Saturday consisted of using a Tifor winch for vehicle recovery, getting over a wall individually and as a team, cracking a safe, 9-liners, battlefield first aid and setting up a desert box HLS. We also did a quick tab with kit before going into the DCCT range for a march and shoot. After we had showered and changed we had a recognition lesson with Sgt Robson, before going into the bar for a few social drinks and a quiz on what we had learnt that day.
Sunday was set out in ‘Altcar style’ with us going round as a team to different stands where various scenarios awaited us. The first activity was a command task designed to strengthen teamwork and leadership. This was against the clock and had us quite worn out! The next stand consisted of setting up field telephones, so that we could relay a message back to other team members, once we had released it from inside a locked safe. We took time to work out a plan and made sure we had the telephones working before setting off to the safe, as team members that left the first position were unable to return to it. All went smoothly and we opened the safe on our first attempt. We then went on to the range for another pistol shoot where Jemma Holmes proved to be quite the marksman – getting all 50 rounds on target! Cpl Townsend gave us an introduction to the AK47 and taught us how to make the weapon safe – something we would need to be able to do if we came across them on Ops. This was a completely new experience for me as it is quite different from the L85 A2 Individual Weapon we are used to and was particularly interesting.
The next scenario drew upon a lot of things we had learnt the previous day. We came across a pilot who had been shot down. After making his weapon safe and treating his injuries we sent our 9-liner. However the helicopter was unable to land at our location so we used the pilot’s sketch map of the area to stretcher carry him to another location. Once completed we moved on to recovering a landrover that had broken down, using the Tifor winch to move it uphill onto the hard standing. We managed to do this fairly easily as we were able to use the knowledge Sgt Coombes had taught us the previous day. Over lunch we plotted the grid references we had been given, orientated the map and took a bearing to our first location. This was a good refresher for me as it’s been a while since I’ve done any map reading! After being fitted with the new General Service Respirator (GSR) we headed off on a 4-mile loaded march stopping at the grid locations to complete assigned tasks. At the second grid reference we met Sgt Robson and Cpl Barlow who had prepared a recognition test – something which we could all do with some revision on I think!
Once back at camp, Sgt Hobbs directed us over a wall and onto a grenade stalk, involving monkey running and leopard crawling before running back round and over the wall again! With no time to rest we were straight into the DCCT range for a falling plate shoot. Our final scenario saw us patrolling across an area of open ground when the enemy opened fire and injured one of our team. Whilst some team members laid down covering fire, others moved into a position where they were able to engage the enemy with grenades, buying the others time to drag the casualty into cover to administer first aid. We sent our 9-liner and set up a desert box HLS in preparation for the CASEVAC.
The weekend was well planned and executed, ensuring there was never a dull moment! I would say that we all learnt a lot and it was good to work with other members of the Sqn. We went home slightly battered and bruised, but with morale running high. 606 Sqn now has 2 strong teams raring to take on the Altcar challenge! Bring it on!
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