7644 (VR) Sqn RAuxAF

Afghan Christmas

2012-01-18T17:46:00.002Z

Fg Off Tony Newton reports on his experiences bringing Afghan Christmas cheer into UK homes

I’d been tasked by Air Command to take a Mobile News Team to Kandahar and Bastion, record as many Christmas messages as we can from personnel across all three services, and bring the resulting material back to the UK for processing and uploading to the RAF’s website. With me was videographer Cpl Dylan Browne, and we were hosted in theatre by Flt Lt Chloe Bridge who manages media operations for 83 Expeditionary Air Group. Chloe had lined up sessions for us with many of the units represented in Bastion, and by the end of the project we’d recorded over 250 Christmas messages.

With mobile phones banned in theatre and Paradigm cards limited to 30 mins per week for phone calls and internet, the opportunity to send a personal Christmas message to loved ones back home is one of which many took advantage.

We’d brought a few props with us, but ‘liberated’ something extra from each unit we visited: an inflatable snowman we christened Orville, various bits of tinsel , a table top Christmas tree and- our favourite- a cardboard cut-out reindeer.

The props came in handy to break the ice and the messages varied from straight and businesslike to wonderfully cheesy. Some made great use of the props, others none at all, but the end effect was much the same- a personal heartfelt message from theatre to loved ones back at home. Emotion came to the surface readily, and it’s great that no-one was embarrassed by this.

Here’s how the Christmas messaging worked. We set up our video camera in the best location we could find, trying to ensure that the background reflected the speaker’s working environment. Offices and conference rooms don’t make great video, so we went for external settings wherever possible. Each participant was given a card printed with a unique password and an RAF web address, so that only those given that password back at home would be able to view the message- so the output was both personal and very secure
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On Christmas Eve- and not before- to ensure a sense of occasion- all 250 plus messages went live to be viewed on Christmas Day by family and friends. Those messages will now stay visible until at least mid January to ensure the maximum possible viewing opportunity.

Media interest in the project was surprisingly high, but emphasised the importance of having a specific concept or ‘package’ to sell in to busy producers and planners, and of tailoring that package for specific regional needs. In this case, it meant identifying service personnel with families in each of the BBC TV regions, then getting the ‘buy in’ of those families to be interviewed.

Each regional package comprised a combination of bespoke footage (an interview with the selected service person about what they’re doing out there and what it’s like to be away at this time of year, cutaways of that person doing their normal job out in Afghan, and of the messaging process underway) with ‘boilerplate’ interview footage with Officer Commanding 903 Expeditionary Air Wing and the RAF Padre and some background footage of helicopters lifting from Camp Bastion.

To complete the story, all the regional media then had to do was to interview the family and get shots of them logging in to receive their personal Christmas message.

To anyone thinking that managing a Mobile News Team is just about turning up and swanning around with a video camera, I’d remind them that the ‘selling in’ process involved a lot of extra legwork but it made the difference between capturing a lot of material that ends up sitting on a hard drive and creating stories that made it on to BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, BBC Look East, Look North and Look West plus BBC Three Counties Radio.

Gun oil, not suntan oil

2011-11-17T16:10:00.000Z

Flying Officer Tony Newton reports on 7644’s pre-deployment training at RAF Akrotiri

Service personnel reading this will know all about Individual Pre-Deployment Training (IPDT), but for those new to the wonderful world of military acronyms, IPDT is the course that every member of the RAF has to take before going ‘Out of Area’ (OAA) on Operation HERRICK (Afghanistan).

IPDT is managed by the RAF Regiment, which runs courses at a variety of locations in the UK and abroad. The idea is that every individual should be up to date with current threats, competent in managing their own personal safety and able to assist others with first aid.

More specifically, that means understanding (among other things) how to extract yourself from a minefield, how to fight your way out of a vehicle or patrol ambush and what to look for when on ‘point of entry’ duty at an operating base.

IPDT has to be kept ‘in date’, because, like any skillset, it’s a case of ‘use it or lose it’- whether that’s remembering how to put a sling on a rifle correctly or rehearsing the drills for exiting an ambushed Landrover in something better than Keystone Kops order.

With 7644 personnel so much in demand for deployment- and sometimes to be ready to move at very short notice- it’s important to ensure that it has enough people ‘in date’ for IPDT to meet all likely operational requirements. And so it was that four members of the squadron, plus another two acting as a Mobile News Team (MNT), left an autumnal Brize Norton for a sunny Cyprus.

The training environment in Cyprus is much like the areas we’re likely to be deploying to- dust, rocks and lots of running around in the heat in body armour, helmet and webbing. The combination of classroom lectures, practical sessions and outdoor ‘scenario’ based training made this a very busy week- and it seems to me that every time we do IPDT, more has been crammed into the syllabus.

As a reservist one does have to become accustomed to ‘military speak’- that peculiar combination of very simple and highly convoluted phraseology used by the British Armed Forces. To have a smoke canister described authoritatively as being ‘eau de nil’ colour had all four of us educated types perplexed- last time I looked from a Cairo hotel window, ‘eau de nil’ was a nasty brownish colour. And unless new recruits at Halton are now receiving interior design lessons as part of basic training, they’re not going to be much wiser that ‘eau de nil’ is in fact a sort of light green...so why not say so, especially as other smoke canisters are described as being ‘deep bronze green’, which even I can recognise.

Out on the range, testosterone was flowing as we competed for the annual 7644 shooting trophy. I let the pressure get to me, and the trophy slipped out of my hands by three points and into those of Flt Lt Wasley, to whom warm congratulations (through gritted teeth).

But while the four of us were kept busy trying to decide whether to lob ‘eau de nil’ or ‘deep bronze green’ canisters at our attackers, the MNT was busy running down numerous stories, most of which seemed to involve the use of a Griffin helicopter as the personal transport and camera platform for Fg Off Lesley Woods. With Ops ELLAMY and HERRICK both making extensive use of the base’s people and resources, the MNT’s ‘Day in the Life of RAF Akrotiri’ video should be well worth watching.

Whether in a real firefight, where lives are at stake, or in the training environment, keeping one’s personal weapon clean is imperative if it’s to operate efficiently. Dust, lead and carbon deposits can lead to jamming, and if the weapons aren’t lightly oiled after use, the working parts could rust in the armoury, even in Cyprus. As chance would have it, the Regiment corporal overseeing our weapon cleaning was the same person who took me through basic training at Halton, and his eye for detail (and for carbon deposits in hard to reach areas) is something I remember well and others discovered to their discomfiture. But he led from the front, and spent as much time cleaning his own weapon as we did ours.

Intense concentration on weapon cleaning.

Photo credit: Cpl Mark ‘Dudley’ Walker

With the final day of the course at an end and our various pieces of paper stamped and signed to confirm that we are all now ‘in date’ for IPDT, we finally get to indulge in a squadron Mezze in a local restaurant and even manage a Saturday on the beach. But who could deny us that?

If any of the Akrotiri RAF Regiment team should read this, a hearty ‘thank you’ from 7644 for a well run, enjoyable and enthusiastically delivered course. See you next year!

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

2011-09-13T14:06:00.000+01:00

Tony Newton posts from the UK about an early end to his deployment.

One of the things about getting older is that your parents do too. When I agreed to a six week mobilisation to Italy in support of Op ELLAMY, I knew that my father wasn’t in the best of health, but as neither family nor doctors could answer the ‘how long is a piece of string?’ question, it made sense just to get on with the deployment.

I’d agreed with my siblings that they wouldn’t withhold important information from me while I was away, and initially phone calls home confirmed that my father’s condition was stable. But a couple of weeks into my time in Gioia, the message started to change, and both my Paradigm calling card and my Vodafone inclusive minutes started to be rapidly depleted through long discussions as to how far things should be allowed to deteriorate before I ‘banged out’. We’d agreed that as different family members had different perspectives on when would be the right time to come home (if at all), we’d take a leaf out of the ‘Britain’s Got Talent ‘ book and I’d come home when each of my three siblings and my mother all individually gave me a red light.

I’d already warned my boss in Gioia’s Press Information Centre (PIC) that a compassionate problem might be looming, and had spoken informally with the A1 (administration) cell to find out how a ‘comp’ (compassionate repatriation) would work if needed. They’d both been extremely helpful and supportive, and the only ‘guilt trip’ laid on me for even thinking about returning home was of my own making.

And of course the balloon did eventually go up- and true to form it happened outside office hours, with a call from my wife to the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (known as the ‘J triple-C’). What happened next could so easily have been the stuff of farce: JCCC quite understandably called the hospital to get confirmation of my father’s medical situation. Equally understandably, the hospital refused to give out any information to this unknown third party other than that “he’s comfortable, and you can speak to the Consultant’s secretary tomorrow morning.” JCCC then called me to say that there was nothing further they could do that evening, but that they would call the hospital the next morning. In the meantime, if I could get myself home on my own initiative through the chain of command in Gioia then I should start to put the wheels in motion - all of which made me feel like a cross between a complete fraud and the Boy Who Cried Wolf.

The next morning, I managed to organise a place on the afternoon Herc that would have deposited me in Brize Norton sometime around midnight (having narrowly missed the HS 125 that would have been a very fast and comfortable trip back to Northolt, albeit in less than ideal circumstances). I was settling down to trying to do a productive morning’s work when the A1 Senior Clerk walked into the PIC to announce that the JCCC had now spoken to the hospital consultant and assessed the case as a Category Alpha- defined as ’get you home as fast as possible by any possible means’. From this point on, the machine kicked into overdrive. “You’re leaving in a car for Bari airport in 45 minutes. You’re flying civair Bari to Milan, Milan to Heathrow where you’ll be met and taken direct to the hospital.”

And that’s exactly what happened. At Heathrow I was first off the aircraft and met on the air bridge by a civvy suited RAF man from Northolt with Heathrow ID who whisked me through baggage claim and immigration and into a waiting car. By 6.30 pm, I was at my father’s bedside.

The point of this piece is twofold: to thank all those at Gioia del Colle who were so helpful in getting me away (and indeed for allowing me to go at all), and to publicly acknowledge the work of the JCCC in making it all happen so quickly and so smoothly once an emergency was declared.

What worried me most about leaving theatre was the risk that people who had entrusted me (and by extension the Mobile News Team function) with their home town story might never see their name and picture in print, and never know why. Since I’ve been back, the days have revolved around hospital visits, but I’m pleased to say that I’ve now completed and delivered all the home town stories for which I’d done interviews, so honour is satisfied.

A whiter shade of pale

2011-08-24T12:47:00.002+01:00

Flt Lt Tony Newton posts from Gioia del Colle, Italy:

They say that a plan never survives first contact with the enemy. Sometimes, it doesn’t even survive contact with your own side. In what the 7644 Deputy Officer Commanding described as “a first for the Squadron” (and which I suspect might even be a first for the RAF), the Herc I was supposed to be on left Brize Norton several hours early. I suppose that whatever it had on board was more urgently required in theatre than its passengers, so a number of us were left cooling our heels until the next flight.

The result was that as I arrived at Gioia, the relaxed and comprehensive handover anticipated from our own Tom Calver was limited to him gesturing to me across the barrier separating incoming and outgoing passengers. “Here’s your phone,” he said, and with that he was gone- him to the waiting Herc and me to inbound processing.

But the handover notes Tom had left were pretty comprehensive, so the only damage done was I that I asked a few more stupid questions than I might otherwise have done.

My journalistic antennae (or ‘nose’ as our Honorary Air Commodore prefers to call that sixth sense) had been on ‘receive’ since arriving at Brize Norton, so I managed to arrive in theatre with a couple of stories gleaned from my fellow passengers and was able to ‘hit the ground running’ on the news gathering front with an idea which (at time of writing) has spawned around 14 home town stories.

Although in Italy primarily to run the Mobile News Team (MNT) comprising myself, videographer Corporal Pete Devine and photographer Senior Aircraftswoman Sally Raimondo, one of my first tasks was to learn to play my part in a rota of Press information Centre (PIC) duties including attendance at the daily Contingency Action Group (CAG) meeting, creation of a daily media update for distribution across the base, and inspection of weapons system video from the Litening III pod carried by both Tornado and Typhoon.

Another of my functions was to take over where Tom had left off in media training the Officer Comanding 906 Expeditionary Air Wing, and this was one area which had me slightly worried: while absolutely secure in my abilities, what I didn’t know was how the ‘personal chemistry’ would work out. You don’t get to be a Harrier pilot and a Group Captain by being a slow learner or a poor communicator, so I needed to pull off the trick of offering consistency of message while building his confidence in me as the new face and new voice of media training - and at the same time ensuring that I was moving the media training forward for a busy man with huge responsibilities rather than simply repeating the content of previous sessions.

A couple of days after our first media training encounter, the weather was so hot that to the dismay of everyone else in the media ops office, I ventured out in my issue shorts for the first time. As I stood on the office steps, I heard a voice behind me remark “Tony, I really don’t think those legs should be allowed out in public!” and turned round to see the Group Captain grinning at me. Being recognised for your professional skills is one thing; being known for the whiteness of your knees is quite another!

Going home

2011-08-08T12:55:00.001+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Tom Calver posts from RAF Brize Norton some thoughts jotted down on his flight home:

It ends more or less where it began - in the hold of a Hercules transport aircraft.

Just over four months ago I stepped out of one into an Italian night that was cold. But then, it was only March.

Now I'm riding back to Brize Norton, where I'll post this before heading off for some leave.

People join 7644 Squadron for all sorts of reasons, but for me it was wanting to deploy. And as I joined in 2006, the more I heard from other squadron members about their deployments, the more I wanted to deploy.

My wish was granted in 2008 with a two month tour at Kandahar, Afghanistan. And again with a - more focussed and unusually brief - two weeks in 2010.

Truth be told, I still wanted a 'proper' deployment, by which I meant a longer one where I would be part of a team building up or developing a media operations office.

And I got that too. Just a couple of months before my renewal point (you join the RAF Reserves for five years at a time), I was one of the first people to deploy on Operation Ellamy, as the UK calls its Libya mission.

And just over four months later, I am one of the last of those first people to be leaving Gioia del Colle.

In that time I have moved from a stolen corner of a hangar, from where we filed material on that first night when we arrived, to an office that, if slightly crowded, had all the equipment I needed, and was decorated with examples of the impressive work of the photographers I've had the privilege and pleasure of working with.

And Gioia del Colle has moved from the highly dynamic environment of a new operation getting established while still flying the missions, to a more mature operation in a steadier state.

That's not to say that the people replacing me won't find their roles dynamic - the Libya situation is not fixed and there are daily changes. In the steadier state we are just better placed to deal with it.

The last four months have been fantastic. The Royal Air Force has delivered. Setting up from near scratch, the operation has allowed many units and individuals to demonstrate just how good they really are.

Early in this operation, one RAF officer, looking at a logistics convoy of trucks coming into Gioia del Colle, commented: "You forget what we're capable of."

Ellamy has been a reminder, if any was needed, that the RAF is, when called upon, an organisation of first-rate people. As it continues, other units and other individuals will have their opportunity to show how good they are.

But it will be someone else's job to tell their story. 7644's Tony Newton replaces me and joins a team of excellent people in Media Operations.

Meanwhile, I'm signing up for another five years. They promise to be at least as enjoyable as the last five.

First impressions

2011-07-13T12:38:00.000+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Tom Calver posts from Poggio, Italy:

To be honest, when I first saw the Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) building, I was a bit disappointed. I’d expected something bigger, perhaps more fortress like and forbidding.

It didn’t look anything like that.

But the people working there did not disappoint in any way. Experts in their various fields, dedicated, hard-working and very friendly.

I was there with the mobile news team to find out more about the UK contribution to the work of the CAOC. It’s significant – with UK personnel in a lot of key roles.

On the CAOC floor, from where operations over Libya are controlled, I spoke to a few of them. The CAOC has rows of desks facing a few screens. Above each desk is a label. Each marks the location of a different function, whether that is controlling strike aircraft or updating the weather forecast.

When I went in, the floor was being run by a Royal Air Force Wing Commander, who held the post of Chief of Combat Operations (CCO). The CCO manages the CAOC floor, ensuring that the planned operations for the day take place, as far as possible, and that anything that arises is dealt with effectively.

Facing him was a group of people from various Nato nations, in a collection of uniforms. The predominant theme was green and brown in a range of combinations, although some nations seem to go for blue and grey. But amongst them was the familiar sight of the UK’s desert camouflage, more practical for the warmer Italian climate than the green version.

One set of deserts belonged to a Senior Identification Officer (SIDO). The Squadron Leader, an experienced intelligence officer, was part of a team of three. Their role was to identify targets. As aircraft fly over Libya, they report possible targets, which must be positively identified as valid before they can be struck. Using various sources of intelligence, the SIDOs effectively build a case to say whether something can be attacked.

Their job is vital because Nato and the UK are determined to avoid civilian casualties. The SIDOs advise the commanders to help them do this, but they are not the only people.

One of the others was a Wing Commander from the RAF’s legal branch. International law applies to Nato’s actions, and commanders have access to legal advice. Some situations are clear cut. Others require a judgement call. The lawyer can advise on the context of international law, though he noted that his role was not to say no, but to offer the commander options.

Further along the floor, another RAF Squadron Leader was responsible for delivering that part of the day’s plan for attack aircraft, communicating with the mission crew of a UK E-3D Sentry aircraft, who in turn talked to the aircraft. The fact that the Sentry was also British was a convenient coincidence, it could have been a US or French E-3, or one of the multi-national crewed Nato E-3s.

It is that international dimension that makes the CAOC so interesting. Alongside counterparts from many nations, those UK personnel were integrated into an operation where everyone, from every nation, works together to deliver their mission.

I left the CAOC still thinking the building was a bit unimpressive. But the people were another matter entirely. The professionalism, the cooperation and the determination were extremely impressive. And in the end, it is the people who make the CAOC work so well.

An E-3D and an interrupted breakfast

2011-06-15T18:37:00.006+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Tom Calver posts from Trapani, Sicily:

The Tactical Director had just sat down to breakfast and introduced himself when the phone rang. The conversation was short. Then he turned around to his colleagues and uttered that immortal word.

'Scramble.'

And our plans changed.

They don’t scramble E-3Ds. The Sentry, as it’s called, flies planned missions, controlling the skies over Libya, watching for breaches of the No Fly Zone, coordinating the hundreds of Nato aircraft carrying out missions as part of Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR.

It calls for intense concentration for hours at a time, made less difficult with careful planning by all the members of the mission crew, led by the Tactical Director.

So I and the Mobile News Team had arrived for breakfast in Trapani with a clear idea of the morning’s timings. Breakfast, then report to the E-3D detachment, go through the briefs, watch some planning, walk to the aircraft at the appropriate time, take off as planned, on station as planned, off station as planned and land sometime in the evening.

But today the operation had changed. Which meant that the UK E-3D needed to get airborne as soon as possible.

So we, and the E-3D crew, took a last bite of breakfast and headed to work.

Briefing and planning had to be done quickly, but it was done no less professionally than if the crew had had the luxury of time. All knew that it was important not to miss a critical detail. No critical detail was missed.

And while they prepared, so did we. We made a last check of our cameras and sound kit. And we discussed with our escort what we could and could not do onboard. We got our safety briefing, and then we headed to the aircraft.

We took off early and then the crew put all their planning into action. Technicians brought the radar online and ensured the communications links were in place. Then the displays were brought up, details appearing- the Libyan coastline, refuelling areas, then aircraft and ships and various other details. To me, the picture was a clutter of information, but each member of the mission crew knew which pieces of information were important to them.

We had left just over an hour earlier than planned, and when the crew called ‘on station’ they had managed to shave even more time off. The on station call meant that the previous E-3 could head home.

It was rigorous work for the E-3D mission crew as they took over, but once they were in the groove, they could relax enough to chat to us. A headset would be pushed off one ear, and we would talk, but frequently it would be flipped back into place as another message came in.

While they are on station, the E-3D crew is responsible for delivering the whole of the planned air operation for the day, ensuring that each mission happens on time, and that aircraft movements do not conflict with each other. At the same time they act as a link between the Nato Combined Air Operations Centre on the ground, and the aircraft in the sky.

To get an idea of the complexity I listened to the Fighter Controller managing air-to-air refuelling, speaking to various nations’ pilots, moving fighters and refuelling aircraft around to ensure that all the planned refuelling took place. It is a complex multi-dimensional game. Not only must the aircraft be moved in three dimensions, but they must be kept on time. And the Controller is also trying to manage fuel reserves, to build up spare capacity in the air.

That spare capacity is vital if a patrolling aircraft needs to respond to an incident - say stopping Qadhafi regime artillery firing at a town – and so burns more fuel than originally intended. The reserve ensures Nato can respond to the unexpected. And to husband the reserve, the Controller constantly adjusts the refuelling plan.

The whole mission demands constant detailed attention. Technicians, surveillance controllers and weapons controllers work as a team, serious about the job, but with banter and humour to lighten things a bit. Even so, when it was done, I could feel the moment everyone relaxed.

And then we could chat a little more. And it turned out that the UK E-3D crews are used to an extended mission. This is a dynamic situation and things do change. On a number of occasions the crews have stayed on station longer than planned, even arranging their own refuelling to do it(!),ensuring that command and control is maintained. But if a late finish was not unusual, an early start had still been unexpected.

What struck me about the crew was that despite the fact that a mission of the planned length is demanding enough, they would find the reserves to do more if called upon. Today had been just another example of that flexibility of approach and commitment to delivering the mission.

The Sentry landed at Trapani as dusk fell. After we got off the aircraft, the Mobile News Team and I went back to our accommodation. The crew, however, went off for a debrief, their work not quite over.

That day, they may have done more than they planned to, but yet again they had done all they were asked to.

The only lesson from history is that we don't learn from history

2011-06-13T10:00:00.002+01:00

Flying Officer Tony Newton in the JSCSC rotunda.

Flying Officer Tony Newton posts from the Joint Command and Staff College, Shrivenham:

The last time I was at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, Shrivenham, was to do an interview for Flight International about the concept of the Micro Air Vehicle (MAV). In the ten years since that visit, MAVs have become a reality, and the splendid building that houses the College is now home to Europe’s premier defence academy.

I’m here with 49 other junior officers of pilot officer, flying officer and flight lieutenant rank to attend the first in a series of three courses that comprise the Junior Officer Development Programme (JODP). Officers must complete JODP before they can be promoted to Squadron Leader, the lowest of the 'senior officer' ranks. The idea is that the first of these courses should be taken within a couple of years after graduating from Royal Air Force College Cranwell, with each of the next two courses being taken at two year intervals after that.

There's a real 'first day at new school' atmosphere on the first morning. Not just because the building appears to be a rabbit warren to the uninitiated, but because we really are the new 'oiks' - even to the extent of a couple of participants having to apologise for being late through getting lost on the way to the classroom. The role of the JSCSC is such that those of us with only one or two stripes on our rank slides are suddenly rubbing shoulders in the coffee breaks with senior officers from all three services and from all over the world. And just like a new school, we’ve arrived there to see some familiar faces that we recognise from our Cranwell days, plus a Chinook-full of new ones.

The content of the course is split between lecture theatre and syndicate room, and Chatham House rules are the norm. We're encouraged to say what we really think and feel, not what the book says we should. And as the Directing Staff (DS) remind us, the course is designed to get us to ask questions, not to give us answers. But questions about what? Leadership is the theme, and what we can learn from history without fighting tomorrow’s war with yesterday’s strategy. We examine this from (amongst other things) the perspective of ethics, the law of armed conflict, air-land integration and appraisal writing. Media relations comes into it too, but in the big set-piece Exercise FIELD DAY that caps the week, I try hard to avoid this role so that I can work on a different part of my game - and I don’t want to say more than that as serving readers might one day be put in that same scenario. But the hard-learned lessons of concurrent working and team functioning do appear to have paid off, and we come up with a workable plan of which the DS approve. But it’s not so much the plan they’re interested in as the process that leads to it.

So what have I learnt from my first step down the JOD route? Course content aside, I’ve met interesting people from other specialisations who have done, and continue to do some very interesting stuff. And these are people who I could well meet next out on operations, so the commonality of the course forges a worthwhile bond, however tenuous, that could lead in future months or years to the welcome of a familiar face in an unfamiliar setting.

The next step for me is to deliver a written assignment within six weeks of the course end. JOD2 , in about two years' time, is a two week residential course which raises the academic bar significantly with more 'in depth' case study analysis and individual research. But today’s events are tomorrow’s history, and by that time, Operation ELLAMY could be an academic case study. Given my age, it’s going to be a close run thing as to whether I ever get to complete JOD3. But I like learning, and if I aim for the stars, I might at least get to Shrivenham.

To Hull and back with 202 Squadron

2011-05-24T10:25:00.000+01:00

Officer Cadet Meg Fairhurst posts from HQ A Flight 202 Squadron, RAF Boulmer:

When I decided to leave teaching and become a broadcast journalist nearly three years ago I never envisaged that I would be doing something quite as exhilarating as flying on a search and rescue mission on an RAF Sea King. 7644 Squadron had been asked by RAF Boulmer to produce a station video that would give an overview of the work that the station does for UK air defence and Search and Rescue. As an officer cadet, currently undergoing part-time military training at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, I was delighted to be asked to put my video skills into use by documenting the valuable work done by A Flight 202 Squadron in Search and Rescue.

My first helicopter trip certainly made an impression. 7644 Squadron's Deputy Officer Commanding, Squadron Leader Dylan Eklund, joined me for what should have been a routine training flight. But not long after boarding the aircraft a call came to go and rescue a diver in distress off the Sunderland coast. Within minutes we were airborne and over the North Sea, heading towards the location of the dive boat. Over the intercom I could hear the chatter as the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Matt Prosser, and co-pilot, Flight Lieutenant Dan Easter, confirmed the location of the stricken diver.

As we neared the boat it became apparent that another diver had gone missing. The crew quickly adapted to the new situation, lowering winchman Sergeant Pete 'Woody' Wood, on to the yacht to provide initial first aid to the diver. The casualty was a middle-aged man whose breathing equipment had failed, forcing him to rise too quickly and resulting in the onset of the bends, a potentially fatal condition caused when nitrogen bubbles form in a diver's blood.

After Sergeant Wood was set down the Sea King banked to the left and went in search of the other diver. The challenge was on, and all eyes were needed in the search. We eventually spotted the diver some distance from the dive boat, waving for help. Calling out his position, the radar operator, Flight Lieutenant Mick Goss, was able to direct the boat to his location. We then turned tail and went back to pick up 'Woody' and the casualty, before making the 45-minute flight to a hospital in Hull which has a decompression chamber - a critical facility to help divers who have the bends.

202 Squadron hand over the casualty to Hull Hospital. Photograph: Sqn Ldr Dylan Eklund

Having handed our passenger safely over to the medical staff at Hull, we headed home back across the North Sea, munching on Kit-Kat Chunkies and Fruit Pastels as we reflected on the rescue. This mission itself was not unusual. The crew told me that they carry out on average 200 rescues a year over a 240 mile radius. Scrambling in 15 minutes, they are able to answer calls for help coming from boats or divers that get into trouble. Other rescues include cliff walkers or climbers who slip and fall.

As we flew along the coast of Northumberland back to Boulmer the weather was changing fast, and the sky was darkening. We headed inland and the crew informed me and Squadron Leader Eklund that we would have time to get some aerial footage of the station before we landed. Some of that footage will be used in the Station's new video; it's great to know that I played a part in gathering it, especially on a live mission that I'll remember vividly for a long, long time!

Libyan operations change everything

2011-04-14T09:47:00.001+01:00

As noted earlier this week, 7644 Squadron has been playing a quiet part in Operation ELLAMY, the UK's contribution to air operations over Libya. Several of the Squadron's officers have been deployed, one of whom, Flying Officer Geoff Maskell, played a part in bringing news of the RAF's role to the public. Here he outlines his experiences.

Flying Officer Geoff Maskell posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

Fg Off Geoff Maskell prepares for a rather unexpected task.

To be honest, it wasn’t the day I was expecting. Not by a long way.

When I left home early one Saturday morning in March, my only concern was if I had done enough work to pass the fitness test that RAF Reservists have to take twice each year. I certainly wasn’t expecting a ringside seat to witness a little slice of history. But that is exactly what happened at my last training weekend.

In my day job I’m a BBC journalist based in Nottingham. The original plan was for me to drive RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire for a training weekend, before spending a week in France supporting a joint exercise between the RAF and the French Air Force.

It didn’t quite work out like that.

Fresh from my hundred-mile drive and the joy of an 08.30 fitness test (which, thank goodness, I passed) I was on my way to the Squadron offices for a morning of testing and packing video kit. Then I bumped into one of my colleagues.

'Change of plan', he said. 'You’ve got ten minutes to get on the road up to RAF Marham.'

And that was the start of a rollercoaster week.

Up in Norfolk the Tornado GR4 Squadrons were preparing for the first bombing raids on Libya. In doing so they would be launching the RAF’s longest-range bombing mission since the Falklands War.

My job, as I was rapidly learning, was to film the air crew as they prepared for the mission. To follow them from the Ops Room as they changed into their flying suits and walked to their aircraft, and to record them taxiing out into the night and taking off for Libya.

Ready for action: an RAF Tornado GR4 at RAF Marham

To say it was tense would be an understatement. The complexity of flying some 3,000 miles at night to strike targets in the first wave of attacks saw an atmosphere of gritty concentration for the task ahead. Having cameras present is not comfortable for military crews, and if they decline to be filmed then their wishes are respected.

That night, in the words of the great Brian Hanrahan, 'I counted them all out, and I counted them all back in again': the first RAF bombing raids to take off from the UK since the Second World War. We filed our last piece - shots of the final crew arriving home and a quick interview as they climbed out of the aircraft - at 05.45 on Sunday morning.

For me it was the first time that I had been right at the heart of the big story of the day - and I was the only video journalist with a ring-side seat. Was it worth it? Well, the footage that I shot (WMV) was used by the BBC, ITV, Sky and lots of other outlets around the world. So I’d say, yes, it was. Exhausting, exhilarating, tense, challenging and absolutely one of the best things that I have ever done.

And not at all the day I was expecting.

Some corner of an English field that will be for ever foreign

2011-04-12T14:00:00.002+01:00

Flying Officer Tony Newton working with 'journalists' and
'humanitarian workers' on Exercise CHILTERN KITE.

Flying Officer Tony Newton blogs from Salisbury Plain Training Area:

The RAF may be busy with current operations, a fact that demonstrates how vital it is to be well trained. With that in mind, last weekend those members of 7644 Squadron not currently serving on operations headed to Salisbury Plain to participate in Exercise CHILTERN KITE.

Salisbury Plain can be a cold and muddy place, but the fates took pity on us this time. The fields were covered in yellow dandelions, and the Plain showcased England’s green and pleasant land at its very best. It wasn’t entirely convenient, though; instead of mud, we had to contend with clouds of dust, a faint echo of that experienced in Kandahar.

The Exercise took place in bright, warm sunshine that added dehydration and sunburn to the list of potential hazards. For the scenario we were in, the rolling countryside of the Plain became a foreign country – Ragusa - into which the UK had sent troops as the lead member of a humanitarian effort in support of a UN resolution.

Members of 7644 Sqn were there to fulfil two roles: half of us ran the Press information Centre (PIC), while the other half played as ‘simpress’ (simulated press), tasked with getting the stories they needed for their various print and broadcast media outlets.

My own role was to be second-in-command of the PIC, supporting the PIC Commander, Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley. The realism of the scenario was such that things kicked off much earlier than anticipated: while we were waiting the ‘Simpress’ , we received news that refugees and local press had arrived at the main gate, and that a media officer was needed to help deal with things. I was despatched to do just that, and for the next half hour or so I was centrally involved in a melée of ‘displaced persons’ demanding money for alleged destruction of property, ‘humanitarian workers’ with a political agenda trying to capitalise on the situation and ‘local media’ wanting to see inside our Main Operating Base. Abruptly, the directing staff decided that the ‘serial’ (a specific pre-planned part of the Exercise) was at an end, and the tension evaporated as refugees, press and aid workers suddenly dropped their roles and moved off to set up the next serial.

PIC Commander Flt Lt Andy Wasley briefs his team on the scenario.

From then on, the day just got busier. Our simpress arrived on time. Being Squadron members themselves, they know exactly what out vulnerabilities are and what buttons to push. But they also know that the roles could well be reversed in the next Exercise, so they didn’t, perhaps, push their advantage too far.

The media ops directing staff added to the spice of the Exercise with ‘injects’ of their own. One journo made a break for the main gate and had to be brought back to the fold. Another complained loudly and often that he was not getting the airborne camera footage that he needs. And we ran into the inevitable scheduling problems: how do we ensure that one journo manages to get his interview with the busy base commander while also taking part in a convoy that will leave at a set time, with or without him.

A large part of my day was taken up ‘media minding’ journalists on convoys, and even within the Exercise scenario I was reminded that my task (to ensure that journos get their interviews and photos) was subordinate to that of the convoy. So it became even more important to find a polite way to bring my task to the attention of an already stretched convoy commander - who has the ultimate say over where and whether we dismount our vehicles.

Having accompanied two convoys, one of which encountered a mine strike on a civilian vehicle and had to arrange a casualty evacuation by helicopter, I returned to the PIC only to be faced with a new ‘inject’ from the media directing staff: we had to make plans to brief local press in the displaced persons’ camp the next day. This meant doing a very quick jigsaw puzzle in which the only picture I had to guide me was my military training superimposed on civilian experience. What does intelligence say about threat level? Do we have enough vehicles? Can Force Protection ensure the safety of participants? Can the RAF Police do their checks in the timeframe? And does the base commander think this is a worthwhile use of assets? All questions I needed to pose and get an answer to so that the PIC Commander can report back to the evening commanders’ meeting.

When ‘Endex’ was called, the directing staff debriefed us, and congratulated us on a job well done. We were all shattered, but our calorie count was more than adequately maintained by 600 Squadron’s excellent field kitchen. Finally, the PIC was broken down and loaded back into our two Land Rovers, which started the journey back to Halton at stupid o’clock on Sunday morning.

End result for me personally? Lots of learning points that can be translated directly into the operational environment, plus some thoughts on what the squadron really needs in its ‘go bag’ the next time we participate in an exercise like this. It was certainly hard work, but it’s good to feel better trained for the next time I’m called into action.

From Libya to Salisbury Plain - a busy time for 7644 Squadron

2011-04-11T15:20:00.000+01:00

A Puma taking part in Ex CHILTERN KITE.

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from Salisbury Plain Training Area:

You might be wondering why it’s been a while since 7644 Squadron has blogged. A quick scan of the news headlines might give you your answer; with the Royal Air Force making a vital contribution to air operations over Libya, 7644 Squadron’s officers have been scattered to the four winds to support the effort, codenamed Operation ELLAMY. Flying Officer Tom Calver is currently based at Gioia del Colle air base in Italy, while our commanding officer, Wing Commander Peter Clarke, is advising senior commanders on media operations at Nato’s headquarters in Brussels. At one point, six of us were working on Operation ELLAMY tasks around the Mediterranean, in Brussels and throughout the UK. It’s been a busy time, and we’ve been incredibly proud to play our part.

Of course, not all of us have been called into action. Life goes on, and 7644 Squadron continues to play a decisive part in helping the RAF and its people to tell their stories at home and overseas. We also continue to help train our colleagues to work with the media on operations; so, last weekend, 11 of us took part in Exercise CHILTERN KITE, the largest Reserves-led air exercise in the UK for some years. Hundreds of RAF Reserves and Regular RAF personnel took part in the exercise on Salisbury Plain Training Area, along with Pumas from 230 Squadron and a Merlin from 78 Squadron.

Cpl Dylan Browne photographs a 230 Squadron Puma on Salisbury Plain.

I took on the role of deployed Press Information Centre Commander, part of a fictional peace enforcement operation in a Balkans-style scenario, supported by Flying Officer Tony Newton as my (very effective!) second-in-command - he'll be blogging about his experiences tomorrow. Six of our people acted as journalists, seeking stories about the operation, one of whom was an HQ Air Command photographer, Corporal Dylan 'Bob' Browne. For many of our colleagues in other squadrons, this was the first time they’d worked with real journalists, adding a note of realism to the scenario; it’s hard to get through an operational deployment without being affected, in some way, by the media, and it’s 7644 Squadron’s role to teach people what that’s like. We added a good deal of extra pressure to an already busy situation, but everyone responded positively to the extra training.

Symon Quy (l) taking the Oath of Allegiance.

For some of my 7644 Squadron colleagues, CHILTERN KITE marked the very first time they had taken part in a large exercise with other Reserves - and for one of us, the weekend was made even more special by a moment he will never forget. Symon Quy took his Oath of Allegiance on Saturday, thereby becoming a member of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. All RAF and RAuxAF personnel have to swear allegiance to the Crown, but few of us can claim to have done it with Merlin and Puma helicopters swooping and swirling in the sky above us. We all wish Symon well as he embarks upon the journey through Basic Recruit Training and Reserves Officer Initial Training.

After such a tiring and busy weekend, there’s no rest for some of us; Squadron Leader Howard Leader will be off to RAF Wittering later this week to give media awareness training to senior officers, while I’ll be planning a Squadron visit to the UK’s air defence system at RAF Boulmer at the end of May. We might have been quiet on the blog, but in the outside world we’re as busy as ever.

Hard work pays off for the RAF Museum

2011-02-24T15:27:00.001Z

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

If you read Nikki Lester's post from a few days ago, you'll know that 7644 Squadron spent a rather busy - but rather fun - weekend at the Royal Air Force Museum. I organised that weekend, hoping that the Museum would give my colleagues, and our new recruits, a chance to test and improve their basic journalism skills. Approaching members of the public with a notepad, video camera or microphone can be a daunting experience, but it's part-and-parcel of our work as media operations professionals.

Of course, as well as developing many new PR and journalism skills with the Squadron, all of our officers and recruits have plenty of experience as media professionals in their civilian lives. One of our potential recruits, Andrew Wright, works in video production, and was happy to join a small team of video enthusiasts to produce a YouTube video about the Museum - which you can see below. It's the result of just two days' work; hard work, to be sure, but it certainly shows that when we talk about media operations it's about more than blogs and newspapers. Enjoy.

7644 Squadron visits the RAF Museum

2011-02-20T10:19:00.002Z

Nikki Lester posts from the RAF Museum, London:

Spending a day at the RAF Museum might not be everyone’s idea of a good time but today I find myself pleasantly surprised. I’m not entirely sure what I envisaged before I arrived but there is something quite spectacular and almost a little overwhelming about this place. Home to over one hundred aircraft, each one documents an aspect of the RAF’s history in a rather vivid and unforgettable fashion. 7644 Squadron visited the museum to give members and potential members a chance to learn about basic journalism - and even to push out a new podcast, which you can listen to below.

Listen!

As an aspiring member of 7644 Squadron I’m not here to simply enjoy the view. Part of the RAF Reserve Forces, 7644 Squadron personnel play an important role in supporting the RAF and the UK Armed Forces in general in various media operations. This can range from writing short news stories to running a large press information centre at an deployed operating base. In the UK in particular, 7644 Squadron supports the RAF by explaining its work and telling its story through public relations material at RAF stations or events.

Today’s activity is a perfect example of how the squadron combines training with actual output. Divided into groups we are tasked with producing two videos for YouTube, one outlining the work of the RAF Museum and the other depicting the work of 7644 Squadron. But that’s not all: these need to be accompanied by audio and print outputs as well, including an AudioBoo podcast and newspaper articles. As the Officer Commanding, Wing Commander, Peter Clarke, also known as ‘the Boss’, says: ‘It is the chance to practice skills in real environment with a real product at the end.’ Certainly the tight deadlines in which to produce the work feel pretty real and are set deliberately to prepare personnel for exactly what pressures they will face when deployed operationally.

The Squadron are temporarily housed in a conference room above the main museum and within minutes it takes on the persona of a real news room, complete with the frenetic activity and chaos as we set out to complete our tasks. It’s at times like these that I am most fascinated and impressed by the diversity of experience within the Squadron. There is an almost magical quality about the ability of the members to operate complex equipment or determine the content of a newsletter article without fuss or complaint. They might only be part time but their professionalism and expertise is anything but.

Cutting It in Kandahar

2011-02-05T20:44:00.002Z

Pilot Officer Lesley Woods posts from Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan:

Today I had my hair cut. I sat on a sofa to wait my turn, looking at the shelves of shampoo and hearing the buzz of blow dryers. There were no windows, but plenty of mirrors and some soft music playing on the receptionist's desk. An American woman was in the chair next to mine – she asked my advice as she looked at a book of colour samples. Talking about the various hair and skin problems one encounters in the desert it felt like we could have been in any salon across the globe, until I looked down at her feet; her body armour and personal weapons were close at hand.

I was in a military barbers; if you are thinking of that moment when Demi Moore has her 'G.I. Jane' special you are way off the mark. Whilst this was no Vidal Sassoon, it was a step up from the rough and ready razor shops you see in the films.

I was surprised at how long a 'short back and sides' took. After their number two hair shave some US Marines enjoyed a scalp massage and moisture rub. They closed their eyes, so I followed their example. For all of us, for a few minutes, the world and war outside the small cabin went away. Listening to the conversations going on around me they were so similar to any you might hear in a salon at home. How long did you have left to do in Afghanistan? Where were you from? Did you have some conditioner in your accommodation to use after today?

I realised that these little snippets of normality were an enormous morale boost to the troops on the ground. Having your hair cut, enjoying a freshly brewed cup of coffee, picking up your washing from the laundry – all break the cycle of days weeks and months served in theatre.

As I opened the door to leave I stepped out into the swirling dust of twilight at Kandahar; back to work, with another surreal memory to take home.

Faith on the Front Line?

2011-02-01T20:39:00.002Z

Pilot Officer Lesley Woods posts from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan:

The pace of life out in Afghanistan can seem frenetic. Those new to theatre soon fall into the battle rhythm, taking their lead from colleagues and the demands of their work. The Armed Forces place a big emphasis on physical fitness – being fit for operations and fit for life. Camp Bastion has much in the way of gym equipment, and a wide range of food choices to help troops eat healthily – many will go for a run, or look forward to the evening meal as part of their day. There is also the mental preparation before deployment; the training courses, the advice and resources available. But do we leave something out – do we forget our spiritual side in the job we do?

On Sunday morning I attended a church service in a small green tent, its uniqueness marked only by a makeshift cross and a poster on the always open door. Music played from an ipod dock, instead of an organ, and the Padre wore the same kit as I under his robes. The prayer book he offered me had a desert camouflage cover; reminding me where we were and why we were here – pages marked 'a prayer for an injured colleague' or 'for when you can't sleep'.

All ranks, ages and cap badges sat down together for a few minutes of quiet contemplation. The Padre left us to our own thoughts; a young Army Corporal was only a few feet away from me, but the look on his face said he was miles away. His uniform was dusty, his eyes tired – I imagined he was thinking of a previous patrol, perhaps of colleagues he had lost.

As I left the church, I noticed a makeshift board hanging from the tent frame, carrying messages from personnel across the Camp. Many bore wishes for loved ones back home, but a few stood out in their simplicity. Someone had written bring lasting peace to this Country, whilst one card had only two words: For Courage.

You can go but be BAWC soon...

2011-01-31T11:01:00.006Z

Flying Officer Tony Newton posts from the Air Warfare Centre, RAF Cranwell

All mobile phones go in
this bank of lockers...
no exceptions!

After an all too short weekend, week two of the BAWC starts with Exercise Husky, which turns out to be a planning exercise for a 'NEO' (for 'Non-combatant Evacuation Operation') to get EPs ('Entitled Persons') off an island threatened by civil unrest. Acronyms are the norm in the Air Power world, and I counted over 1,500 entries in the glossary we'd been given at the start of the course.

Exercise Husky gives us the opportunity to try out the planning process (the Air Estimate) in a guided exercise to analyse the situation, assess all relevant factors and come up with three realistic alternative Courses of Action (or COAs) before using an agreed metric to decide which one we should go for. The exercise may be 'table top', but the facts and figures we're given in response to RFIs (Requests for Information) give us a realistic sense of how things would really happen. Given that Cote d'Ivoire and Tunisia are top of the news, working on a 'NEO' is incredibly valuable. I'm glad to report that we do come up with a workable evacuation plan, and I'm hugely relieved at having successfully navigated the exercise thanks to high quality input from a great team.

We're given a number of briefings, most memorable being those from the Army and Navy about their structure, assets, and the effects on them of the SDSR (Strategic Security and Defence Review). Also of great interest, and very well presented, were briefings on the importance of space, and of networked computers in maintaining our security.

The big exercise of the week is Exercise Havesome, in which the scenario introduced in Exercise Husky had moved on five years. I'm not going to give the game away other than to say that this time we need to arrange a covert extraction of Special Forces and civilians under cover of a diversion operation elsewhere. We have input and 'steers' from the Directing Staff along the way, but we do most of the work ourselves and by the time we've finished three hours later, we have a plan that actually threatens to work on a 'half mil' (1: 500,000 scale) navigation chart that looks like it has been put together by people who know what they're doing.
The big set piece follows the next day, in the shape of a syndicate presentation we give to the Directing Staff and academics from Kings College, London. Subject of our group's presentation is the 1980s Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. Quite co-incidentally, I've been reading George Crile's excellent book 'Charlie Wilson's War' for several weeks before the course, so I know about the topic and can contribute knowledgeably.

On the final day comes the end of course exam (pass mark 70%). It's interesting that the room is full of people who have spent their lives doing heavy duty exams, but we're all still mildly apprehensive about this 25 question "diagnostic" test that's designed (quote) " to highlight our individual learning achievements." But we all perform OK, and while it's not quite home for tea and medals, we go our separate ways having enjoyed each other's company (including an excellent end of course curry night out). I leave the course with an invitation to a James Bond themed evening when I'm in Akrotiri for my pre deployment training. Which gives me a bigger headache than anything in the previous two weeks...who do I go as?

(Title with apologies to 'Oliver!')

Raindrops on roses – A day in the life of a military media escort

2011-01-29T18:56:00.005Z

Pilot Officer Lesley Woods posts from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan

For anyone who has ever wondered about the 'glamorous' job of a media escort, let me share with you a typical day in the life. Today was raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Don't get me wrong - I'm not out here at Camp Bastion with the Von Trapp Family, but an ITV team of producer, cameraman and journalist.

This is my third trip to theatre, and very quickly your days tend to blur into one. You lose concept of date or time, but single moments stand out in your memory; flying low on a Merlin helicopter over hostile territory, watching a Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) try to save the life of an injured soldier. Today's moment was less dramatic but surreal – standing in a rose garden as the first drops of the rainy season hit the dust of Camp Shorabak.
The garden was one of many cultivated by members of the Afghan National Army (ANA), bringing a little piece of peaceful greenery to an otherwise austere functional military camp. The soldiers live on Camp Shorabak alongside Camp Tombstone, home to 1st Battalion Irish Guards, who fulfil the British Army's commitment to advising their Afghan counterparts. As ITV filled their boots shooting 'general views' of ANA training, I worked on the plan that would take them through thirteen filming days and five locations, pondering on the roles I would need to fulfil as media escort... here comes the glamorous part.

On the ground you are a driver, ferrying them around, becoming their travel agent as you book their flights around Afghanistan. At the same time you are expected to be a military subject matter expert, with a wealth of contacts who can answer all their questions. Once they get involved in the action, you are health and safety advisor, stepping in as morale officer when the going gets tough and fatigue creeps in.

There can be times when you are almost a nanny, checking they have the right kit, that they carry their identity cards and are drinking enough water. At the end of each day you meet to discuss the next 24 hours, making secretarial notes on their growing requests before putting on the hat of project manager to help make it all happen......

And tomorrow morning I will need to be their alarm clock. As I climb into my sleeping bag I hear a noise from the back of the tent; it's Ginger, the Household Cavalry's heavily pregnant cat. After finding her a warm bed, my Media Ops colleagues and I decide to name the kittens in advance – we now await the arrival of Merlin, Chinook and Apache. Maybe I'll add midwife to the list.

BAWC to School

2011-01-22T22:00:00.005Z

Fg Off Tony Newton posts from the Air Warfare Centre at RAF Cranwell

During my Masters programme at Business School, there was a module entitled 'Making Things Happen', and that would certainly be an apt alternative title or strapline for the two week Basic Air Warfare Course I'm attending.

'The BAWC' (pron. 'The Bork') is designed as an introduction to Air Power and Air Warfare. Put simply, it aims to take IOTC (Initial Officer Training Course) cadets and newly commissioned SERE (Specialist Entrant and Re-Entrant) officers through the process of how we get from Her Majesty's Government stretching forth its hand and saying "let there be an invasion/ non-combatant evacuation/humanitarian aid mission" to the delivery of an appropriate and agile RAF response.

The BAWC is an integral part of the IOTC, but for full time specialists such as doctors, dentists, nurses, physios, padres and lawyers, it's usually completed immediately following graduation. For reservists like myself, it's a matter of completing as and when time permits.

My cohort is very heavily weighted towards doctors, and many of the 20 or so participants have only shed their white 'officer cadet' stripes the month before. Others have come to the BAWC through their re-entry to the RAF, so we have a couple of Wing Commanders and a Squadron Leader in our midst.

In 7644, we're very fortunate to have the opportunity to interact with a wide range of different disciplines and trades. But the flip side is that, as a junior officer, it's only too easy to find yourself at the outer limits of your understanding of who does what, how and when. For specialists like doctors, it's the reverse: being so focused on their own area of expertise that they simply don't experience the wider military world.

So the BAWC gives everyone a 'soup to nuts', no question too stupid, guided tour of Air Power. In the first week, we have case studies and exercises from the Battle of Britain and the Falklands conflict, and are brought up to date with current thinking on insurgency and terrorism. But this is no jingoistic, flag waving indoctrination. Some cases are taught by academic staff from Kings College London, other discussions are led by a Padre, and we're made to think hard about our actions and motivations.

At the start of the week, we'd been broken down into two syndicates, handed name badges, and most people in each syndicate given a briefing note about the discussion they are to lead later in the course. Rather worryingly, my name badge didn't have a briefing note attached. "You'll be leading Exercise HUSKY at the beginning of Week Two. That's all you need to know at the moment," is the cryptic explanation offered by Flt Lt Mark Berry, our facilitator. A quick look at the timetable shows that Exercise HUSKY occupies a full morning rather than the half hour slot scheduled for everyone else's syndicate discussions, and I'm beginning to wonder what I've let myself in for.

If you'd like to know what Exercise HUSKY turns out to be about, and whether I cover 7644 in glory with my performance, do read next week's blog post.

The essential ingredient

2010-12-02T10:30:00.000Z

Squadron Leader Howard Leader posts from Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan:

Canadian Forces Captain Annie Djiotsa visits 14 Squadron
based at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan

'Excuse me ... please ...' said a Romanian Captain correctly pushing his friend forward. The RAF pilot I was in conversation with broke off and took the Romanian’s outstretched hand. 'Sirs,' he continued, 'my friend here his father was pilot and we are asking if pilots from all nations here would please to sign this plaque which Micha can give his father'. Ben signed the chap’s plaque, we all shook hands again and they went off towards a group of American airmen to continue their quest.

For me, one of the fascinations of working on multinational operations is the way in which large numbers of people from, in some cases, large numbers of countries, can come together with little previous personal experience of working together and tackle complex problems. Whilst working here at Kandahar this week I have witnessed this great spirit of endeavour time and again. Occasionally unfamiliar languages can make for a little confusion (and quite a lot of comedy), modes of working differ, and there has to be negotiation in order to achieve the desired outcome. In some cases various sized portions of humble pie may be consumed, but invariably individuals give way gracefully for the greater good.
As a lad growing up in the 1960s, it would have been inconceivable to think that I might one day be serving alongside Estonian, Latvian, Slovakian and Slovenian personnel - the ideological gulf just seemed too wide. Yet, here we all are, and getting on remarkably well. I spent a very agreeable morning last week working with a French Canadian officer, embarrassing myself with occasional displays of my schoolboy French but, none the less getting on with the job. Doing, in fact, in microcosm what Nato and its partners are doing every day.

Up to twenty-six Nato member countries and varying numbers of partnership for peace nations are putting in a tremendous effort with an astonishing array of manpower and equipment. It rather reminds me of a supper party where each guest brings their favourite ingredient, then everyone, speaking in a different language, tries to combine them to produce a feast. Of course, the Nato mission in Afghanistan is a challenge, and there is a great deal at stake for Afghans and the global village alike, but if you need an example of what might be achieved between different peoples, combined ops at Kandahar Airfield is not a bad place to start.

The essential ingredient is the will to get things done.

In conversation with a US Marines colleague

2010-12-01T13:46:00.001Z

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan:

Last week the United States Marine Corps was kind enough to invite Rosie Tratt from jackFM to a Thanksgiving Lunch at Camp Tombstone, adjacent to Camp Bastion here in Afghanistan. Of course, as a trusty media escort officer, I could hardly leave Rosie to brave the Corps by herself, so I found myself tucking into turkey, smoked ribs, cornbread and mashed potato with USMC Public Affairs Officer, 1st Lieutenant Justine Roberts.

As a public affairs officer, Justine is my counterpart in the USMC. Just as we do at 7644 Squadron, she helps journalists to reach the people they need to speak to, the places they need to visit, and the information they need to analyse. We had a chat over lunch, and she kindly agreed to let me interview her.

AW: The US has a slightly different approach to media operations. Could you tell me how you work with journalists when they come over to Afghanistan?

JR: Well, I'm the officer in charge of the media embed programme here in ISAF Regional Command (Southwest). Our media embeds start off by completing the application process, making sure they have all the necessary documentation like visas and insurance, and then through that process we interview them to find out what sort of work and unit they're looking for. Are they looking for stories about education or redevelopment, for example. Then we try to make sure the units have a good mix of journalists from TV, radio and print. There isn't really a big 'tryout' process; it's a case of seeing what the battalions can do to support journalists going out on the ground.

How do the journalists react to the challenges they face when they're on the ground with the Marines?

A lot of the journalists I've worked with are veterans - some of them have even more deployed time than I have! I have spoken to first-time embedded journalists, too, and most of them are fine. They know what they're going out to do, they have the proper protection gear. The main thing is for them to get along with the men and women they're working with.

In the RAF, most officers working in media come from different career backgrounds. In the US Forces, it doesn't work that way - you're a full-time public affairs officer. How did you get into that career path?

I studied media arts industries at the University of Arizona and was a member of ROTC [Reserve Officer Training Corps], so that paid me a scholarship to cover my tuition fees. After graduation I went to The Basic School which is the officers' school. Depending on how well you do there, you can put in for which marine occupational specialty you're interested in. I chose public affairs because it enmeshed most with what I'd learned at university - but it's very competitive. Then I went to the School of Defense Information at Fort Meade, Maryland. From then on, I might be called into different units, but I'll always be a public affairs officer.

What's the best thing about your job?

I think the best part of this job is that I get to work as a specialist up to commander level, as opposed to my counterparts who don't really see a lot of staff officers. I work directly for Major General Mills [Commander, Regional Command (Southwest)], and it's great to have that visibility and to see, from that strategic level, why we're doing what we're doing operationally. It's really rewarding, and it goes by very quickly - it's a very fast-paced and quite stressful job, and when you're here for a year it doesn't always seem that long!

We're here at a Thanksgiving lunch. Could you just give me a quick explanation - what's that all about?

Thanksgiving is a really big deal for Americans back home. Traditionally, it's a day to be spent with your family. There's usually a whole lot of football, a whole lot of eating, and a whole lot of shopping! Over here your family is the Marine Corps - the people you serve with. So in the dining facilities we try to replicate the sort of meals you'd eat back at home, and it has the same sort of vibe. It's great to talk about what you're grateful for.

Thanks for inviting us over!

You're welcome.

jackFM visits Afghanistan - the end!

2010-11-30T10:30:00.001Z

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan:

One of the best things about working in media operations is that you have a chance to gain a bird's-eye view of operations. Operational personnel quickly become experts in their duties in Afghanistan, working closely with colleagues in their own service and others, but (for the most part) only with those working on related tasks. In media operations the task is to understand, and report on, a much broader range of activities. Few people have a chance to visit everyone from ISAF's Deputy Commander, Regional Command (Southwest), to the RAF Police and RAF Regiment personnel who keep the vast operating area around Bastion as safe as it can be. In media ops, that can be par for the course. It's an enormous privilege.

I know that, over the course of their visit to Afghanistan, jackFM felt overwhelmed by the courage, dedication and pride they encountered throughout Bastion. In Afghanistan it's hard to pick any one unit that makes a more important contribution than any other, which leaves journalists with an incredible array of moving and important stories to tell. The team's interviews with personnel from the Counter-IED taskforce and the Medical Emergency Rescue Teams were full of stories of bravery and professionalism. On the softer side, jackFM linked up a number of Bastion-based personnel with their families back in the UK, live on air. Take a look at my posts from the last week, and you'll see just how many people jackFM and I were able to meet. It's been tiring, but worth every second.

7644 Squadron's officers do this sort of job - working alongside journalists and our colleagues in all three services - on a regular basis. Squadron Leader Howard Leader was also in Afghanistan last week, albeit at Kandahar to collect Christmas messages. Pilot Officer Lesley Woods will be deploying to do more work on Christmas coverage in the next few weeks. And very recently, Flight Lieutenant Stephen Jolly was in Afghanistan for a two-month mobilisation that saw him pushing out to the front line with combat units. I know I can look forward to yet more exciting deployments in the future - but, in all honesty, last week's work with jackFM is going to be very, very hard to top.

jackFM themselves were thrilled with the opportunities open to them. From my point of view - and that of my colleagues here in the Media Ops Centre at Camp Bastion - they did a sterling job, and created some world-class radio content. Their 'patch' might only cover Oxfordshire, but their work covered people from every corner of the UK, all working incredibly hard here in Afghanistan. I've learned a lot from jackFM, and I hope they've learned a lot from everyone here about what Operation HERRICK's 9,500 deployed personnel are achieving every single day.

I hope you've enjoyed these 'desert dispatches'. Hopefully you've gained a better understanding of some of the incredible work that people are doing over here. jackFM have had the experience of a lifetime, and it's been my pleasure to report on it.

If you want to see what jackFM did in Afghanistan, you're spoiled for choice:

Our Twitter (@7644Sqn)
jackFM's Twitter (@106JackFM)
jackFM in Afghanistan
jackFM on Facebook

A subtle reminder in Kandahar

2010-11-29T21:01:00.003Z

While Andy Wasley has been at Camp Bastion, another 7644 Squadron officer has also been in Afghanistan.

Squadron Leader Howard Leader posts from Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan:

An Afghan truck at Camp Bastion

It is human nature that, once the initial anxiety and excitement of deploying into a conflict zone subsides, personnel based on large flying stations or in busy headquarters soon settle into a routine and focus on their daily office or workplace life is all the life many will have for several months, save a few hours of down time to go to the gym or watch a movie.

People develop a mode of working and a mode of living which soon becomes the regular pattern of existence for the duration of their stay. Routine is, inevitably, habit forming, so once in a while it doesn’t hurt to be reminded where we are and why we are there. Occasionally, such a reminder comes in the unpleasant form of a rocket or mortar attack, more often, however, it is much more subtle.
The other evening, after a long day in the office, I switched off the computer and, with my colleague, ambled over to the Naafi for a hot chocolate before retiring.

'I’m very sorry Sir, I can’t serve you hot chocolate, we’ve run out of cups!'

I paused for a moment, thinking of Dusty Miller’s Pub with no Beer. My immediate response was to commiserate with the manager; for the want of some paper cups his little café had ground to a shuddering halt. We made light of it, passed a few pleasantries and I left. Outside, I fell into conversation with some Australian airmen: 'Yeah, mate,' said one, 'we’ve just been to TGI Friday’s and they have no chicken. Imagine, no chicken in TGI’s!' I struggled to.

This all left me pondering. My mind turned to the age old military challenge of supply. In this instance, supply largely depends upon hundreds of trucks which daily queue at the Khyber Pass, then rumble and bang their way down the dirt highways of Afghanistan’s hinterland, running the gauntlet of bandits in the remote mountainous areas, risking IEDs, insurgent ambushes and all manner of other hazards in order get the supplies through. Convoys of toilet rolls, chicken wings, printer ink, paper cups and a thousand other things beside are all diligently delivered by hard grafting drivers who risk all of the aforementioned simply to put bread on their family table. Occasionally, some of those trucks do not get through.

From the truckers with their bright, hand-painted lorries, my mind turned to our soldiers out in the FOBs, their tiny outposts sometimes besieged and always austere in the extreme. They never get hot chocolate from a café.

So, this is where I am and I know exactly why I am here but, perhaps, henceforth, I should forgo my evening bitter chocolate – somehow it seems too sweet.

jackFM visits Afghanistan - day six

2010-11-26T19:43:00.001Z

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from Camp Shorabak, Afghanistan:

Hopefully this week's posts have given you an idea of the sheer scale of Camp Bastion. Home to over 20,000 personnel - and growing - it is supported by an incredible array of specialist units. It's hard to pick any one unit that's more important than the others. Two units, though, might claim to be particularly close to the top of the list; as jackFM learned today, without the hard work of the RAF Regiment and the RAF Police - and their colleagues in the United States Marine Corps - Bastion would potentially be a less safe and far less effective base.

Our first visit of the day was to the Main Entry Point, staffed by the men and women of 'A' Flight, Tactical Police Wing, based at RAF Henlow. The team, led by Sergeant Matt Moon, has been in Afghanistan for five weeks. 'There's no doubt about it, this job is very daunting,' said Sergeant Moon. 'But you just have to have confidence in yourself and your training. The team is doing brilliantly; we're all 100 per cent confident in the training we've received.

'Fortunately, so far we've had no situations where lives have been in danger, but there have been some challenges. The biggest challenge is learning how to work with the Afghan people. We deal with a lot of Afghan civilians at the Main Entry Point, some of whom are coming to visit relatives in hospital, others driving supplies on to the base, and they all have to be checked and searched.'

The RAF Police work with the United States Marine Corps at the Main Entry Post, and have an array of technological tools to help them identify people who might pose a threat to operational security. Alongside the iris scanners and laser fingerprinting devices, though, traditional policing still has its place. When vehicles arrive at the base, they are searched by dogs trained to sniff out explosives. It's all a very impressive operation; it's very hard to visit the Main Entry Point and not feel safe and secure. Sergeant Moon is clearly proud of his role: 'This is my first operational deployment. It's great to be out here, doing the job.'

While the RAF Police maintain the inner 'ring of steel', the RAF Regiment patrols the vast area of operations around Camp Bastion - an area the size of Singapore. The Regiment also plays its part in medical evacuations, providing the Medical Emergency Rescue Teams (MERT) with ground defence when they fly into battle to retrieve casualties. I spoke to Senior Aircraftsman Scott Macklin (pictured), who drives Coyote armoured vehicles. 'My main role is protecting the area around Bastion,' he said, 'and making sure that the patrol has all the supplies it needs. Coyote is a superb vehicle to drive - good fun, and very reliable. It'll go over almost anything.

'We also provide close protection to the MERT,' he continued. 'As we land, we go out and defend the aircraft so that the medical team can collect the casualty. We're also asked to help the medics out when we're back on the aircraft, because we all have fairly extensive medical training. It feels like a big responsibility; it's a much better job than some others that we do.'

If you want to keep track of this visit, you're spoiled for choice:

Our Twitter (@7644Sqn)
jackFM's Twitter (@106JackFM)
jackFM in Afghanistan
jackFM on Facebook

jackFM visits Afghanistan - day five

2010-11-25T16:50:00.000Z

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from Camp Shorabak, Afghanistan:

'They're immensely proud, fiercely loyal, very brave, and willing to take the fight to the insurgents', explained Captain Charlie Howard of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards this morning. The Recce Platoon commander spoke to me and jackFM's Rosie Tratt at a firing range at Camp Shorabak, adjacent to Camp Bastion, as soldiers lined up for the first shoot of the day (pictured). He was referring, by the way, to the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 215 Corps (3/125) Afghan National Army (ANA), who we were visiting at Camp Shorabak as part of jackFM's visit to Afghanistan.

Captain Howard works within 3/125 as an adviser - one of many people helping the Afghan Security Forces to build up so that they can eventually assume responsibility for the country's security. 'They're very much like any other soldiers,' said Captain Howard. 'Some are better than others, but there's plenty of good banter and a great sense of camaraderie.' He explained that the Afghan sense of humour is about as dry as British humour, which helps advisers to form a bond with their Afghan colleagues quickly.

During the visit, Rosie took the opportunity to interview an Afghan commander, Tooran (Captain) Faramous, second in command of the unit's training wing. 'I'm very proud of my men,' he said. 'They're good soldiers. They love their country - it's their land, and that's what inspires them to join the Army.'

Training an army almost from scratch takes hard work and dedication. Both are evident in abundance here. Captain Christopher Wilcock commands the Engineering Advisory Group. His eleven personnel advise the whole of 3/215 on engineering issues. He explained that his aim is to make sure the ANA is 'capable of planning and executing its own operations.

'The Army is composed entirely of new recruits. Some of them have no military experience at all, which can be a big challenge for us. Others have experience dating back to the Soviet occupation. They're all good soldiers. Helping them to secure their country's future is an incredibly rewarding experience.'

At this point, I should wish our American readers a very, very happy Thanksgiving Day. Rosie and I were lucky enough to be invited to join the United States Marine Corps for Thanksgiving Dinner at Camp Tombstone, yet another part of this sprawling desert fortress. I spent time talking to one of my US counterparts, 1st Lieutenant Justine Roberts, a USMC Public Affairs officer.

More about her soon…

If you want to keep track of this visit, you're spoiled for choice:

Our Twitter (@7644Sqn)
jackFM's Twitter (@106JackFM)
jackFM in Afghanistan
jackFM on Facebook

jackFM visits Afghanistan - day four

2010-11-24T16:47:00.000Z

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan:

Today was a great day for uncovering interesting facts, and for meeting some of my colleagues in the Army. I took the jackFM team to visit 13 Close Support Logistics Regiment, whose 300-plus personnel are responsible for replenishing Nato units throughout Helmand with food, fuel, ammunition and equipment. Lieutenant Colonel Gerry Ewart-Brookes (pictured) explained his unit's role: 'We deliver almost everything deployed units need to be able to fight their battles. Since arriving here two months ago, we've mounted ten major combat logistic patrols, each lasting up to ten days, ranging as far as 160km. We've moved nearly 450 loads - that's about 7,500 tonnes of equipment.'

After a short scrabble to gather more information, the Colonel was also able to reveal that his 100-plus vehicles have racked up a total of over 7,800km on the clock. Even he was surprised: 'I didn't expect us to have done even half of that! I have a fairly positive view of what my guys are achieving anyway. It's easy to take our work for granted, so it's good to see how much effort has been put in.'

13 CSLR also helps deliver mail to deployed operating bases, and with Christmas approaching its personnel are proud that they will help boost morale for those based in Afghanistan over the festive period. Another unit that can take pride in its morale-boosting role is the British Forces Post Office, whose Bastion base is run by 88 (Postal & Courier) Squadron, 29 Regiment Royal Logistics Corps. The Squadron's commanding officer, Captain Matt Shepherd, had more statistics for me.

'In the run-up to Christmas we'll handle anything up to 100,000 items of mail per week', he explained. 'We distribute that mail to British personnel throughout Camp Bastion, as well as Lashkar Gah and Gareshk. I get great satisfaction out of knowing that we are so important for morale. Of course, it's ironic that guys love receiving Christmas mail, whereas we're dreading the surge! We don't always get thanked, but it doesn't matter; we're proud to do our part.'

While I was taking jackFM's Greg, Trev and Sue to visit those Army units, their colleague Rosie was on her way back from an exciting visit to Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. 'It was amazing,' she said on her return. 'We drove through the city in an armoured vehicle, so I got to see the city centre. It was bustling, with lots of market stalls and people riding four-to-a-motorbike! There were loads of happy children around, too. I'd not expected it to be so calm.'

Rosie managed to pack in over 30 interviews in just under two days, including one with an RAF Reservist. Squadron Leader Colin Matheson serves with 4626 (County of Wiltshire) Aeromedical Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force, based at RAF Lyneham. Squadron Leader Matheson explained that in 2003 he had the unique experience of deploying with his mother, who later became one of the oldest people - aged nearly 60 - to serve on deployed operations.

An odd statistic, perhaps, but it's one part of a great story for jackFM - and I'm afraid you'll have to listen in to hear the full interview. I can't steal other people's stories!

If you want to keep track of this visit, you're spoiled for choice:

Our Twitter (@7644Sqn)
jackFM's Twitter (@106JackFM)
jackFM in Afghanistan
jackFM on Facebook

Media professionals maximise exposure

2010-11-24T13:31:00.004Z

While some personnel are on operations, the rest continue to train. They also support other Royal Air Force activity. Peter Lisney is in the process of joining the Squadron.

Peter Lisney posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

Personnel meet Wing Commander Matt Stowers
to plan for RAF Northern Exposure 2011

If you’ve ever tried to get media coverage of an event you might have submitted a few press releases or even been lucky enough to know someone ‘on the inside’ who could get you a few column inches or some air time. But what if you had a team of 17 experienced media professionals including TV and radio broadcasters, newspaper journalists, social media experts and public relations gurus all focused on your story for a weekend? Well that’s exactly what two Royal Air Force Regiment officers who are preparing to walk to the North Pole received.
7644 Squadron is the RAF Reserves' public relations squadron. It meets monthly for training weekends to prepare for regular operational deployments worldwide. Fortunately, the training is nearly always conducted using real life media opportunities, and the November weekend was no exception.

In March 2011 Wing Commander Matt Stowers and Squadron Leader Jules Weekes will embark on expedition RAF Northern Exposure 2011. This will see the pair ski, walk, swim and paddle their way unsupported across the pack ice to reach the Geographic North Pole - a distance of 416 nautical miles (770 km). They aim to complete the trek in less than 38 days - the same time that Peary took to reach the Pole with dogs in 1909.

7644 Squadron has been tasked with providing public relations support to the expedition to maximise media exposure. The training weekend saw the formulation of the media plan encompassing TV, magazines, newspapers and social media as well as the creation of the first few podcasts. Notably, the input of potential officer cadets who are considering joining the RAF Reserves is valued equally alongside serving officers.

Over the next few months the RAF Halton based PR team will ensure the expedition captures the attention of the media. So in the New Year when you read, see or hear any stories about RAF Northern Exposure you’ll know they originated with 7644 Squadron - the people behind the camera, speakers and pen.

jackFM visits Afghanistan - day three

2010-11-23T16:28:00.002Z

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan:

One of the many things that I enjoy about my work with the Royal Air Force is the opportunity to see people, and visit units, that leave me in awe of their courage. Another thing is learning about the sheer variety of different units and jobs that have to be done out here in Afghanistan to keep operations running smoothly. Today I had a chance to enjoy both kinds of experience, as jackFM entered its third day in theatre.

During a busy morning, for example, we had a chance to talk to Captain Jo Lowe (pictured), an Army veterinary surgeon working as a Provincial Reconstruction Team Liaison Officer. 'One of my main jobs,' she explained, 'is to run veterinary engagement clinics for Afghan farmers. The emphasis is on educating them how to look after their livestock properly.

'It's an interesting job,' she added. 'I'm working with cows, sheep, goats … animals I'd never have a chance to work with in other Army jobs. The main problems I treat are parasites, but we're also spending a lot of time helping farmers learn how to help their cattle breed and produce more milk, for example. It's one of the best jobs in theatre.' Capt Lowe blogs, too, so if you're interested in learning more about her work do pay a visit to the UK Forces Helmand Blog.

We met Capt Lowe at a mocked-up Afghan village within Camp Bastion, built to allow personnel based here to experience at first hand what it is like to patrol in built up areas. Officer Commanding Operational Training Advisory Group, Captain Henry Stow, explained that this was part of a programme of training that all personnel based at Camp Bastion must go through if they are expected to travel 'outside the wire'. The village was certainly impressive: sun-baked mud walls, ramshackle bicycles, goats and chickens were in abundance, as well as locally-employed civilians who act as real villagers to help get troops ready for working with people in Afghan communities.

A little later, I was with the jackFM team in the British Forces Broadcasting Service's studios at Camp Bastion for their first live breakfast show. In my civilian PR and freelancing jobs I work in print media, so spending time in the studio - including a little airtime myself! - was a fascinating experience. You can listen in to the breakfast show on jackFM's website live from 6.00-9.00am every morning this week.

This afternoon we spent time at the Role 3 (UK) Medical Facility, Afghanistan's largest military field hospital. It is, to say the least, an amazing place. Believed to be the busiest trauma hospital in the world, the hospital has two CT scanners (more than many NHS hospitals) and handles more casualties than every other military hospital in Afghanistan combined. Needless to say, it is staffed by amazing people. One of those people, Senior Aircraftswoman Anna Quinn (pictured), said she'd been in Afghanistan for just two weeks. 'The main thing I'm learning is how important it is to keep morale up,' she said. 'Whatever we have to deal with, we have to remember that this is our job.

'Sometimes it can be really, really challenging, especially when we're dealing with children. We receive all sorts of patients: anyone who is injured, wherever they're from, must be treated and cared for. We all have emotions to deal with, especially with leaving our families behind, but we all know how important this job is and what's expected of us.'

We also paid a visit to the Medical Emergency Rescue Team, a group of paramedics who fly into battle to retrieve casualties. As with all of the medics who work so hard to support injured personnel and civilians, it's hard not to be overawed by their courage and compassion.

If you want to keep track of this visit, you're spoiled for choice:

Our Twitter (@7644Sqn)
jackFM's Twitter (@106JackFM)
jackFM in Afghanistan
jackFM on Facebook

jackFM visits Afghanistan - day two

2010-11-22T16:57:00.000Z

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan:

The final flight into Afghanistan can be a bewildering experience. As the plane approaches its destination airfield, all sources of light have to be extinguished so that the aircraft can't be seen from the ground. As the cabin lights dim, passengers have to don body armour and helmets; eventually, the silent cabin is lit only by a pale green glow from the fluorescent floor strips.

For some people, this unique experience marks the moment that they realise they are entering a warzone. Rosie Tratt, the youngest member of the jackFM team (pictured) was seated just in front of me. 'I felt such strong anticipation,' she says. 'Even though my palms were sweaty, I felt a really weird sense of calm and resignation.'

As I wrote yesterday, we departed RAF Brize Norton late on Sunday morning, so when we arrived we were unable to transfer directly to Camp Bastion. Instead, we were taken to overnight transit accommodation at Camp Roberts, a small compound of dusty tents and shower blocks. Although accommodation at Roberts is, to say the least, a little spartan, there are excellent welfare facilities to help people keep in touch with their friends and families - or to spend a few minutes playing PS3 games. However good those facilities are, though, after the long journey we were all more than ready for a few hours' rest.

Although jackFM were unable to host their breakfast programme at Bastion, as planned, they were able to give a quick direct-to-air interview to their colleagues back in Oxfordshire over the phone. And, although this meant our programme had to slip, there were benefits. jackFM were excited to visit the huge US Niagara Dining Facility for lunch, followed by a visit to the 'boardwalk' - a recreational and shopping area inside Kandahar Airfield. Quite why anyone would want to buy an ornamental camel with golden hoofs is beyond me, but it seemed to keep Rosie and Sue cheerful.

After that, we moved over to the 'Little Heathrow' helicopter passenger terminal for our connection - via Merlin helicopter - to Camp Bastion. Joining us on the flight was a pair of USAF quality assurance inspectors. jackFM's Trev Marshall leapt at the chance to interview Chief Master Sergeant Bobby Burgess (pictured with Trev), an NCO of 28 years' experience who was heading to Camp Leatherneck to check up on his quality assurance teams. 'Being interviewed was a lot of fun,' he said. 'It didn't feel like a "gotcha" - it was like chatting to a friend. Which, of course, you guys are, as allies!' The team also kept themselves occupied by interviewing ground crew from the 1419 Flight Chinook detachment.

The flight across to Camp Bastion was another one of those unforgettable experiences for the jackFM team. Despite flying long after sunset, Afghanistan was beautiful in its darkness as the full moon glinted and flashed across rivers and pools on the black landscape below us. I was happy enough to watch the scenery, but the jackFM team managed to relieve the darkness when the Merlin's crew let them use night vision goggles to take a look around the cabin.

Now we're happily ensconced at Camp Bastion in the comfortable (if distrinctly un-Hilton-like) environs of the Media Ops centre. A busy programme stretches before us - there'll be a lot more for me to report here. I can't wrap up this post without offering my and jackFM's thanks to 606 (Chiltern) Squadron RAuxAF. Their OC, Wing Commander Gary Lane, took care of the team on their way to Brize Norton on Sunday, and Flight Sergeant Andy Scholey - who has been mobilised to serve as a helicopter tasker here at Bastion - has been a great help over the last 24 hours. I wish him all the best for his tour.

If you want to keep track of this visit, you're spoiled for choice:

Our Twitter (@7644Sqn)
jackFM's Twitter (@106JackFM)
jackFM in Afghanistan
jackFM on Facebook

jackFM visits Afghanistan - day one

2010-11-21T15:52:00.002Z

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus:

It's been an incredibly busy couple of weeks since I received my mobilisation papers. After a fitness test, medical and dental checks, kitting, packing and reams of paperwork, I'm finally en route to Camp Bastion for what should be a challenging, but immensely rewarding deployment.

I'm heading out to escort a team of journalists from Oxfordshire's jackFM. For the whole of the coming week, jackFM's breakfast programme will be presented from Camp Bastion - the first time a UK radio station has presented a regular programme from Afghanistan. You can listen in to the station online from 0600-0900 (UK time), and there will also be a podcast each day at jackFM's Afghanistan microsite.

The team comprises four journalists (Sue, Trev, Greg and Rosie), whose trip has been supported by a chain of personnel from Bastion, Lashkar Gah and HQ Air Command back at RAF High Wycombe. Over the coming days, Rosie will be heading up to Lashkar Gah to visit a wide assortment of units, while Greg will be doing the same at Bastion. Also at Bastion, Sue and Trev will be hosting the morning radio show from the British Forces Broadcasting Service's studios. My job, as a media escort, is to help the team get what they need: to support interviews, photo and film opportunities, and generally make life as easy as possible for them. It's going to be exceptionally busy, but the team - and I - can't wait to get out and about to see the incredible work that the Armed Forces, and our civilian colleagues, are doing.

We might not have arrived yet, but the team are already getting stuck in. Wing Commander Al Green, Officer Commanding 216 Squadron at RAF Brize Norton, gave an interview to a bleary-eyed Greg at 0400-ish on Sunday morning, talking about Brize's role as the gateway to operations. The Station processes every flight to and from Afghanistan, making it an extremely busy and vital place; 216 Squadron's Tristars play a major role in getting personnel to and from Kandahar, so it was great to hear from the top man how much effort goes into doing that job and doing it well. The Squadron also allowed the team to visit the flight deck during take-off and landing, an experience I am assured they won't forget!

On the way to Bastion we'll be stopping at RAF Akrotiri - you might recall that 7644 Squadron was here only a few weeks ago. Akrotiri is the main 'staging post' for flights to Afghanistan; Brize may be the gateway to operations, but Akrotiri is the bridge. It's a long trip, but there will be lots to plan and plenty to do.

If you want to keep track of this visit, you're spoiled for choice:

Our Twitter (@7644Sqn)
jackFM's Twitter (@106JackFM)
jackFM in Afghanistan
jackFM on Facebook

"The least we can do is remember them"

2010-11-21T14:47:00.007Z

Officer Commanding 7644 Squadron, Wing Commander Peter Clarke, spoke to pupils at Rosehill Westonbirt Preparatory School near Tetbury in Gloucestershire on Remembrance Day. His words are below:

Remembrance Day is a special day set aside to remember all those men and women who were killed or badly injured; not just in the two world wars but during more recent wars and conflicts as well.

The reason we remember today is because 11am on 11th November 1918 was the date and time of the end of World War One – we remember this as the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

And the reason we wear the poppy is because of a place called Flanders, where many soldiers from the First World War are buried. The poppies grow wild there between all the crosses that mark their graves.

We are very lucky in Britain, we enjoy a lot of freedom.

We are free to go to church and worship how we like; we are free to choose what we want to be when we grow up; we are free to choose where we want to live; in fact, we are free to choose most of the things that affect our daily lives.

But you may be surprised to know that this freedom didn’t come free. Someone had to pay the price for us to have all the freedom that we enjoy today.

Many men and women have been killed or badly injured so you can have those freedoms, and many, but not all, served in the military – that’s the Army, Navy and Air Force.

It’s these men and women that we honour when we celebrate Remembrance Day.

Some of you may have grandparents who fought in the war, or parents, uncles, aunts or other relatives who have served in the Armed Forces, But I want to tell you about just one of the many men and women from my Service – the Royal Air Force – who fought to give you those freedoms. His name is Peter, like mine.

In July 1940 – 70 years ago - Britain was at war with Germany because Germany had been taken over by an extremist organisation called the Nazis. The Germans had captured France and were preparing to invade Britain. Over the next few months, pilots of the Royal Air Force defended Britain in what we now call the Battle of Britain.

Peter was born in Warwickshire in 1917. He joined the Royal Air Force Reserve in March 1938 and was called to full-time service at the outbreak of the Second World War on September 1st 1939. With just ten hours training on Spitfires, he joined the front-line 603 Squadron on October 24th 1940.

On the morning of October 25th 1940, during the final and decisive weeks of the Battle of Britain, 603 Squadron was scrambled to intercept a raid of enemy aircraft over Hastings. Flying Spitfire P7309 on his first operational sortie was 23-year-old Peter.

603 Squadron closed with the enemy and Peter engaged a number of German fighter planes in combat. During the ensuing battle his aircraft was badly damaged and, although wounded, Peter was able to bail out of his Spitfire, which crashed. He had been shot down just one day after joining his squadron.

But Peter was lucky; he survived and, after recovering from slight injuries, he returned to combat duties and helped win the Battle of Britain.

He continued to fly after the battle was over and, in June 1943, Peter found himself in North Africa leading a patrol of Spitfires into combat to support the American landings in Italy.

In the battle that followed he shot down two enemy aircraft but, while pressing home an attack on a third plane, he was hit by return fire that set his fuel tanks alight. He was forced to bail out of his blazing Spitfire. Wounded and burned, he was taken prisoner. Peter eventually returned to England at the end of the war, and retired from the RAF in 1947 with the rank of Wing Commander. He did all this before he was even 30 years old.

Peter was just one of many pilots who risked their life to defend Britain – but the reason I chose him was because he has close links to this school – because Peter – or Wing Commander Peter Olver DFC, to use his full name (the DFC means he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for what he did) - is 93 now, and still lives near Chippenham; and Peter’s son Jake Olver is the Bursar for Westonbirt School.

Peter was lucky. He fought bravely to defend Britain and survived, but many of his friends were not so lucky: 498 British airmen died in the four months of the Battle of Britain, and many more were seriously injured.

Because of their sacrifice, Britain was not invaded, and five years later Germany surrendered and the war ended with Britain still a free country.

But Remembrance Day is not just about the past – Today, right now, airmen and women of the Royal Air Force are serving in Afghanistan.

This picture is of a funeral parade through Wooton Bassett – bringing back the body of an RAF Regiment soldier killed in Afghanistan.

He was killed helping the Afghan people to rid their country of another extremist organisation called the Taliban – one which allowed Afghanistan be used to plan attacks on Britain. So by helping the Afghan people to rid their country of extremism, we are also helping ourselves.

The job we do, as members of the Armed Forces, is sometimes glamorous, and it's often dangerous, but we don’t do it to be heroes, nor do we do it to be remembered. We do it because, unless we do, children like you may have to grow up in a world where the freedoms I talked about earlier are gone – and for some of us, the price of that freedom is our lives.

So on this the eleventh day of the eleventh month can I ask two things:

The first is that you remember something Jesus said - that greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

And the second is this: that although they didn’t give their life to be remembered, each year - at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month – please remember those members of the Armed Forces who have given up their lives – either through death or serious injury. They laid down their life willingly for us, and the least we can do is remember them.

RAF Akrotiri gets 7644 Squadron ready to roll...

2010-10-29T14:22:00.001+01:00

As Christmas approaches, 7644 Squadron is far from relaxed; between November and January, four of our officers will serve in Afghanistan on different tasks. 7644 Squadron's blog editor, Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley, is one of them. Over the coming weeks he'll be blogging about his experiences from mobilisation to stand-down.

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus:

As you'll probably have seen here, 7644 Squadron has had a lot on its plate recently. From helping publicise the RAF's Battle of Britain commemorations to writing stories about search and rescue and other essential services at RAF Akrotiri, our peacetime tasks have been keeping most of us cheerfully busy. But, of course, as much as we love doing those peacetime jobs we support a Service that is at war. At the moment, several of us are more than usually aware of that fact, with one colleague currently serving in Afghanistan and three of us due to head out in the next few weeks.

I'm one of those three. Towards the end of November I'll be heading to Camp Bastion, Operation HERRICK's desert stronghold, to look after a team of journaslists visiting British forces and other support units in Helmand province. It promises to be a testing job; as well as helping to find stories for the journalists, I'll be helping them to find their feet in the bewildering world of military operations. I'll also be working on a couple of separate features stories for other media. Long days and hard work, but I'm looking forward to getting stuck in.

My mobilisation is the result of a long-term dialogue between the Squadron, me and my employer, a system called 'intelligent mobilisation'. This means that my deployment has been planned in a way that minimises as far as possible the impact on my employer, taking business needs and my own personal circumstances into account. Some readers might think that sounds a bit 'soft', but today's reserve forces have to balance their family and work circumstances against operational demands. This can be a challenge, but happy officers are, by and large, more effective than unhappy ones.

In the next few weeks I'll have other bits and pieces to sort out as the mobilisation process kicks in. I've already sorted out two crucial issues: my individual pre-deployment training and the ten-yearly renewal of my yellow fever vaccination, both here at RAF Akrotiri. The RAF Regiment has been putting us all through our paces in the last five days - expect a round-up of our activities from Officer Cadet Taylor next week. For now, I'm left with tired legs and a soon-to-be aching arm - hardly ideal, but it's all vitally important if I'm to be operationally effective when I hit the dust of Camp Bastion in just a few weeks' time.

On the Bridge to Operations

2010-10-27T15:01:00.005+01:00

Officer Cadet Greg Taylor posts from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus:

If you read my last post you'll know that it's only weeks since I passed the first phase of my military training. Officer Cadets like me can't deploy to Afghanistan until their training is complete. But 7644 Squadron undertakes many other functions and duties and, being a small unit, makes full use of all its officers (cadets included) as soon as it can. So in recent weeks I've assisted with the media training of senior officers at RAF Brize Norton, covered a Battle of Britain parade at RAF Cranwell and now here I am, thousands of miles from home, at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus!

There are four other 7644 Squadron officers with me, who are undergoing their six-monthly individual pre-deployment training. This is a collection of briefings and tests which ensures their readiness to deploy on operations, sometimes at short notice. My tasking for this week is separate; I've been asked to explore RAF Akrotiri and produce stories for the media on what it does, and the people that do it.

It's clear to see that the RAF Akrotiri of today is the bridge to operations. Almost everything that happens here now has a direct link to Afghanistan. This impression was confirmed by my first interviewee, Flight Lieutenant Emma Pattison, Deputy Senior Air Traffic Controller. My interview revealed she was first posted here twelve years ago. "I've come back to a very different station now", she explains. "All air traffic to or from Afghanistan comes through us. We handle it all, whether it's fast jets, passenger planes carrying troops or heavy lift transporters carrying vehicles and equipment".

Interestingly, Emma appeared in RAF Careers publicity all those years ago talking about life in Air Traffic Control. In describing the job she spoke of "the need to be flexible and to keep updating and changing plans as situations develop” – words that could just as easily have applied to RAF Akrotiri as a whole or, indeed, her own future, since she’s now married with three children!

I've also been chatting to Flying Officer Erik Clark (see pic at the top of this post). Erik is a 24-year old helicopter pilot, who's awaiting the final segment of his training and is currently attached to 84 Squadron, RAF Akrotiri's search and rescue unit. He talked me through his RAF life so far and revealed he's had a love of aircraft and flying since he was a boy. "I'm so lucky to have a job that allows me to indulge my passion for flying. Everything else comes second to that", he said.

This morning I talked to Erik's boss, Squadron Leader Richard Strookman, Commanding Officer of 84 Squadron. I was surprised to find that their role here goes much further than I’d expected. It’s not just about rescuing hapless beach-goers on ill-advised inflatables – which they do if required – but they also provide the emergency backup which might be needed by visiting fast jet squadrons, support resident Army units ahead of deployment with helicopter training, and even fight fires when they break out on the island.

I was also pleased to meet Frank the Scorpion, the 84 Squadron mascot, and I’ll be returning tomorrow to feed him (he’s quite partial to the odd orange segment, apparently). I'm also hopeful of a chance to see one of 84 Squadron's Griffin helicopters in action, in person.

Later this week I'll be experiencing RAF Akrotiri's newly-built Afghan-style village, as my fellow Officers from 7644 Squadron undertake a patrolling exercise as part of their training. I also hope to catch up with some Air Cadets who are visiting here from the UK and to report on a joint RAF/Army operation which is delivering new kit and equipment - including vehicles - to Afghanistan.

The RAF's Facebook Story

2010-10-26T12:40:00.000+01:00

In 7644 Squadron's first ever guest blog post, the man responsible for managing the RAF's remarkably popular presence on Facebook discusses how it came about, and how the Service has embraced social media's biggest platform as a way to keep in touch with the general public.

Squadron Leader Wayne Palmer posts from Headquarters Air Command, RAF High Wycombe:

It all started with a call from Adam, an Air Training Corps Instructor, who told me that he had created a Royal Air Force Facebook page and he wanted us, at Media and Comms, HQ Air Command, to take over the running of the site. Now, we are extremely busy people, and there are only four of us, but after a little hesitation I decided that we would try running the site as a means of engaging with the public - after all, if the RAF did not embrace technology, and social media, then we would be left behind. So, inviting comparisons with Sir Richard Branson, we embarked on a process that we knew nothing about.

The first thing that we had to look at was how we would use a web application that was designed for social interaction for business purposes. We thought there were two options. The first was to spend hours over books and journals, finding out what experts would claim was the best way to use Facebook. The alternative: see what people liked and how they reacted to various articles, and develop our approach to Facebook based upon our own observations. We decided to run with that second option.

Needless to say, it didn't take long to work out what the Royal Air Force's friends and fans liked: the most popular items tend to be people stories, operational detachments and our history. The history side has been especially pertinent this year, on the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Our posts about the Anniversary were received very well by our Facebookers. Good imagery and short videos are also a hit, so we try to update these types of media as often as we can.

So far, so good - but I'm sure you'll be wondering what the down-sides of running a social media site can be. Well, the biggest challenge is that it needs to be monitored for posts that do not fit in with the theme of the page. These can be get-rich-quick schemes, offensive posts or adverts for non-related products.

Facebook is a great engagement tool, and we see that we get a very different demographic of people on our page compared with those visiting the RAF's main website. We can see, for example, that the RAF's official website mainly attracts young males (80% of visitors), whereas our Facebook page only gets 65% males. Thanks to Facebook's analytics, we can analyse the stats in considerable detail to see where our news items are going.

Another great thing about Facebook is the viral way it works, which means that far more people see the news items than are actually following our page. We currently have over 75,000 friends, and every time we place an item on the page it is reproduced on our friends’ news feeds. If all our friends have an average of 20 friends, and they choose to share the post, then that post could generate 1.5 million 'opportunities to see'. I know it's unlikely that 1.5 million people will then read it, but it certainly goes to show the huge capacity the system has - and, best of all, it is free.

In eight months we have increased our friends from 11,000 to over 75,000 - more than the total number of people serving in the RAF today - and we are lucky to get a lot of positive interaction from them. Yes, it does take a considerable amount of time to monitor the site and find stories of interest, but we think it is worth it.

Exercise Joint Warrior diary - days eleven and twelve

2010-10-26T10:30:00.001+01:00

7644 Squadron's Flying Officer Tony Newton was recently assigned to Exercise JOINT WARRIOR, a multinational Nato exercise based at Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde. He has been sharing his experiences as tensions mount in the (fictional) territorial dispute between Caledonia and Dragonia. Today's post is the last of the series.

Flying Officer Tony Newton posts from HMNB Clyde:

Day 11

Life in the Press Information Centre (PIC) gets even busier. Given the pressure on desk space, the 315 Press Information Centre has set up shop in an empty office on the floor below the Joint Warfare Operations Cell's top-floor offices.

Even a single flight of stairs can distance you from the action, and isolate you from the coffee room and water cooler through which so much information flows, so I’ve spent a large part the last ten days navigating the 31 Brasso’d steps between our floor and the next, and my boots add the equivalent of ankle weights.

But the Multinational Force (MNF) has more to worry about than my increasingly sore knees, and the PIC needs to draft a press statement from a three-star Nato general. Trying to get the statement ready for the cameras in the time available puts us under pressure, especially as we have political and legal advisers in the room, and seven people round the table who all want input on content and style.

In the disputed territory, the air picture shows just how much tensions are ramping up. A US P3 and a Canadian CP140 from RAF Kinloss are on maritime patrol. Two Dassault Falcons from Durham Tees Airport have flown 11 sorties in which they’ve probed ships’ defences and undertaken standoff jamming of enemy transmissions.

Hawks from RAF Kinloss and RAF Leeming have flown 14 sorties in Defensive Counter Air (DCA) and Offensive Counter Air (OCA) roles. Four US F15s from Lakenheath are supporting the MNF ‘blue’ force and Swedish Gripens have flown 14 sorties for Close Air Support (CAS), combined air operations, OCA and reconnaissance.

Day 12

The JTEPS planning staff at the end of JOINT WARRIOR

Within the exercise someone has mislaid a submarine, but no-one admits to losing one or having one sunk. We know the missing sub doesn’t belong to the Multinational Force (MNF), so it’s either Dragonian or Caledonian.

A leaked TV news report appears to show planning for a landing of 2,000 troops. Whether this is a ‘real’ landing, rehearsal, disinformation, mistake or conspiracy no-one knows, except that the press have picked this up in a big way. The MNF insists that the TV crew had filmed planning for an exercise that actually took place off the Norwegian coast.

To add to the fog of war, a lighthouse has been damaged by a ship-launched Tomahawk missile. There is outrage until it turns out that the actual legitimate target was the adjacent building (now destroyed in the precision attack).

Changing roles for the last time, we play simpress in a conference call with Admiral Hudson aboard HMS Ark Royal, quizzing him on the state of play and the changing role of the MNF.

Over 40 sorties are flown today. It would have been more, but the ‘real world’ intervenes when a suspect package leads to the temporary closure of RAF Lossiemouth, cancelling several Gripen flights.

The exercise culminates with action on land, sea and air, including multiple attacks on HMS Ark Royal and the MNF fleet. Two Hawks and four Tornado GR4s drop several 1000lb bombs, seven aircraft are shot down and two submarines sunk. The Swedish Gripens’ post-attack mission report contains the understatement worthy of a WW2 RAF fighter pilot that they have caused “untidiness and disturbance” aboard their target ship.

There’s an end-of-term atmosphere among the 25 Joint Tactical Exercise Planning Staff who have spent six months planning this exercise. They arrived from Permanent Joint Headquarters, Northwood, a week before it started, transforming an empty office suite into the Joint Warfare Operations Centre. As soon as ‘Endex’ is announced, they’ll start planning for the next Joint Warrior.

Over dinner on our last evening, I’m asked how I’ll end this blog. The answer comes from the lieutenant colonel who’s been running the media side of things: “Perhaps now’s the time to stop blogging a dead horse.”

ENDEX

Exercise Joint Warrior diary - days ten and eleven

2010-10-25T10:30:00.007+01:00

7644 Squadron's Flying Officer Tony Newton was recently assigned to Exercise JOINT WARRIOR, a multinational Nato exercise based at Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde. He has been sharing his experiences as tensions mount in the (fictional) territorial dispute between Caledonia and Dragonia.

Flying Officer Tony Newton posts from HMNB Clyde:

Day 9

Realistic 'simpress' products keep us on our toes

The UN Security Committee is in emergency session, plans are in place to evacuate non-combatants and tensions are high out at sea where the Multinational Force (MNF) is trying to keep the sea lanes open and ensure that humanitarian aid continues.

Back in the Press Information Centre, we’re working hard to develop contingency plans for the possible outcomes. It seems likely that the MNF will get new orders, which means a new media plan from us.
Out in the Minch, things are getting complicated, with submarines now in the area. Not surprisingly, a lot of the air activity on both sides is now directed towards sub hunting.

To this end, a Canadian CP140 Aurora and three Orion P3s - one US, one Norwegian and one German - are working as MPA (Maritime Patrol Aircraft). All are based at RAF Kinloss except the German P3 which is flying from its home base at Flugplatz Nordholz, and the exercise provides training for both the subs and sub hunters. Also flying is an Islander, which plays several roles in the exercise, the most interesting of which is its use to simulate the activity of a UAV (unmanned air vehicle) to provide intelligence about the battle space.

Back in scenario, it’s Caledonia Day, a national holiday on which the government plans to boost national pride by announcing a test firing of its ballistic missile. We are subsequently informed by the Caledonians that they launched the missile and Caledonian TV shows footage of a successful launch. But the Dragonians counter with the claim that they’d used library footage and the launch was in fact a dud.

As MNF media, we don’t want to get involved, but we need to know the truth, so I nip up to the J2 (intelligence) cell to ask what we know. We don’t want to let it be known exactly what tracking and imaging assets we have deployed, or get trapped into an appearance of partisanship, so decide it’s better to take the line that “we have no evidence of a successful launch.”

Day 10

Air activity is incredibly busy on day ten...

The Dragonian president is calling for annexation of the disputed territory, and Dragonian forces are mobilising to achieve that end.

Civilian Dassault Falcon 20 aircraft out of Durham Tees Valley Airport are being used to tow aerial targets, jam electronic transmissions and practice ship attacks. Clearly, no-one is going to fire real missiles at ships during an exercise, so the neat way of simulating an attack involves a Falcon flying in with a Hawk alongside each wing. When the Falcon fires, the Hawk ‘becomes’ the missile, flying inbound to test the ship’s defences.

The Hawks also get involved in dogfighting and intercept work, with up to 6 Hawks airborne at any one time, and for this they need the Command and Control (or ‘C2’) oversight of the Nato E-3B (out of Nato Airbase Geilenkirchen in Germany) and an RAF E-3D (from RAF Waddington, closer to home in Lincolnshire).

Swedish Gripen attack aircraft out of RAF Lossiemouth are playing a major role, with up to eight jets airborne simultaneously and over 100 sorties to date in air defence, counter-air, close air support and reconnaissance.

The Tornado GR4s are also operating, with a VC10 out of RAF Brize Norton providing refuelling support off the Yorkshire coast at around 20,000 ft. As concern about submarine activity deepens, Canadian and Norwegian MPA continue with their anti submarine and anti surface warfare tasks.

Three Apaches from HMS Ark Royal join the fray, attacking ground forces on the mainland.

Exercise Joint Warrior diary - day eight

2010-10-22T14:21:00.003+01:00

7644 Squadron's Flying Officer Tony Newton was recently assigned to Exercise JOINT WARRIOR, a multinational Nato exercise based at Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde. He has been sharing his experiences as tensions mount in the (fictional) territorial dispute between Caledonia and Dragonia.

Flying Officer Tony Newton posts from HMNB Clyde:

My swaying time in the limelight

As we enter the second week of the exercise, our battle rhythm is now well-established, and the morning starts as always with briefing our three-star general. While things are still busy out at sea, the day starts quietly for us in terms of simulated media output arriving on our desks.

But the air action takes an unexpected direction for me personally when I’m pulled out of my Multinational Force Press Information Centre chair and miraculously promoted to the rank of Wing Commander in the Dragonian Air Force.

It seems that a Dragonian P-3 Orion has been attacked by a Caledonian MiG 29. The aircraft limped home, but we have two crew dead and one injured, and I’m to be put in front of the TV cameras for a ‘live’ interview about the incident.

In scenario, I’m given a media training refresher, then spend a few minutes trying to get the story straight in my head to make sure that I can deliver a succinct piece to camera. Given that this is not real, and that the TV interviewer is played by a member of the team who I’ve been having a laugh with a few minutes earlier, I find it difficult to stop myself grinning like an idiot. On the first take, I’m told that I’ve been shifting my weight
slightly from foot to foot while talking, so it looks on camera that I’m swaying gently from side to side. That might be OK if I were representing the Navy, but I’m supposed to be RAF. And the interesting thing from a media training perspective is that even though I know how to behave in front of a camera, I didn’t realise I was doing it. The second take works a lot better, and I make note to self as to how important it is to keep media skills just as current as weapons handling and fitness.

There are no air serials happening today, so the only air traffic is the routine helicopter traffic between ships and ship-to-shore. We even get time for a spot of shore leave on Saturday evening on the banks of Loch Lomond. Deep fried Mars bar is on the menu as a ‘pre-starter’, and our US Navy colleague gets his first taste of haggis.

Editor's note - next week we'll be publishing the final two instalments of Tony's JOINT WARRIOR diary. I hope you've enjoyed the series. Next week we will be taking part in annual Individual Pre-deployment Training and will be blogging about our experiences. Stay tuned...

Exercise Joint Warrior diary - day seven

2010-10-21T10:12:00.000+01:00

7644 Squadron's Flying Officer Tony Newton has been assigned to Exercise JOINT WARRIOR, a multinational Nato exercise based at Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde. Over the coming days, he’ll share his experiences as tensions mount in the (fictional) territorial dispute between Caledonia and Dragonia.

Flying Officer Tony Newton posts from HMNB Clyde:

The daily press briefing

It feels like a stupid o’clock start for me, as I’m the one ‘pinged’ to arrive early to produce the summary of today’s press coverage for presentation to our imaginary general at our 0830 briefing. Overnight, in our virtual world, a government minister has been murdered by terrorists, and while that doesn’t affect us directly it shows the direction in which things are going.

With our embedded journalists now starting to produce output from the various ships to which they’ve been assigned, our IT resources very quickly become stretched, both in the real world and the scenario. It doesn’t fray our tempers (yet), and there’s plenty of laughter amid the hard work, but it does create a bottleneck that we have to work around. But if this were a real conflict, we’d probably be having a lot worse communications problems to contend with to add to the confusion of a rapidly evolving political and military situation.

One of our RAF Marham-based Tornado GR4s is in action again today in a close air support role with US F15s from RAF Lakenheath also participating. All aircraft are using the exercise as an opportunity to carry out real training channeled into the Exercise JOINT WARRIOR scenario. The aircraft can represent Dragonian forces in one sortie and Multinational Force forces in the next, ensuring that the maritime components of the exercise get maximum use out of limited air assets.

As we’re notionally based in Naples, our press information centre (PIC) director has to deliver a routine press briefing to the international press, and this he does with members of the ‘opposing’ PIC and exercise directing staff role-playing the audience.

Towards the end of the day, the Deputy Director, Air stops me in the corridor to ask: “Ever looked round a nuclear sub?” It turns out that the Royal Navy’s newest submarine, HMS Astute (the first of her class) is about to go to sea, and we’re invited aboard for a look around. Stopping only to double check that press-ganging is no longer legal, we all sign up for the tour. The technology is impressive, but we’re all mildly disappointed that there’ s no ‘up periscope’ - these days, it’ s all done through an optoelectronic mast and video displays.

Exercise Joint Warrior diary - day six

2010-10-20T15:47:00.000+01:00

A sea mine is detonated

Last night, we met and briefed the team who are to play the embedded journalists and the editors to whom they report. The journalists will be helicoptered out to HMS Ark Royal today, where they’ll start generating written reports, audio, video and photography which will be collated by the editors who have set up shop a couple of miles away from us. What we’ll then get the next day is a snowstorm (or perhaps a flurry) of simulated news articles for us to analyse using the techniques taught earlier in the week.

Within the Multinational Force (MNF) Press Information Centre, we’re getting organised and are starting to disseminate the material coming back to us from the ships in the form of press releases, blog submissions, podcasts and tweets. All this is ‘simulated’, in that it’s not going out to into the real world, but it’s ‘real’ in as much as everything that comes to us has been crafted by a real person on a real ship - so there’s real work going on out there, and real thinking about what’s needed and how to go about getting it.

Within the scenario, things continue to deteriorate, with episodes of piracy and attempted boardings reported, some of which exist solely on paper, and some of which are really going on as training events or ‘serials’ within the Main Event Line of the scenario.

Within the scenario, some naughty foreign power has also been laying mines in the approaches to harbours, and while at this stage no-one knows who the culprit is, the MNF has to get involved in mine clearance if the humanitarian aid is to get through. If this were a musical, that would be a cue for a song: here, it’s a cue for a real piece of mine clearing practice in which real mines really do get destroyed.

In the air, a MNF aircraft patrolling the ‘no fly’ zone gets ‘locked on to’ by a ground battery, and responds by destroying the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun in a ‘kill or be killed’ Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (SEAD). Once again, it’s a Tornado GR4 from RAF Marham that breathes life into the scenario, using the range and facilities at RAF Spadeadam in Northumberland to mimic the danger of a radar ‘lock on’.

These events prompt further strikes by GR4’s from 31 Squadron and Hawks from 100 Squadron into territory just outside the ‘no fly’ zone aimed at military infrastructure.

Back at the PIC, we now have to establish our own ‘battle rhythm’- setting up a daily timetable to ensure that everyone in the team knows their own roles and responsibilities, and that our activities dovetail with the bigger picture. Very quickly, our day becomes defined by the demands and the timetables of others.

Exercise Joint Warrior diary - day five

2010-10-13T12:56:00.001+01:00

A daily command brief at HMNB Clyde

There’s not much point in generating reams of press coverage if you don’t have some idea as to whether it’s useful or not, so we spend the morning considering the dark art of media analysis.

In reality, though, media analysis it less 'dark art' than common sense and some simple maths. All we really want to know is whether we’re getting our message across and whether the trend is for our publics to view us more or less favourably as time goes on - and then package that material into a bite size chunk to feed into the higher command’s decision making process.

As we develop our media analysis capability using articles created by the simpress activity of the past few days, we get the news that the Multinational Force (MNF) has received our Media Action Plan, and started acting on it. Whilst this doesn’t immediately open the floodgates, it’s soon evident that the public relations officers aboard ship (and remember, there are 30-plus ships in the MNF, so a lot of potential media material) have got the message.

As we’ve been busy training and getting our Media Action Plans together, the fictitious situation between our two fictitious nations has been getting steadily worse. The Dragonians had yet again infringed the UN’s no-fly zone, but this time it was once too often, and the MNF responded by destroying a key Dragonian communications post. In reality, the two RAF Tornado GR4’s tasked to do this were from RAF Marham’s 31 Squadron, and while nothing on the ground was actually destroyed, the scenario provides an excellent opportunity for the squadron to practice the skills involved.

One of the interesting aspects of Exercise JOINT WARRIOR from the RAF’s perspective is that instead of the exercise driving the taskings, participating squadrons are asked what skills they want to practice, and the scenario is ‘tweaked’ by the Exercise Control team to ensure that what happens in the fictitious conflict timeline miraculously meets those training requirements.

Politically, within the scenario, things continue to heat up as two fleets converge on a block of disputed territory in which maritime piracy, a humanitarian disaster waiting to happen and terrorist acts all play their part. Today’s regular Command Brief (see photo above) has the added dimension of a VIP visit from Commander-in-Chief Fleet, the Royal Navy’s second-in-command, and once again I’m impressed and daunted by the sheer scale of the Exercise.

But that complexity brings its own problems of information sharing and communication, as we’ll start discovering tomorrow.

Exercise Joint Warrior diary - day four

2010-10-12T10:00:00.001+01:00

There’s a saying in aviation: “Plan the flight, fly the plan”. One thing the military is traditionally very good at is making plans. Whether they work or not is of course the stuff of history.

But we’re reminded that the detail of the plan depends very much on the level you’re working at. Eisenhower might have ordered the Normandy landings, but he didn’t work out which GI was going to be in which landing craft. What he did pass down to his subordinates was his ‘Commander’s Intent’, along the lines that “You are to establish a beach head in Normandy”, from which each subsequent downward link in the chain could work out what it needed to do to meet that intent.

So the big question for us in the Multinational Force (MNF) Press Information Centre (PIC) is what we have to pass down the chain of command in order to meet the Commander’s Intent as far as it relates to winning the upcoming media war. The Media Action Plan we’re now putting together won’t just sit on a shelf somewhere, but will form part of the set of orders that the next link in the chain will take as their direction.

And here we need to suspend disbelief, because while the reality of the situation is that we are in a building overlooking the rather grey waters of the Clyde and even greyer skies, the scenario tells us that our PIC is situated in the bright Mediterranean sunshine of Naples, Italy, at Nato headquarters.

The Media Action Plan we construct at this 3-star level (as in our command level, not the quality of our accommodation) has to be of the appropriate level of detail to be passed downwards. And as ‘downwards’ in this case means that the recipient is the Maritime Component Commander (the ‘MCC’ being an Admiral and his staff aboard HMS Ark Royal), we have to give them the latitude and freedom of action to interpret those orders as they see fit.

By the end of the day, the two teams have completed their Media Action Plans and submitted them to their respective MCC’s, afloat in the rough and very windy waters of the North West Approaches. The scenario may be fictitious, but there’s nothing imaginary about the weather sweeping through the exercise area.

Exercise Joint Warrior diary - day three

2010-10-11T16:20:00.000+01:00

The JOINT WARRIOR media team on HMS Ark Royal

We watch HMS Ark Royal slip her moorings and head out to sea to join other members of the Multinational Task Force (MNF). The first phase of the exercise involves the MNF shaking out any gremlins and ensuring that the 30 plus ships from 10 nations which make up the MNF are, well, ship-shape.

And that’s exactly what we in the media team now have to turn our attention to before the ‘free play’ part of the exercise (that is, the combat phase) begins in earnest next week. The media team have years of experience across a wide range of disciplines, and not all from the service in which they started: Ali is now a sergeant in the Territorial Army, having served 12 years in the RAF, while Jim served nine years in the regular Army and is now a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve. We also have a couple of lieutenant commanders, a couple of majors and a captain.
That cross-service experience gives us access to a huge pool of expertise, but having the three services working together (‘jointery’, as it’s called), brings its own problems - especially when it comes to understanding each other’s acronyms. So the task now facing the lieutenant colonel who’s running the media operations side of the exercise is to weld us into an efficient media-war fighting team.

And it is indeed a media war, as is made clear in the first part of our preparation for the upcoming scenario. First job is to create a Media Action Plan, because without a plan all you can really do is to react to what your opponent throws at you. But with a plan comes a strategy, and out of that strategy come the tactics - the actual media product - that can ensure you get your voice heard.

It’s a long day, and an even longer evening, as we break into the two teams that will staff the Press Information Centre for each of the protagonists from this point on until the end of the exercise (or ‘endex’) that is still eleven days away.

Exercise Joint Warrior diary - day two

2010-10-08T10:52:00.001+01:00

Flying Officer Tony Newton posts from HMNB Clyde

The Royal Navy's Rear Admiral Peter Hudson is
put through his paces by the simpress team.

It’s time for yesterday’s press conference preparation to be tested, as a gaggle of servicemen cunningly disguised as civilian journalists are led aboard HMS Ark Royal and ushered into the ship’s conference room. But it’s not just the Multinational Force Commander, the Royal Navy's Rear Admiral Peter Hudson, who’s under test here; the media team itself is under scrutiny to see how well we deliver our ‘product’. How well do we mimic ‘real’ journalists in terms of question content and style? Do we put the Admiral under the right amount of pressure to meet his media training needs? Do we create the right amount of challenge to the Navy’s accepted way of running a press conference? And, ultimately, do the ‘mock’ articles and broadcasts we create for our fictional media outlets reflect the content of the press conference?

I have to admit to finding it very hard to be deliberately unpleasant or difficult to an interviewee: they are experts at their job and consummate professionals, and here I am trying to trip them up. After the press conference we retire to the press information centre (PIC) to file our copy, which will later be collated and sent out as a cuttings file to the key players.

The afternoon sees us boarding the Dragonian flagship (in reality the Danish DS Absalon) to attend a press conference being held by the Dragonian task force commander, Royal Danish Navy Commodore Aage Buur Jensen. It’s actually a far more difficult interview for me personally, because in my role as a Dragonian-biased reporter this is more about accepting the party line than trying to catch him out - so I could just as easily have worked from the prepared statement that we’re all handed.

Then it’s back to the PIC again to prepare our output before attending the daily 18:00 Command Briefing in the Operations Room. Once again, the room is packed as three enormous screens display a bewildering variety of data and an even larger number of unintelligible acronyms as representatives of different military functions report their status. Even before the lead has started flying, it’s clear that the weather is going to be unkind, and already a lot of people are working very hard to re-jig schedules and consider alternative options.

It’s clear that the our work's tempo is going to ratchet up very quickly, so it's decided we should grab some ‘shore leave’ while we can. The choice of restaurant stretches our decision-making abilities almost to the limit, while the challenge of getting the right number of people in the right number of cars is beyond everyone except Elaine, who has 20 years logistics experience in the Royal Navy.

Looking around the table in the Italian restaurant we’ve miraculously all arrived at, I’m really pleased to be part of this exercise. This is a nice bunch of people. They enjoy what they do, and they’re good at it. And it’s not every day that you get to stroll along the flight deck of the Ark Royal, or interview a real, live Admiral.

Exercise Joint Warrior diary - day one

2010-10-08T10:51:00.001+01:00

7644 Squadron's Flying Officer Tony Newton has been assigned to Exercise JOINT WARRIOR, a multinational air, land and sea Nato exercise based at Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde. Over the coming days, he’ll share his experiences as tensions mount in the (fictional) territorial dispute between Caledonia and Dragonia.

Flying Officer Tony Newton posts from HMNB Clyde:

The simpress team devises and rehearses questions

Having got important things like swipe card, tea money and mobile phone locker sorted the previous evening, our day starts with a briefing to all ‘augmentees’ (as we’re called) in the Operations Room. With 100 or so people of all services and ten nations represented, it hits me just how big and complex this exercise really is.

After the briefing the participants bomb-burst to their various duties, which for the media team means heading straight into a media briefing for all the ship-based public relations officers (PROs) who will be hosting the 'simpress' element of the exercise. Simpress is one of 7644 Squadron's lesser-known roles, where we act up as civilian journalists to help test military media operations personnel.

In most cases, PR is simply an additional role for a ship’s officer whose main function may be that of a weapons or flight deck officer. So the challenge is to get them to create space in their situational awareness and busy shipboard lives for the needs of the media.

The briefing room is packed, and I see the uniforms of many of the ten countries taking part in JOINT WARRIOR. Led by the Royal Navy's Lieutenant Commander Steve Clarke, the briefing reiterates the importance of media operations in the modern military, and outlines the way in which media ‘play’ will be handled during the exercise.

After lunch, we head straight into a mini media training workshop for shipboard PROs. The audience is supposedly the same as that for the morning session, but it’s clear we’ve lost quite a few people along the way to other more pressing duties, and I wonder if this is an early indicator as to how difficult it will be to get positive news stores from those soon to be at sea.

After the workshop, the media team reconvenes to plan tomorrow’s simpress interviews with the commanders of the opposing forces - Multinational Force (hooray!) in the blue corner, Dragonians (boo! hiss!) in the red corner. I’m a simpress Dragonian, and I think we’ve been very badly treated.

Our brief is to “test, stretch but do not embarrass” our quarry, while being “challenging and aggressive in part”. The simpress exercise is carefully constructed, with questions being devised to probe and test the commanders’ familiarity with the scenario rather than letting them hide behind their technical capabilities.

As the first day draws to a close, I discover that my trusty laptop, which has behaved flawlessly for four years, has given up the ghost without warning at just the time that I’m away from home for 14 days so can’t fix it. So I’ve had to write out my first blog from HMNB Clyde longhand. Sometimes the old ways are the best.

7644 Squadron's new boss on new media

2010-09-24T11:57:00.003+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

My colleague Paul Tester wrote earlier this week about our recent work for RAF College Cranwell. I always find it stimulating to visit RAF stations throughout the UK as part of my duties, but Cranwell, more than other stations, has special significance. I graduated from there as a regular RAF officer back in 2002, after all the trials and tribulations of initial officer training. Like many others who have marched up the steps of College Hall to the strains of ‘Auld Lang Syne’, I see Cranwell as the birthplace of my military career – a rite of passage for all RAF officers, and a place to remember those who have gone before us.

The Army and Royal Navy, of course, have Sandhurst and Dartmouth, their own hallowed institutions for developing young civilians into young officers. 7644 Squadron is unique in the RAF for being led by someone whose path to the Queen’s Commission took him through the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, instead of Cranwell. Wing Commander Peter Clarke, pictured below, has only been wearing the RAF’s blue uniform for a couple of years, having joined 7644 Squadron as a Territorial Army major with a couple of decades of experience in PR and the military. Back in June he succeeded Wing Commander Steve Dargan as our officer commanding – known, in time-honoured RAF fashion, simply as ‘Boss’.

He joined us at Cranwell, where I had the chance to conduct a short interview with him (you can listen to it on AudioBoo or in the player below). He was clearly relishing the challenges ahead. “The highest profile challenge we face is the ongoing deployment to Afghanistan,” he explained. “Eleven out of my thirteen officers have been deployed there and in Iraq in the last couple of years.” Indeed, he added, our colleague Flight Lieutenant Stephen Jolly is in Afghanistan even now, and further deployments are planned for officers later this year.

Listen!

On social media, the Boss said we had found ourselves a particularly useful niche in the RAF’s social media engagement. “New media is developing at a phenomenal rate,” he said, “and for busy RAF officers staying ahead of technology can be difficult. We bring expertise from our civilian lives, to explain how to use it, what it can offer, and to help the Air Force select which channels to use."

Among those channels are, of course, blogging and podcasting, and 7644 Squadron has done its bit to increase the RAF's presence in those areas. The RAF also has a thriving presence on Facebook (over 70,500 followers), while Twitter provides units with a unique chance to engage with the public. For PR practitioners, these social media give us a chance to do what PR should be all about - build two-way relationships with key publics, encouraging conversation and participation. Through blogging, Facebook and other media, that is exactly what the RAF is doing, and it's an area that 7644 Squadron will continue to do its bit to develop.

“7644 Squadron provides a challenging environment,” the Boss concluded. “It’s a fast-moving story, and you have to be able to react. Your skills have to be at the top, whether you’re a journalist or in PR. Once you work with RAF people and you understand what they’re doing, the desire to communicate that almost takes over. You think, ‘everyone should know this’

"It's not just a job - it's fun."

RAF College Cranwell celebrates the Battle of Britain

2010-09-20T11:05:00.007+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Paul Tester posts from the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell:

This month's training weekend saw us deploy to Royal Air Force College Cranwell to help generate some content of the College's celebrations of the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. We try to keep ourselves useful at weekends, and this time we had a lot of work to do for local media - including setting up a BBC radio interview, and filming material for BBC Look North, as well as writing articles about cadets for newspapers throughout the UK.

The RAFC is home to the continuing generations of Royal Air Force commissioned officers. At the moment, Initial Officer Training Course No 20, the senior course, is preparing to graduate in a couple of weeks' time. When we arrived they had just returned from the climax of their course, Exercise DECISIVE EDGE, and the college bar on the Friday night was awash with the kind of relief, energy and excitement that you'd probably expect to find amongst the students of a nine-month course nearing its end.

Sunday was reserved for filming the Parade itself, with our footage being rushed up to Hull to the BBC's Look North producers for the evening bulletin. We also arranged a BBC Radio Lincolnshire and BBC Radio Humberside interview with a future RAF officer, Tom Keating, which you can listen to on AudioBoo.

Listen!

Saturday provided a great opportunity for our squadron members to talk to some of the IOT cadets and produce home-town stories, with an appropriate Battle of Britain slant to them. These articles, which will get sent out to the interviewees' local papers, are our 'bread and butter' - talking to people, finding stories and generating media coverage. It's interesting how the skills used here are exactly the same type of skills that an absent member of our team - Flt Lt Stephen Jolly - will be using during his one month deployment to Afghanistan - starting today - where he is tasked with sourcing stories from the provincial reconstruction teams. We wish him well, and a speedy and safe return.

7644 Squadron is attracting lots of potential recruits at the moment, and this was the latest in a sequence of weekends that has featured yet another strong showing of those recruits - or Potential Officer Cadets - from all over the country. Our weekends provide a great mixture of the opportunity to produce real-life media content, as well as the chance to offer all members, and potential members, the chance to develop and hone their skills, particularly with the video camera equipment. Several individuals recorded short 30-second pieces to camera for YouTube-based squadron promotional purposes. There might not be any budding TV stars among us, though... it's harder than it looks!

We'll be running those 'talking heads' videos over the coming weeks, so keep an eye on the blog and Twitter for them.

Learning the basics: RAF recruit training for a new reservist

2010-09-03T10:29:00.006+01:00

7644 Squadron's newest officer cadet, Greg Taylor, has recently finished the first phase of his recruit training. He'll be writing about his experiences throughout the coming months, as he goes through training to become a fully capable - and deployable - member of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force.

Officer Cadet Greg Taylor posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

Officer Cadet Greg Taylor

Basic training for Royal Auxiliary Air Force recruits begins at RAF Halton – funnily enough, just around the corner from 7644 Squadron's offices - with the Basic Recruits Training Course (BRTC). All RAuxAF entrants complete this course, irrespective of their trade or rank. It's designed to cover all the military basics – communal living, general service knowledge, weapons, first aid, field craft and so on.

I was on BRTC 37/10, with 19 recruits from other squadrons, from 7 to 21 August.

Much of the first week was taken up with learning how the SA80 / L85-A2 rifle works, culminating in a practical Weapons Handling Test and live firing on the range. The course then moved on to CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear), which included donning a protective suit and respirator and an appointment (or two) with the much-feared Respirator Test Facility. I can confirm that as an 'incapacitating agent', CS gas definitely isn’t pleasant!

Fieldcraft lessons followed, then first aid, and the course concluded with an overnight exercise.

Although the course runs for two weeks, the time just flew by. As well as being kept busy during the day, in the evenings there’s always kit to be washed and ironed, boots to be polished, block jobs to be done - and then there are notes to revise, because the course includes regular theory as well as practical testing.


Officer Cadet Taylor with fellow reservist Aircraftsman Jamie Waldock, 2620 Squadron

The instructors are superb –thorough and patient. Their experience shines through, as does their wicked sense of humour (yes Corporal Thomas, I mean you!).

Accommodation is basic but comfortable. The food's pretty good, and there's plenty of it, too. The increased physical activity - including marching here, there and everywhere - contributed positively to my weight and I came home several kilos lighter!

Personal highlights of the course included live firing on the range (and discovering I’m quite a good shot) and the overnight exercise which involved 'stagging on' in a downpour, leaky tents, chronic snoring and an unfortunate mix-up involving Kendal Mint Cake and hexamine fuel - both white slabs, one considerably less tasty than the other!

Most importantly, of course, I enjoyed working with everyone else who was on the course. All of them will soon be fully-trained members of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, so there's a good chance I'll run into them in coming years. Cheers, guys!

I’d sum BRTC up as fun, interesting and enjoyable. I’m definitely looking forward to the next phase of my training, which will take me to the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell.

New faces for the Royal Auxiliary Air Force - BRTC 37/10

RAF Regiment musicians do their bit at home and overseas

2010-07-22T12:51:00.002+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

In all the excitement surrounding a royal parade on the scale of last weekend's presentation of a new Queen's Colour for the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, it can be easy to overlook a crucial element: the role of RAF musicians. The RAuxAF parade at RAF Marham was supported by the Band of the Royal Air Force Regiment, based at RAF Cranwell - fitting, given that the Queen was presenting inaugural standards to two RAuxAF Regiment squadrons.

On parade: RAF musicians play a vital role in supporting RAF operations.

A large part of RAF musicians' duties involve travelling to concerts around the world and supporting ceremonial events in the UK; however, they also have very important roles on operations, where they can be called up to support the RAF in a wide range of different roles.

The musicians' operational duties and the Band’s busy schedule place a great strain on the band sergeant, Flight Sergeant Daz Carter, who is responsible for managing personnel, transport and accommodation. “It’s a very busy job,” he told me. “We do see a lot of musicians from across RAF Music Services deploying to Afghanistan and other locations, which can present all sorts of challenges for us. I was in Turkey myself last year, working with 99 Squadron. I had to make sure the aircraft were all refueled and had the right maps as they flew on to Afghanistan. It’s a big switch from playing the sax – but I did take it with me, so I had a chance to practice.”

Corporal Duncan Opie, a clarinetist who has served with the RAF for 11 years, added that he had also been deployed. “I’ve recently finished a four-month tour of Camp Bastion in Afghanistan,” he said. “It was very enjoyable, but very busy – I helped run the passenger helicopter terminal. It had nothing to do with music at all, but it does help remind people that we all have to do our bit to support operations.”

Last weekend, however, the Band snapped into full ceremonial mode. “We did everything we could to make the parade in front of Her Majesty a success,” said Flight Sergeant Carter. “The reservists don’t get a chance to do this sort of thing very often, so we were keen to make it special for them. It’s always an honour to be able to support ceremonial, whether it’s in front of Her Majesty or anyone else. We’re proud to play our part.”

7644 Squadron meets the Queen at RAF Marham

2010-07-20T09:49:00.005+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from RAF Marham, Norfolk:

I hope you enjoyed reading my colleague Squadron Leader Eklund's account of last weekend's Royal International Air Tattoo - a very busy occasion indeed. But he wasn't the only member of 7644 Squadron working that weekend: four of us were attending an historic event at RAF Marham in Norfolk, as Her Majesty the Queen presented new Colours to the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. Her Majesty also presented inaugural Standards - flags showing battle honours - to 2620 (County of Norfolk) and 2623 (East Anglian) Squadrons, both RAuxAF Regiment units.

On such an auspicious occasion, Marham's press office - led by Squadron Leader Jenny Dennis, herself an RAF Reservist - was keen to make use of 7644 Squadron's media expertise. We were able to help by writing press releases for local newspapers and RAF News, and by getting film recordings for the British Forces Broadcasting Service.

So, on a fraught, blustery and wet Saturday morning, we descended upon the parade square to interview reservists for hometown news stories, returning the next day to start work on video editing and writing and to attend the parade itself. It's always good to be reminded that, to borrow an old cliché, Britain does pomp and circumstance like no other country. The RAuxAF certainly didn't disappoint, as over 110 officers and airmen, drawn from almost every RAuxAF squadron, criss-crossed the parade square with perfect military precision, boots, swords and bayonets flashing in the early afternoon sunshine. The Band of the Royal Air Force Regiment provided musical accompaniment, while seven RAF aircraft - including three Tornado GR4s based at Marham - saluted the Queen with a fly-past.

After presenting the Colour and Standards, Her Majesty remarked on the hard work reservists do in service to their country. "Since 1989," she said, "more than 2,000 of your men and women have been called for active service and have served with distinction alongside your regular counterparts on operations at home and elsewhere. It is a record of achievement of which you can be justly proud. You have sadly suffered casualties and your country owes a debt of gratitude to families, friends and employers whose support and encouragement to your volunteer service is absolutely vital."

After the parade had dispersed I had the honour of being able to interview the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, and the RAuxAF's Honourary Inspector General, Air Vice Marshal Lord Beaverbrook. For two of my colleagues, though, there was a greater honour still: an opportunity to meet the Queen at a reception in the Officers' Mess. As Flying Officer Tom Calver put it afterwards, "meeting Her Majesty was a fantastic honour, and marked a perfect high point in a very, very busy weekend. While we never ask for thanks, she reminded us all how hard we and our colleagues work. That's definitely a reason to be proud."

RAF Marham's media and communications officer, Squadron Leader Dennis, couldn't be more pleased with our support. "7644 Squadron were a massive help," she said. "It was great to meet you and to see you in operation, and I think it was great for you to be able to play a part in such a pivotal moment for the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. At Marham, we don't have your video capabilities and we're quite a small team, so you helped us generate a lot more output than we could have done alone."

We certainly enjoyed producing it, and we hope we can support RAF Marham again in the near future.

Thanks to potential recruit Peter Lisney for the excellent photography!

RAF Reserves support the Royal International Air Tattoo

2010-07-19T16:28:00.003+01:00

Squadron Leader Dylan Eklund posts from RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire:

Billed as the largest military airshow in the world, the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT), held at RAF Fairford on 17 and 18 July, attracted 155,000 visitors. The event relies heavily on the support of an army of volunteers, including the crucial effort contributed by personnel from the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. I was lucky enough to be able to catch up with members of two squadrons playing particularly important roles in keeping the event on-track and safe.

This year’s show saw 246 aircraft from 30 air arms arrive at the Gloucestershire base, many of whom - including a new A400M transport aircraft, pictured above, in its first visit to RIAT - were met by members of 4624 (Movements) Squadron based at nearby RAF Brize Norton.

"When a transport aircraft comes in we cater for its needs," explained Warrant Officer Matt Dillon. "We have a fleet of specialist vehicles loaned from the US Air Force with which to handle cargo. While all of us are trained to use the equipment, RIAT provides valuable refresher training working at a high tempo."

A400M First

4624 Squadron's support to the show is nothing new. Warrant Officer Dillon, pictured right, first helped out in 1983 when RAF Greenham Common held the show. "Over the years we have handled a wide variety of aircraft types, everything from vintage DC-3s to Concorde. This year, we handled the A400M on its first visit to the UK. We were the first RAF Movers to handle the type, which will soon be based at RAF Brize Norton.

"My first impression of the A400M is that it's an exciting prospect. In comparison to the Hercules it has a larger cargo hold and a more user-friendly floor."

Such is the expertise provided by the reserve unit that when RIAT invites countries to participate in the show a selling point is the specialist cargo handling capability that 4624 Squadron provides.

"Preparation starts the Monday before the show when we gather and undertake conversion and refresher training on the air cargo handling equipment, heath and safety briefings, radio procedures and familiarisation with the are in which we will be working", said Warrant Officer Dillon.

"Monday is the busiest day by far for all of us as all the aircraft leave Fairford that day. Many will require our assistance the previous night or very early in the morning. We also get many short-notice taskings and at times it’s all hands to the pumps."

Despite the long hours Warrant Officer Dillon will be back next year. "Professionally it is challenging, but having got to know many of the other volunteers over the years it is extremely enjoyable."

Wing Commander Rob Williams, Officer Commanding 4624 Squadron, is equally enthusiastic. "The tempo of activity and diversity of aircraft movements at RIAT is similar to those experienced on coalition operations in Afghanistan. Accordingly it provides a valuable training opportunity, and it's something I hope to be able to continue supporting in future years."

Aeromedical Evacuation

A short distance from the Movers is a hangar housing the medical centre manned by RAF medical personnel from the Tactical Medical Wing. Over the course of the weekend the centre helped 39 members of the public with a variety of injuries. As one would expect at such a large event, the Medical Centre has the capability to deal with a major incident if the need arises.

Personnel from 4626 (Aeromedical Evacuation) Squadron, based at RAF Lyneham and pictured left, form an integral part of the seven aeromedical teams at RIAT who would treat those casualties flown for urgent hospital treatment.

"Casualties at first instance would be brought to the Medical Centre where they receive immediate treatment", explained Corporal Colin Smith, a flight nursing assistant. "Those in a time-critical condition would then be flown by helicopter to the most appropriate NHS hospital."

The helicopter they would fly in could be of any of the types or nationalities drawn from those at the show. "We can call in any rotary aircraft at the show to assist and transfer patients to hospital", said Corporal Tim Williams. "As a flight nursing assistant my role is to deal with the non-clinical aspects before, during and after the flight. I would join a flight nurse on the flight and assist them in treating the patient if required.

"This is different from working in theatre as we don’t know what helicopter type we will have to fly on. We have a huge pool of aircraft to call on and there’s a high degree of flexibility and initiative involved."

The Reservist personnel also form part of the first response unit known as ‘Fireball’. "If an incident occurs outside the airfield perimeter first on the scene would be the Fireball, an RAF Sea King from 22 Squadron which remains on standby throughout the flying display", said Corporal Smith. "Aboard would be a team comprising a doctor, paramedic and two firemen, in addition to the search and rescue crew.

"As with being on a Medical Emergency Response Team in Afghanistan, as soon as we are activated we would get airborne as quickly as possible. On the scene of the incident we would make an assessment and report back on what further responses are required and then commence treatment if appropriate."

606 (Chiltern) Squadron, based at RAF Benson, also provided 20 personnel undertaking a variety of duties including VIP drivers, staff reception and fuel specialists.

"Everybody here is to do the same thing, to support the show and raise money for charity", said Corporal Grant Harris. "We’re never short of volunteers and those who have been before are always keen to help again. It’s long hours but nevertheless very enjoyable."

Women on the front line

2010-07-01T11:20:00.004+01:00

Pilot Officer Lesley Woods posts from Headquarters Air Command, RAF High Wycombe:

A short while ago, I returned from my very first deployment to Afghanistan as a member of 7644 Squadron. My main task was to escort a film crew from ITV, who were working on a piece about women on the frontline for the Tonight programme. At two weeks long it was a short deployment, but very memorable; by the time I landed back at RAF Brize Norton it felt like months of new experiences had been crammed into those 14 days.

The ITV crew, including News at Ten presenter Julie Etchingham (in blue in the image below), were due to join me at the start of week two, so that I'd had time to get my bearings around Kandahar Air Field and Camp Bastion. I was very thankful for the pre deployment training (and time in the gym!) as it gave me confidence in my ability to just get on with the job at hand. Of course, friends back at home asked me how I could do such a job: was I scared, did I worry, what did I think about the risks, and so on. The truth is, the preparation you go through means something just kicks in, even from day one, and you just get on with work. I did have a couple moments of extreme clarity, of being completely in the moment and appreciating what being in a war zone actually meant: loading my SA80 rifle with live ammunition in the back of a Merlin helicopter as we prepared to fly over the 'threat area'; and attending a vigil ceremony for a fallen Royal Marine, standing alongside 4,000 other troops of all nationalities and Services.

As a journalist, looking down the lens of a camera can remove you mentally from your location, and you can lose your situational awareness; BFBS's Jay Hirst mentioned this in an interview on this blog a short while ago. I experienced that feeling myself, when one night we found ourselves in the epicentre of what was to become a huge fire in Camp Leatherneck, the gargantuan US base just next door to Camp Bastion. With ITV following female fire fighters we were right in the thick of the activity, at one point being evacuated from the danger zone by US Marines, just as a dust storm hit the Camp.

Despite the challenges and adventures we encountered, it was an absolute privilege to do my job, to witness and report on the work of my RAF colleagues. If those at home said they were proud of me, that they thought I was brave, I corrected them. I don't think I was brave; I was just lucky enough to spend some time alongside those who display real courage and real bravery every single day: ordinary men and women doing an extraordinary job.

Tonight: 'Women on the Frontline' broadcast on Thursday 17 June to an audience of over 3.5 million. It featured a nurse from 612 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force, a Merlin loadmaster from 28 (AC) Squadron, an RAF policewoman and an RAF fire fighter. The Sun ran a full page feature having interviewed the women over the phone, and presenter Julie Etchingham wrote a piece for The Daily Telegraph.

Reflecting on reservist life

2010-06-28T15:40:00.002+01:00

Flying Officer Tom Calver posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

Having just returned from Armed Forces Day in Cardiff, it seems to me to be a good time to reflect on what it means to be an Armed Forces reservist. In a few weeks, I'll have been in the RAF Reserves for four years.

In that time I've been to Afghanistan, twice; the Falkland Islands, twice; Cyprus; even France. There was a day-trip to Norway in the back of a Hercules.

It has been a tremendous experience. It has given me fun and challenge in equal proportion. But what about the rest of my life? Does standing with one foot in the forces mean that I am in danger of losing my footing in civvy street?

Keeping the balance can be hard sometimes. Preparing for the next RAF job has to be fitted around the day job, which, after all pays my bills.

The occasional difficulties of life as a reservist are, though, more than offset by the knowledge and skills I've brought back to the office. Indeed, two of my current responsibilities, for training and emergency planning, are a result of what I've learned with 7644 Squadron.

Marc Schmid, my boss and head of communications and marketing for Blackburn with Darwen Council, had this to say: "Tom's work with the Royal Air Force helps to develop his PR skills. His forces experience brings new perspectives and different approaches to the team.

"Blackburn with Darwen is commited to delivering the best public services for people, and our support for reservists is part of that."

So never any problems then? Of course not.

Sometimes there are collisions. My best man's speech at my best friend's wedding was delivered by his father. The RAF had summoned me to Afghanistan, departing just days before. While I was glad to go, the timing was less than brilliant.

When I first went for basic training in the RAF Reserves, the flight sergeant in charge warned us that this was not a hobby.

"A hobby is something you can put down and pick up again when you like. You can't do that with this. This is a second career."

And, like much of the wisdom imparted by Senior NCOs, it has stuck with me – even when I had to explain to my best friend why I had to miss his wedding.

Even so, in a few months when the RAF asks me whether I want to stay on for another five years, I'll say yes.

I’ll say yes because of the fun and because of the challenge. But I’ll also say yes for other reasons, one of which Andy wrote about on Friday: Because when I put on my uniform, I feel pride. I feel proud to serve my country, and to be part of the Royal Air Force. I’m proud to have been selected to be part of an organisation that continues to serve today with the same commitment it has shown in its great history.

But also because civilian life doesn’t exist independent of the forces. And the forces don’t exist independent of civvy street. Regular or reservist, we are all drawn from the civilian population, some to serve full time and others to serve part time. And our job is to defend the UK, so that everyone can continue to enjoy the benefits of civil society.

Armed Forces Day serves as a reminder to civilians and to those who take the Queen’s Shilling that we rely on each other. Having one foot in the military and the other in civilian life may not always be easy, but as it brings civilian and forces life closer to each other, it’s a privileged place to stand.

Armed Forces Day - an employer's perspective

2010-06-25T13:03:00.002+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from the City of London:

We talk a lot about what the Armed Forces - and the Reserve Forces - do on behalf of our country. For reservists, though, there's another group of people that make sacrifices to keep the wheels turning: our employers.

Employers are afforded a great deal of support by the Ministry of Defence and a specialist body, SaBRE, that supports reservists and companies that employ them. What, though, do employers gain from allowing their reservists to head off on operations for extended periods? How do companies respond to the challenges - and what are the benefits?

To try to answer a few of those questions ahead of tomorrow's Armed Forces Day celebrations, I caught up with my civilian line manager to talk about his experiences. You can listen on our AudioBoo site, or through the player below.

Listen!

Uniform to Work Day for reserve armed forces

2010-06-25T10:45:00.006+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from the City of London:

As preparations for tomorrow's Armed Forces Day near completion, today has been set aside as uniform to work day. Throughout the UK, members of the Royal Naval Reserve, the Territorial Army, the Royal Auxiliary Air Force and the cadet forces will be heading into their civilian workplaces in uniform, in an effort to show society at large that we, the reserve forces, play a big role in every community in the country.

So this morning, instead of wearing my usual dress-down Friday jeans and polo shirt, I put on my RAF No 2 uniform and made my way to the Tube for the inevitably humid and sardine-tin-like trip to St Paul's. When travelling around London in uniform, you encounter three types of response: there's the baffled stare ("are you an airline pilot?" "err... no!"); the furtive glance ("ooh, you look different, but I don't want to make eye contact..."); and, best of all, the welcoming smile, greeting or handshake. Thankfully, the latter has been visible in abundance this morning. As I enjoyed an early breakfast at my favourite café by St Paul's Cathedral, one woman even stopped in her tracks to say hello to me.

"Thanks so much," she said.

"For what?"

"For keeping my kids safe."

It felt like a slightly odd conversation, brief as it was - not least because I couldn't connect drinking a pot of tea with protecting the realm - but it made me think about the significance of Armed Forces Day and, of course, of my wearing uniform into work.

Armed Forces Day is a moment for people throughout the UK to recognise the incredible bravery, sacrifice and service shown by our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen. It doesn't matter if that sacrifice is recent (though we may feel that more acutely), or in the past; one thing Armed Forces Day has done, I think, is to show that the old stereotyped idea of a 'veteran' - almost invariably a proud old man with silver hair and rows of medals, or an elderly former Land Girl in a blazer and beret - has to expand to include young personnel who have served in more recent conflicts. It also has to expand to include those who volunteer to serve in addition to maintaining busy civilian lives. For reservists, sacrifice is about more than being posted away from home. It's about giving up free time, taking on new responsibilities, and being ready to drop everything to do one's duty.

One thing that is true of all veterans - and serving personnel - is humility and modesty. When I live and work as a civilian, I can feel overawed at the courage and dedication of our uniformed personnel in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Yet when I don my uniform, it can feel embarrassing to be accosted by people who want to shake my hand and thank me, ostensibly for the efforts of my colleagues thousands of miles away. Please don't let that deter you: bashful, blushing and embarrassed as some of my colleagues might be if you stop to thank them, I know that they all feel incredibly proud to serve you.

Armed Forces Day give you a unique chance to meet and talk to veterans, reservists and serving personnel. As modestly as I can say this, they are all superb. Take that chance - say hello, reflect on what the Forces do for this country, and have a truly fantastic weekend.

An interview with BFBS journalist James Hirst

2010-05-15T15:26:00.001+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

Last year I was lucky enough to be able to interview Sky's Geoff Meade and the BBC's Caroline Wyatt at Kandahar. It's always an interesting experience to turn the tables on journalists, making them the subjects rather than the storytellers. It was with that in mind that I wanted to catch up with BFBS's James Hirst as he headed out to Afghanistan in March.

James has been a journalist for many years, and has travelled around the world with BFBS to cover stories about the Armed Forces. But, as he explained to me, Afghanistan was the first particularly dangerous environment to which he had been assigned, and the challenges ahead weighed heavily on his mind. After all of the pre-deployment training - covering everything from first aid to life at Bastion - one thing stood out as being particularly important to him: "If you're working in a hostile environment, when you're looking down the lens of a camera, someone has to be watching your back." I'm sure that will ring a bell with anyone, military or civilian, who has spent time working on ops.

I spoke to James at RAF Akrotiri during 7644 Squadron's training there in March. We had to hold the interview due to election Purdah, but it is now available online at our AudioBoo account, and embedded below. I hope you find it interesting.

Listen!

Purdah lifted

2010-05-12T11:02:00.000+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

Her Majesty the Queen has appointed the Rt Hon David Cameron as Prime Minister, and has invited him to form a government. The Prime Minister's appointment signals the end of election Purdah, meaning we will be back up to a normal blogging and Twitter routine very soon - starting with a few long-held audio pieces for Audioboo, which will be posted in coming days.

General Election invokes Purdah

2010-04-07T12:43:00.002+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

With the announcement of a General Election, the Cabinet Office has imposed Purdah – a set of restrictions on public communications by Crown servants. This very important convention ensures a clear separation of party politics from routine government business throughout the election campaign. Impartiality is, of course, absolutely essential for all public services, but for the Armed Forces – charged with the privilege of defending and upholding our democracy – it is, perhaps, especially important. As a result, 7644 Squadron’s blog and Twitter feed will go silent until after the General Election. We will send an update on Twitter when Purdah is lifted.

If you would like more information about Purdah, please visit the Cabinet Office’s website.

RAF Akrotiri training - hard work, but rewarding

2010-03-29T12:10:00.002+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

Everyone in the RAF has to complete regular military 'common core skills' training, which acts as a refresher for key skills such as first aid and how to handle a rifle. For those who are shortly to deploy on operations, there is an additional package - the Individual Pre-deployment Training course, or IPDT - which goes into more detail on crucial front-line skills that are directly relevant to personnel in Afghanistan.

7644 Squadron maintains a high state of readiness so that we can deploy anywhere worldwide at short notice to support the RAF, so we go through IPDT twice a year. This year, our training dovetailed with RAF Akrotiri's request for some media output, so we were able to conduct our training in intense heat and on rocky ground - similar conditions to those that we face in Afghanistan. While we may hope that we never have to put our minefield awareness and battle drills into action, we cannot risk going unprepared. Akrotiri's Regiment Section did a superb job in making sure that we are ready to deal with a range of threats if we have to travel 'beyond the wire'.

Alongside our IPDT, we were also brushing up on our basic media skills, as well as producing products for RAF Akrotiri. 7644 Squadron invests a lot of effort into making sure its officers are able to produce a range of different media products to support the RAF, and to make sure we are useful to journalists in the field. As a PR manager in my civilian life I am used to writing, but I had little experience in building audio and video packages. This week I took the opportunity to learn how to use Adobe Soundbooth to turn out what is (I think) a passable audio package about our final day of training, as well as an interview with BFBS journalist Jay Hirst as he travelled to Afghanistan. The training file is online at our new AudioBoo account (also through the player below); I hope you find it interesting. Jay's interview will follow a little later this week.

Listen!

84 Squadron's Griffins soar at Akrotiri

2010-03-24T18:54:00.001Z

Flight Lieutenant Stephen Jolly posts from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus:

Wednesday saw another busy afternoon for 7644 Squadron at RAF Akrotiri, as we sent a camera team to film an 84 Squadron search and rescue Griffin helicopter on windy clifftops in Southern Cyprus - very southern Cyprus!

RAF Akrotiri sits on a peninsula. Bounded by sea on either side, we were filming in streaming sunshine, facing (I guess) toward Egypt. On the horizon a small, dark dot could be seen circling a distant ship. There, 7644 Squadron's officer commanding, Wing Commander Stephen Dargan, had been winched down to film the Griffin from the deck. Having picked him up again, the helicopter headed back to shore, where our camera and stills teams were ready to capture its flight along the coastline. It was a great day for filming.

But why were we doing it? 84 Squadron is RAF Akrotiri's only permanent RAF flying squadron, and one that is earning a reputation for excellent search and rescue work in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Squadron's Griffin helicopters and their crews have recently been involved in searches for survivors from a crashed airliner off the Lebanese coast, and searches - and rescues - involving ferries in Mediterranean waters. The Squadron wanted some good stock film and photos to use for its own media relations activities, and we jumped at the chance to help out.

Back on the coastline, we set up our tripod just in time, though it took two of us, arms and legs and all, to hold it down on our rocky ledge in a snapping headwind - as you can see in the above photo. On the rocks below, two intrepid media ops officers were scrambling across loose limestone to grab photos of the Griffin as it buzzed the cliffs. The helicopter passed left to right, round again, then practiced winching off the beach below us.

In seconds the Griffin was rising up the cliff before us, and we stood eyeball to eyeball with the crew. After they put in a quick landing sequence before heading back to base, we dashed back to our office to download the footage. We hope 84 Squadron is able to make good use of it - we certainly enjoyed gathering it!

Hard at work in Akrotiri

2010-03-22T09:30:00.004Z

Pilot Officer Lesley Woods posts from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus:

If this blog has seemed quiet for a while, we hope you'll be pleased to hear that we're gearing up for a very busy year; 7644 Squadron personnel will be deploying to operational and exercise locations worldwide to support the RAF, including a string of short deployments to Afghanistan.

We can't do any of that without good training. Every year, RAF Reservists must complete 15 days of annual continuous training, along with regular weekend training - and, of course, deployment on operations when needed. This year, our first period of continuous training is being spent in the early spring heat of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.

We'll be completing the normal programme of military training, known as Individual Pre-deployment Training, that everyone in uniform has to complete before heading out on operations. Taught by the RAF Regiment, this week-long course covers everything from how to handle and fire a rifle to how to deal with improvised explosive devices (IEDs). It goes a long way to preparing us for life on operations; however, we are also media professionals, and as much as we have to be able to fire a rifle, we must also be confident with operating stills and video cameras, and a range of other professional equipment.

We learn by doing, so while we're in Akrotiri -- and when we have time after lessons about Laws of Armed Conflict and first aid -- we'll be seeking stories about the personnel stationed here. Our main target is 84 Squadron, which conducts search and rescue and fire control operations. We'll be working hard to make sure people back in the UK know about the squadron's valuable role.

We've started our training with a short video and stills shoot of 11 Squadron's Typhoons leaving Akrotiri for the UK (see image above), after participating in a tough air power exercise in the Middle East. Despite nearly being blown over by the jet-wash of a Tristar on the flightline, I think I managed to get some good video - hopefully, eventually, you will be able to judge for yourself!

Raw recruits show raw determination

2010-01-20T13:53:00.003Z

Pilot Officer Lesley Woods posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

This weekend at Halton was a very productive one, generating content for the RAF’s media work in the UK, as well as developing the multimedia skills of squadron members. Personnel had the opportunity to get training in either basic radio capture and editing, capturing video images or photography. We were also able to discuss the recent paper by Andrew Mackay and Steve Tatham, which has called for more professional media officers, and some of the debate around it.

It was also a chance for a couple of potential 7644 recruits to take a look at what we do, and for us to take a first look at what they could bring to the squadron.

But earlier in the week we almost cancelled because of the weather. Luckily, we didn’t: as it turned out, roads were fine in the area; had we done so, we would have been shamed by the RAF’s newest and most junior members.

RAF Halton is the centre for initial training for RAF recruits. And as part of our training we went across to see the newest intake, who’d been there just one week. They were getting to grips with drill when we saw them, with Squadron Leader Jan De-Vry, the Officer Commanding Recruit Training Squadron looking on.

He said that they were doing well, but he expected that; just a week ago, when most people appeared to believe that Britain was grinding to a halt, they’d all made it to Halton to start training - even the guy who’d had to wait two days at Istanbul airport for his flight. Even the ones who spent hours waiting for delayed and cancelled train connections, or who’d dug their car out to get there. You can read more about it here.

I remember one former 7644 member talking about getting through our training: “Sometimes,” she told me, “it’s just about sheer obstinacy.” She was right. There’s a point for a lot of people where it’s pure willpower that’s pushing you onwards. But that’s no bad thing, because out on ops, where the working day is long and constant, you might occasionally find that it’s that same willpower reserve that’s keeping you going.

If these new recruits had proved anything in their first 24 hours, it was that they had determination and commitment in bucket loads. It certainly set quite an example for our potential recruits! And the RAF Halton training staff were happy to express their admiration.

No matter how impressed they were, the RAF’s basic trainers would be shirking their duty if they let the recruits now have it easy for the next eight weeks of the course. When we popped back to see them later, they were getting ready for an inspection the following day. Shoes were being polished, surfaces dusted, floors vacuumed. Another test of determination, another test of commitment, but another step on the way to being part of the Royal Air Force.

RAF fitness - tough, necessary and (reasonably) fun!

2010-01-18T11:41:00.000Z

Flying Officer Tom Calver writes from a gym in Blackburn:

As is typical in January, the gym is busier than usual today. New members are getting to grips with the equipment. That post-Christmas New Year’s resolution thing is going on around me.

January is the month when a lot of people decide to get fit. The New Year provides that extra motivation. Some will turn this into a life’s habit, others will turn back to the sofa by February. But good luck to them.

My motivation is different. Being a reservist is not about just turning up as you are and putting on a uniform. You have to meet a military standard, and that includes a military standard of fitness. In recent years the RAF has put more and more emphasis on its personnel being fit to fight. Expeditionary warfare in places like Iraq and Afghanistan requires a higher level of fitness than most UK-based operations, and the Service's renewed focus on operational fitness has been a significant change in approach from the past.

The RAF tests its men and women twice a year, and requires that they reach a certain, exacting standard. That standard varies according to age and gender. The fitness test is in three parts: A 'bleep test', with 20 metre shuttle runs at increasing speed, press ups and sit ups. For me, I have to achieve level 9.04 on the run, and then do 19 press ups and 31 sit ups. That’s hardly elite athlete standard, but it’s a good level of fitness for someone my age (30, if you’re wondering). However, the RAF is not interested in people just meeting the minimum standard, it expects you to keep going. Scores are banded; the better you do, the higher the band you’ll achieve. And each band has attached to it a rough percentage of how much healthier you’ll be generally.

There are no let offs for reservists. You have to meet the same standard as everyone else, because you’re going to exactly the same places to do your job. A lack of fitness isn’t an option: as a media operations officer I could go almost anywhere in theatre, working with just about anyone in the UK forces. I have to be fit enough to keep up!

But there’s a pay off for your civilian life: you’re healthier. And with two fitness tests a year, there’s always something to be working towards, and to keep you motivated not just through January but right through the year.

If you’re looking for a way to work on your fitness, the RAF Careers website has a fitness challenge- just the thing to get you through January, and it even lets you track your fitness progress online.

I hope you find it as helpful as we do. And that's where I sign off - it's hard to type and run at the same time!

7644 Squadron helps 8 Squadron with 95th Anniversary preparation

2009-12-17T09:35:00.001Z

Squadron Leader Howard Leader posts from RAF Waddington:

As the RAF's E3-D Sentry AWACS unit, 8 Squadron, prepares to mark 95 years since its formation, officers from 7644 Squadron have been helping with some behind the scenes preparation. An anniversary of this nature represents a great opportunity to highlight the work of 8 Squadron as part of a continuum of a fascinating and gallant history.

In the annals of 8 Squadron’s deeds there is a VC heading a long list of other awards for exceptional endeavour. Flying Officer Geoff Maskell and I have been helping to identify areas of interest for the media and the public from 8 Squadron’s past and training the unit’s personnel to deal with the anticipated level of media interest in their history and current operations.

Geoff, delivering some well received training on interview techniques said: "8 Squadron has a wonderful story to tell. We have spent two days with the Squadron helping its personnel to articulate that story and present it to a hungry audience."

7644 Squadron wishes 8 Squadron's personnel and families all the very best for the coming year's celebrations.

Frontline forensics at CSI Kandahar

2009-12-15T14:00:00.001Z

Wing Commander Steve Dargan, Officer Commanding 7644 Squadron, posts from Kandahar, Afghanistan:

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are one of the biggest threats to our soldiers in the battle against the Taliban. Countering these deadly devices is one of the top priorities for commanders in Afghanistan and one RAF policeman is using his specialist forensic skills in the fight to protect our front line troops.

Sergeant Lee Peters is a Scenes of Crime Officer with the RAF Police Special Investigation Branch and one of only 5 practitioners qualified in forensic evidence recovery. Lee is part of a little known team based at Kandahar in Afghanistan with the rather quaint title of Combined Explosive Exploitation Cell – CExC or “Sexy” for short. The team’s members are drawn from the United States, Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK. Their task – the investigation of IED material.

What this means in practice is that whenever IEDs are discovered Lee Peters and his colleagues prefer to defuse them rather than detonate them. They can take the devices apart, find out how they’re made, look at the technology used to see whether anything has changed and try to identify the sources of the materials used.

Lee says, “I brief the IED teams on the collection of evidence. Each brief is site specific. I put myself in the bad guy’s shoes and ask myself: 'How would I have planted this device?' I’m targeting the collection of biometric data. I examine the evidence in the lab to extract every last possible item of intelligence. I’m looking after UK interests. If evidence reveals anything of interest to the UK I prioritise that.”

The team has seen well over 1,500 devices in the last 6 months. Each is evaluated individually. Each is treated differently. Although many are crudely made they are nonetheless effective. Some 60 per cent of UK casualties have been caused by IEDs. “It’s busy, but I love the job,” says Lee Peters. “The fact that you’re going out and doing a job that matters means a lot. You’re helping the guys on the ground, showing them what to look for. Our collective efforts are going towards stopping the bad guys putting things on the ground.”

Lee was due to go to the Falkland Islands at the start of the year when the opportunity to do this job came up. He was offered the choice of four months in the Falklands or six months in Afghanistan. “It was no choice at all as far as I’m concerned” said Lee. “Being able to employ my skills on the operational side was something I just had to do. I’d much rather use my skills on something as important as an IED rather than a break-in on a car. In police work the aim is to help the victim. Out here it’s soldiers getting hurt.”

When asked how he would sum up the experience Lee said, “It’s a pleasure to work out here. I’m working with good people. I’ve never met a team so dedicated. I’ll take what I’ve learned here and use it back home”.

RAF's Fighter Controllers return from Afghanistan

2009-12-15T10:00:00.004Z

Wing Commander Steve Dargan, Officer Commanding 7644 Squadron, posts from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan:

One of the stories we have been covering is the handover of control of the complex, dynamic and challenging airspace above Afghanistan from the RAF’s 1 Air Control Centre to the US Marines. 1 ACC has been doing the job for the last 3 years and has performed brilliantly. Providing an air control service to the mix of fast jet aircraft, unmanned air vehicles, helicopters and transport aircraft would, you might think, be challenge enough, but when you add in providing air support to troops on the ground and managing the airspace to allow those troops to use their firepower effectively, whether that’s mortars or artillery, you begin to get an idea of the challenges facing this small but very effective team. Brigadier General Bob Nicholson of the US Marines told me, “ We’ve been planning this turnover for a long time but we certainly have some very big shoes to fill.”

1 ACC's usual base is RAF Kirton in Lindsey in Lincolnshire, and they are parading through the town on 16th December - so watch out for the media coverage!

The RAF builds links with local people in Afghanistan - with a little help from our friends

2009-12-10T10:13:00.001Z

Wing Commander Steve Dargan, Officer Commanding 7644 Squadron, posts from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan:

Royal Air Force personnel are playing a key role in providing security on the ground in Helmand Province. They are part of an innovative multi-cultural, multi-national partnership between forces from the United States, the UK, Afghanistan, Denmark and Bahrain.

A solitary tent surrounded by acres of empty desert became the venue for a “Shura” or council meeting last Sunday. Its purpose was to introduce Colonel Rauof, the commander of the Afghan National Army’s local garrison, to elders from the area’s local communities. The Colonel, as an Afghan and a Muslim, will play a leading role as the first point of contact for the local population. His soldiers are being mentored and trained by a team led by the Danes and involving members of all the participating countries.

The RAF Regiment, with support from the RAF Police, shares the responsibility for providing force protection in the area with the US Marine Corps. Gaining the co-operation of the local community and establishing the Afghan National Army as a force in the area is a vital element in securing the air and land lines of communication for the coalition camps and airfield at Bastion.

Security for an event of this nature is comprehensive and multi-layered. Invitations are only issued on the day of the Shura when all security measures are complete and the guests are screened before they are allowed access to the meeting site. RAF photographer Sergeant Laura Bibby and I went along to find out more.

Wing Commander Mick Smeath, Officer Commanding No 1 Force Protection Wing commenting on the forces involved said: “We’ve got the RAF Regiment, currently 34 Squadron. We’ve got the RAF Police who are absolutely critical because they provide a number of bespoke capabilities, then we have all the intelligence feeds and a few other discrete capabilities. It’s a pretty complex operation just from a Royal Air Force perspective, let alone when you add the US Marines and the Afghan National Army as well.”

Colonel Rauof and his coalition allies arrived in a convoy of armoured vehicles. Weapons, helmets and body armour were left outside the tent as a measure of confidence. More than 50 elders were present to hear his message. During a lively exchange the elders expressed their concerns about schools, mosques and fuel supplies. The Colonel reassured them that he and his allies could help with these things and community projects such as the installation of wells but the elders must also play their part in making the area safe. “Help us and we will help you”.

There were undoubtedly members of the local Taliban in the audience and the Colonel urged them to join the process of reconciliation, help to rebuild the country rather than destroy it. “We are Afghans, we are Muslims. ISAF are not like the Russians. When we are ready, they will leave. Join the Army” he smiled “and we will give you trucks like these”. This joke provoked much laughter.

The Shuras are just one facet of the multi-national team’s work to establish security but by using a method of communication traditional to the local communities, they hope to build on the progress they’ve made in mentoring and training the Afghan National Army.

How the RAF's Tornados are waging war on IEDs in Afghanistan

2009-12-09T10:09:00.007Z

Squadron Leader Dylan Eklund posts from Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan:

I was here less than a year ago but the number of changes here at Kandahar Airfield has been fascinating. Most noticeable at the base operated by the RAF’s 904 Expeditionary Air Wing has been the replacement of Joint Force Harrier by the Tornado Detachment who operate their eight Tornado GR4s from a new purpose built pan.

The RAF's seven GR4 squadrons take it in turn to deploy to Afghanistan and currently in situ are 31 Squadron - nicknamed 'the Goldstars' - from RAF Marham, Norfolk - that's one of their aircraft you see in the photo. In addition to flying planned close air support and reconnaissance missions, the Goldstars mount ground alert to respond to threats at short notice. When the bell quite literally rings, two crews scramble to their ready-cocked aircraft to assist troops 'in contact' with the enemy. For an aircraft originally designed as a Cold War strike aircraft, the Tornado is excelling at its new found role.

The most significant increase in capability comes from the Reconnaissance Airborne Pod for Tornado, or RAPTOR for short. This large pod, carried under the aircraft fuselage, can gather high-resolution, motion-free images of extraordinary detail. Infra-red imagery can also reveal differences in the shape, composition or content of objects from their thermal signatures.

In the Afghanistan RAPTOR is paying dividends in the efforts to counter the threat from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). A team of imagery analysts from the Tactical Imagery Wing, also based at RAF Marham, get to work as soon as the jet lands, painstakingly examining the imagery and data to detect IEDs - helping, ultimately, to provide added security for our troops on the ground.

RAF Regiment - success has a price, but the job's worth doing!

2009-12-08T13:10:00.001Z

Wing Commander Steve Dargan, Officer Commanding 7644 Squadron, posts from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan:

We’ve been talking to members of the RAF Regiment who are about to leave Afghanistan after a gruelling tour of duty in which, sadly, one of their colleagues was killed in by an IED. Five others involved in the incident escaped uninjured. One thing resonates loudly and clearly from those in the front line. Although there is a momentary dip in spirits when a member of a unit is killed or injured, there is also a renewed determination to get on with the job they’ve been sent here to do. They aren’t looking for sympathy from the folks back home – they’re just looking for support and their efforts are making a difference. Success means getting around their area of responsibility and building relationships with the local people. They’re doing this by providing security from insurgents, working with the Afghan National Army and providing help to improve conditions in the local communities, by installing wells for instance, to provide clean water for families and for irrigating food crops.

RAF's Merlin helicopters begin flying operations in Afghanistan

2009-12-07T13:09:00.000Z

Wing Commander Steve Dargan, Officer Commanding 7644 Squadron, posts from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan:

Cpl Laura Bibby, our Photographer, has been flying with the newly arrived Merlin helicopter detachment over the past few days and her footage was snatched by Sky TV to illustrate their bulletins on the increase in UK forces announced by Gordon Brown. The Merlin will increase the versatility of the helicopter force in Afghanistan, helping to deliver the right number of people to the right place at the right time. It’s a welcome addition to the Joint Helicopter Force here and is a battle tested aircraft having already flown thousands of hours in Iraq.

7644 Sqn spotlights RAF operations in Afghanistan

2009-12-05T13:04:00.007Z

Wing Commander Steve Dargan, Officer Commanding 7644 Squadron, posts from Camp Bastion, Afghanistan:

With the approach of the festive season 7644 is once again busy in Afghanistan with 4 members of the squadron moving around Camp Bastion and Kandahar. I’m spending some 3 weeks split between both bases along with Air Command photographer Corporal Laura Bibby. We’ve been busy gathering material for an ITV special to be aired on Christmas Eve. This has involved us in getting around as many places as possible from the fire station to the hospital, the airfield to the cook house and beyond, searching for people willing to be interviewed about the job they do and send a message home to their families and friends. In addition to the TV programme we’re shooting private Christmas messages which those serving on the bases over Christmas record for their families and friends. The messages are password protected and accessed via the web. Unlike a fleeting telephone call or Skype message which can be difficult to send sometimes, these messages can be played, replayed and downloaded and people are loving the idea.

There are lots of inspiring stories here and although it’s often frustrating trying to get them into the public eye, we owe it to the men and women putting their all into a difficult and dangerous job to keep writing, filming, recording, trying to engage with the media, so that their stories can be told.

From Facebook to fine dining...

2009-11-25T16:18:00.000Z

Mr Symon Quy posts from London:

7644 Squadron prides itself on professionalism and teamwork, and both were in clear evidence during last weekend. In keeping with Lord Beaverbrook’s original idea of providing specialist journalist support to the Royal Air Force, the Squadron's personnel were being trained to use New Media (including Facebook, Twitter and Blogging) to optimise our PR role in the modern RAF. In fact, this post is the product of that training - I'd never worked with Blogger before!

I was pleased to be so actively included and to ‘get hands-on’ while attending in the capacity of Potential Officer Cadet (POC), along with five other prospective recruits. We learned so much over two full days; from Bebo to YouTube and beyond! I've been attending training weekends for some months now, and that's done a lot to help prepare me for my selection interviews at the RAF's Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre, RAF Cranwell, in the next few months. If I can look forward to more of this weekend's sort of activities, I'll be a loyal member for years to come!

This weekend was also the occasion of the Squadron Formal Dinner, an annual celebration of members’ achievements whilst on deployment at home and overseas. We enjoyed a top-notch three-course meal, silver-service and after-dinner speeches in the grand surroundings of the Officers’ Mess at RAF Halton. ‘Dining out’ this year (as the formal departure process is called) was Flight Sergeant Andy Carnall, who leaves the Squadron to take up a new post as Deputy Media Communications officer at RAF Valley, Anglesey. We also ‘dined in’ Squadron Leader Peter Clarke, Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley and Flight Lieutenant Paul Tester, who have all joined the Squadron in recent months. In fact, Andy helped lead the weekend's activites, along with Flying Officer Tom Calver. It's great to see how quickly the Squadron empowers people to help run its activities.

All in all, quite a full-on weekend – I’ll certainly be back for more!

A busy time in Afghanistan...

2009-11-23T10:00:00.005Z

Flt Lt Andy Wasley posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

Regular readers might remember some of the work I did in Afghanistan earlier this year. At the moment, the Squadron is busy pulling its brand new, all-singing, all-dancing website together, so in between learning about HTML and search engine optimisation, we're all adding information to the site about our work.

For my own part, I’ve pointed out that you cannot join the Royal Air Force Reserves without being prepared to serve overseas. For me, it was something I’d looked forward to – an opportunity to test my military and PR skills in one of the toughest places on earth, so I wanted to make sure that I was ready for action. Having packed my equipment, met the photographer I’d be working with, and explained everything to my employer, partner and family, I thought I was completely prepared for my deployment.

Nothing, though, can prepare you for just how busy life on operations is. Over five weeks I visited just about every RAF unit at Bastion and Kandahar, from firefighters to flight operations teams. When you see and hear – and write about – the incredible work the RAF is doing to support operations in Afghanistan, you can’t help being left in awe of the men and women serving over there.

You'll be able to read the full post on the Squadron website when it is launched later this week. I hope you find some time to read through the other stories that we’re adding to the website. Please do drop us a message if you have any comments about the blog or our activities.

Peter's Christmas in Afghanistan

2009-11-22T14:08:00.003Z

Flight Lieutenant Peter Darling posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

My most recent trip to Afghanistan, December 2008 was designed to allow hundreds of UK military personnel stationed in Kandahar and Bastion to send private video-recorder messages back to their friends, families and colleagues. The essence of this initiative was that each message could only be accessed with the use of a unique pin number. After a few initial hiccups, almost 400 Christmas messages were recorded and posted onto the website on Christmas Eve. Being able to send such messages is probably the nearest one can get to be able to send a personal Christmas card, and was immensely satisfying and warmly appreciated by hundreds of military personnel serving in Afghanistan, as well as their loved ones and colleagues.

Read the full story here - 7644 Squadron Christmas Messages 2008.

Test post for New Media Lecture

2009-11-20T18:27:00.001Z

Flt Lt Andy Wasley posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters

One of 7644 Squadron's many roles is to help other RAF units to prepare for operations overseas - whether that's in the Falkland Islands, Afghanistan or anywhere else the RAF operates - by giving them top-quality media training.

Of course, in the digital age that means making sure that units can make use of all of the new media platforms available to them to communicate with people back home - and, indeed, around the world. Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Blogger... all familiar names to people who work in PR, and all valuable tools to help us to get our messages across.

This post has been typed up as part of a lesson on blogging. It may appear to be a bit straightforward, but as any regular blogger knows it can be incredibly hard work to maintain a good, popular blog. In our lesson, we will talk about the importance of selecting good headers, the value of finding good tags, right down the the nitty-gritty of how to set up a blog in the first place.

We'll blog more about this weekend on Sunday. Another key part of this weekend's training is the Squadron's Annual Formal Dinner, a chance for our former members, current members, members' employers and partners to get together to find out what we've been up to and what's in the pipeline. It will be a particularly special occasion for some of us, too: I and Squadron Leader Peter Clarke, the Squadron's Training Officer, will be presented with campaign medals for our work in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Time, I think, to get ironing...

Useful advice for RAF Reserves communicators

2009-10-17T18:56:00.004+01:00

Flying Officer Tom Calver posts from 7644 Squadron Headquarters:

7644 Squadron provides media training to RAF units, whether to help with UK operations or to prepare them for media activities in Afghanistan. Today, we've been teaching members of various RAF Reserve squadrons about ways to promote their units. Of which, more later.

Part of that training has been to tell them about various sites that may help them with their work:

Official defence news sites

www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews

www.raf.mod.uk/news

www.raf.mod.uk/rafreserves/newsandevents/

http://www.defencemediaops.co.uk/Links.html has a number of links to useful sites.

Readers and listeners

http://www.abc.org.uk/ has readership figures for virtually all UK newspapers.

www.guardian.co.uk/media/abcs summarises the national figures once a month.

http://www.rajar.co.uk/ gives figures for radio listening in the UK.

Contact information

www.bbc.co.uk/england/radio/index.shtml has links to all BBC Local Radio stations

http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/ has links to most UK regional and local papers, and also summarises the ABC readership figures for main regional papers.

www.pressassociation.com/contact is worth sending anything that has a wider appeal than just locally.

Exercise Intrepid Owl

2009-10-10T20:34:00.003+01:00

Exercise Intrepid Owl is the fourth in a series organised by 606 Squadron, the only Royal Auxiliary Air Force Squadron to be part of the Joint Helicopter Command (JHC). We spoke to Squadron Leader Gary Lane, Officer Commanding 606 Squadron, to find out more.

Why Intrepid Owl?
"The purpose is to get guys working in all the disciplines the squadron has to offer. And to get them working together.

"So the electricians provide power, for the chefs to provide food, for the Regiment to provide force protection, for the Mobile Air Operations Team to call in the aircraft, for the refuellers to do their job and so on.

"And we're also working in a joint environment. We're working with the Territorial Army's 43 Signals, also part of the JHC. We're working with a Royal Navy Sea King too.

"So when the guys go to Afghanistan, when personnel deploy, they understand the joint environment and what they're going into."

Previous exercises were called Chiltern Kite and this is called Intrepid Owl. Why the change?

"We're the Chiltern squadron and our badge is a red kite. Hence the name. But Intrepid Owl is what we've been working towards. This is the fourth iteration of the exercise, but we've got full JHC support. And this makes good use of limited training resources, because we have two of JHC's three reservist units, 606 Squadron and 43 Signals."

What's the relevance to current operations?

"We're operating in an Afghan-style environment. Obviously we can't replicate the weather. But we're having to set up an operating base ourselves, doing it from scratch.

"And we're training the team in the skills that they will use on operations, whether they're refuelling aircraft, handling underslung loads, or working in the air operations room talking to the aircraft as they come in."

What's the training value for the helicopter crews?

"We're training our team, but it is useful for the helicopter crews too. They have real troops to work with on the ground. That reality adds value. And we aim to make it useful for the choppers by giving them any experience they need.

"For example, with an underslung load, the team under the helicopter is getting trained, but so is the team in the helicopter. And so is the team in the ops room calling them in."

The Office

2009-10-10T11:46:00.004+01:00

Pilot Officer Lesley Woods posts from Salisbury Plain:

Operating from rough and ready facilities is all part of the squadron's job. In this case, 606 Squadron have done a great job: Our 12 foot by 12 foot tent has lights, power, even heating. And in about half an hour this morning, we were able to turn it into a networked office.

It may not be the neatest set up you've ever seen, but it's more than enough for us to deliver text, pictures and video for use by media and by the RAF, as we report Exercise Intrepid Owl.

Social media for today's military

2009-09-21T16:32:00.008+01:00

Flying Officer Tom Calver posts from 7644 Squadron headquarters:

You can’t do anything in PR at the moment without someone mentioning social media. At extremes, it’s either going to be a revolutionary force for good, or a revolutionary force for evil, or it’s just an over-hyped bubble that’s going to burst anytime soon. There’s no shortage of opinions.

And here’s mine: social media will bring benefits, but it will bring challenges. That’s not exactly an ambitious prediction; you can say the same for any technological development since the discovery of fire-making. In that case, it brought the benefits of warmth and the ability to cook things, but it also brought the challenges of setting fire to your house and, eventually, Gordon Ramsay.

And here’s another opinion of mine: some of what’s said about social media will turn out to be hype, but this is not some passing fad. Again, I’m not challenging mainstream opinion here.

So the question for 7644 Squadron is what we do with and about social media. And how we develop a model that other parts of the Royal Air Force can follow.

This is still a developing area for the UK military, although the Ministry of Defence issued some guidelines recently. By setting clear parameters, this should help us all develop what we do online in a way that does not compromise security. We’re reading them closely!

Some other armed forces are ahead even of the private sector in their use of social media, with the United States Air Force’s presence providing particularly strong new media cues for governments and businesses alike. We’re certainly looking at what they do.

What we’ve decided to do is to concentrate on just a few things. Our aim is to talk about what we’re doing and engage in a discussion with anyone who’s interested- potential recruits, people in media and PR (especially if they might want to join us!), the journalists we work with, and the people we work for.

And we’ll also talk about some of the great people we meet around the RAF, and the great things they do. From its beginnings, just before the Second World War, this unit has been about finding good stories and telling them well. Over seventy years later, that hasn’t changed.

So we’re working on this blog, and we’ll also have a presence on YouTube and Twitter. There is an existing Facebook group for squadron members, and we’ll look at whether we open that up. Twitter is for immediate communications, while this blog is for more in depth writing. You Tube will give us the ability to showcase some of our work.

Are these the right places to be? We think they are at the moment, but we’re well aware that the social media environment changes and develops very rapidly. As part of the Royal Air Force, our watchwords are ‘agile, adaptable and capable’; we’re ready for change, and when the social media environment changes, so will our plans.

But we’d like to know what you think. Is there something you’d like to see us doing? Are there things you think we should avoid? Anything you’d like to share, we’d like to hear.

It's been a while...

2009-08-13T15:59:00.003+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from London:

Well, I've been back in Blighty for a little over a month now, and the Afghan dust has settled.

Getting back into 'Civvy Street' after a deployment can be a bewildering and odd experience; anyone who's been away from work for a while will know how tiresome it can become for people constantly to be asking how things were. For those of us who balance a civilian career with a military one, that can be all the more acute. Thankfully, I can point people to this blog to let them know how I got on!

Aside from the personal experience, of course, the professional experience of doing PR and journalism in a warzone is immensely rewarding - both in terms of personal development, and in terms of what it can deliver for the military. SAC Chapman and I managed to generate over 50 stories, tailored according to media and location to give a far greater number of products. We submitted hometown stories about RAF firefighters and policemen. We contributed stories to the RAF website about harrier operations and athletes. And, of course, there were those cuddly toys!

Being a reservist, however, isn't all about going to war - training plays a vital role in keeping us at the top of our game, and our social bonds help us to feel like a formed unit, even though our personnel are scattered throughout the UK. So, this weekend 7644 Sqn is travelling to Lamalou-les-Bains in the south of France to take part in film and photography training. It will be good fun and hard work, and will leave us all with new skills to use in the RAF and with our civilian employers.

Check back here for the full story next week - and watch us on Twitter!

Harrier Homecoming

2009-07-02T06:00:00.005+01:00

Flight Lieutnant Andy Wasley posts from Kandahar, Afghanistan:

For those who missed yesterday's Sky News report on the departure of Joint Force Harrier from Afghanistan, here is the video:

Sky, supported by the Operation HERRICK media operations officer and 7644 Sqn's Mobile News Team, filmed this report during their visit in June.

You can also see 7644 Sqn's press release and photos of the departure on the Ministry of Defence's website.

Events, dear boy...

2009-06-26T10:37:00.008+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from Kandahar, Afghanistan:

When the late Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was asked what was most likely to blow governments off course, he replied pithily: "events, dear boy." So it is with media planning.

Armed Forces Day, 27 June, had been an almost certain headline-grabber until the untimely death of Michael Jackson this morning. Trying to generate news coverage is a difficult activity at the best of times, but the ever-present threat of a bigger story taking over is something all journalists and communicators have to accept.

When a big story breaks, journalists in particular have to be pragmatic about the effort that they may have put into other stories. The BBC's defence correspondent, Caroline Wyatt, is currently in Kandahar, working with the media ops team to cover Armed Forces Day. I caught up with her in a rare quiet moment to talk about what to do when events take over.

7644 Sqn: When big stories break, other stories can be pulled. Knowing that the news agenda is now going to be dominated by Michael Jackson's death, what motivates you to keep going when there's a risk that at least some of your work might be in vain?

Caroline Wyatt: Hoping that some of it won't!

7644: Since space for other stories is now going to be more limited than before, how can journalists covering Armed Forces Day persuade their editors - and their audiences - that the event deserves airtime and column inches?

CW: Trips like this are incredibly useful, in that they give us a chance to see what British servicemen and -women are doing on the ground. That makes a difference; you can see what people are doing, and talk to them directly. That in mind, the best way to persuade editors to run a story is to offer a very good story and excellent pictures to go with it.

Otherwise, bribery sometimes works!

7644: What advice would you give to military media operations personnel who find themselves struggling against the tide when a big story breaks?

CW: Either find your unique angle on that story, or go and have a welcome cup of coffee and a break because there's nothing you can do. If a major celebrity dies, nothing else gets on, and sometimes you just have to accept that.

7644: What's the best thing about being a defence correspondent?

CW: I think it's the glamour of the travel, the locations, the sun, the sand... first it was Iraq, then Afghanistan. It would be good to have a war in a green and pleasant land one day.

Seriously, the best thing is coming out to see what you guys do. It's genuinely remarkable. Speaking to a 23-year-old Black Watch soldier earlier today was amazing. The things he had experienced astonished me. It's good to see a totally different part of life, and there are some fascinating stories to be told.

7644: And, based on your own experiences with the military, what are your own thoughts on Armed Forces Day?

CW: I think it's an excellent idea, as long as it isn't just paying lip service to the Forces.

7644: Caroline, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

Flying the flag for Armed Forces Day

2009-06-25T06:00:00.004+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from Kandahar, Afghanistan:

The UK holds its first ever Armed Forces Day on Saturday 27 June - a chance for all parts of the community to celebrate the unique efforts of HM Armed Forces on behalf of the United Kingdom.

All of us in the Armed Forces appreciate the support and recognition of those back at home. So, it was with great pride that the media ops team here at Kandahar - led by Squadron Leader Sarah Davis - and the aircrews of the UK's Joint Aviation Group yesterday flew the Armed Forces Day flag beneath an RAF Chinook in a unique display of our support for the event.

The flag-flying involved personnel from all three services - the RAF crew flying the Chinook, the Royal Navy crew flying the Sea King alongside, and Corporal Rupert Frere of the Army's Combat Camera Team, who took the photo at the top of this post from that Sea King.

Col John McCardle RM, Officer Commanding the Joint Aviation Group, said that it was a "privilege" to be able to fly the flag. "Armed Forces Day means a huge amount to the troops out here," he said, "and we are grateful for the recognition and support we receive from people back in the UK. It was a delight to fly the flag today and show our appreciation to the people back home, who hopefully are turning out in huge numbers to celebrate the Armed Forces."

All of us at 7644 Sqn hope you enjoy the celebrations on the 27th.

Reaching for the Sky

2009-06-14T11:47:00.001+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from Kandahar, Afghanistan:

Those of us who bridge the gap between the military and the media have to please two groups of people with quite different needs and motives: military personnel who may not understand the value of good media relations, and media professionals who ask for our support in producing their stories.

Sky News's Geoff Meade is currently in Kandahar, and has been working closely with the media operations team to cover the final few weeks of Joint Force Harrier's operations in Afghanistan. Senior Aircraftsman Neil Chapman and I have been helping Kandahar's RAF media officer, Squadron Leader Sarah Davis (pictured with Geoff, right), to support Sky's newsgathering. SAC Chapman has been gathering video footage of Harriers and the ground personnel who maintain them, while Sqn Ldr Davis and I have helped Geoff to find background data and good 'talking heads' for his news packages.

Geoff, who has been Sky's defence correspondant since 2004, has plenty of experience of covering military stories, in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere. 7644 Sqn has had a chance to ask him for his thoughts on media operations.

7644 Sqn: Geoff, you've clearly enjoyed being a defence correspondent. What appeals to you about dealing with the Armed Forces?

Geoff Meade: As a journalist, it's a very 'newsy' area. Not many days pass without the military making headlines, so professionally it's very demanding and satisfying.

7644: What difference does it make to have media professionals in uniform, such as 7644 Sqn, working with you when you're covering stories about the Armed Forces?

GM: A very interesting question! It helps inasmuch as they understand they way we work, although as a journalist I would prefer direct access to those I want to report on, rather than a process that filters that through an intermediary.

7644: Some military personnel are wary of national media, thinking they may be wrong-footed by difficult or politically sensitive questions. What is your response to those concerns?

GM: Always by openly discussing the areas to be covered first. Not by giving advance notice of specific questions; that can just sound over-rehearsed. Essentially, it's about being open and upfront.

7644: You came out to Kandahar to cover the Harrier's farewell to air operations over Afghanistan, but you've also found two other interesting stories. What are they, and what appealed to you about them?

GM: Ha! Operation Cuddly Toy, where pilots raise money for charity by taking stuffed animals on missions; it not only reflects on the RAF's willingness to help good causes, but is also a "softer story" that might appeal to another side of our audience that aren't gripped by the issues of redploying war planes.

The other story was one of those stories you just chance upon. We visited the Harrier detachment just after they'd had an even more unwelcome guest in the shape of the world's most dangerous snake. Please don't ask them who was less welcome!

7644: What is the most memorable story you've covered as a defence correspondant?

GM: On a purely personal level, my flight in a Typhoon. I told my wife when I got home from Coningsby that night that I'd just had the best two hours of my life - not the most tactful thing to say, but true!

7644: The first ever Armed Forces Day takes place on 27 June. Based on your experience as a journalist working with us, what do you think about the public's perception of the military?

GM: I think there's a contradiction in that most people express support for the Forces, but will buy in their millions copies of newspapers that report your shortcomings!

7644: Thanks for talking to us.

Straight to work in Afghanistan

2009-06-09T11:45:00.011+01:00

Flight Lieutenant Andy Wasley posts from Kandahar, Afghanistan:

It is common to see British and overseas journalists covering stories about operations over here in the dust and heat of Afghanistan. There are, of course, plenty of big news stories to be covered - from massive civil reconstruction activities to RAF-supported Army missions aimed at destroying the Taliban's ability to use drug-smuggling to fund its violent grip on innocent Afghans.

However, one type of story that is often missed by national media is what we call the 'hometown news story' - the short story about an otherwise ordinary person doing extraordinary things as a member of the RAF. These stories, which we send out to regional media back in the UK, help to demonstrate to communities that their friends and neighbours are supporting the international community's long fight to establish peace and security in this troubled region.

Since arriving in Camp Bastion, Helmland Province, my colleague, photographer Senior Aircraftsman Graham Chapman of the RAF's Mobile News Team (pictured above), and I have spoken to a wide range of personnel about their experiences. Perhaps the most interesting unit we have visited so far is one that I served with back in 2005 - 1 Air Control Centre (1ACC), the RAF's tactical field radar unit (pictured at right). Thirty-one men and women are deployed with 1ACC, which controls a vast swathe of Afghanistan's airspace. Using some of the RAF's most advanced kit, they help to make sure that British and coalition soldiers in the field are protected by air power - or, should the worst happen, evacuated swiftly to medical aid.

As Squadron Leader Robin Beer, the unit's local commander, said: "This job really gets the adrenaline pumping. We know that if we can get an aircraft into an area where our people are under fire, we could save lives." A US Marines sergeant, passing through 1ACC's compound, put it more succinctly: "you guys are AWESOME!".

Over here, the stakes are high, and the RAF's personnel have to work long and hard to keep missions on track. It's my privilege to be able to play a part in telling some of their amazing stories.

Meanwhile, in Lincolnshire, 7644 welcomes two new officers

2009-06-01T17:10:00.010+01:00

Flying Officer Tom Calver posts from 7644 Sqn HQ:

When personnel like Andy go on operations, it is the culmination of a recruitment and training process that has taken months.

Each officer in 7644 Squadron has passed a rigorous assessment at the Royal Air Force's Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre (OASC), where the RAF decides whether they have the potential to be an officer. Some enter the regular RAF, joining us when they return to civilian life to bring a vital element of regular military experience to the Squadron - Andy is one such ex-regular, and others serve throughout the Royal Auxiliary Air Force.

Most, however, have been volunteer reservists from the day they first put on their uniform. It is, of course, essential for all RAF personnel - regular and reservist - to be trained to a common standard. While regular personnel undergo their initial training in intense courses, reservists face the unique challenge of training over a longer period, while holding down professional civilian careers. It is their dedication to the Service, their unique professional experience, and the high level of training that they receive, that make the men and women of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force so remarkable.

7644 Squadron's reserve officers start their Air Force journey by going through basic military training at RAF Halton, alongside the RAF's future airmen and -women. They then go to the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire for Reserve Officer Initial Training (ROIT). ROIT aims to develop each officer cadet into an effective leader who can deploy on operations, essentially indistinguishable from their regular colleagues.

At the end of ROIT, those who have achieved the required standard graduate alongside regular RAF officers. Graduation Day is a moment for new officers, both regular and reservist, to celebrate the hard work and dedication demanded of those who hold the Queen's commission. The Squadron is thrilled that its two newest officers, Pilot Officers Geoff Maskell and Lesley Woods, have just achieved this honour. Their skills - both as officers and as media professionals - will be indispensible as the Squadron strives to tell the RAF's story.

Geoff and Lesley are both now ready for operations, and will be blogging about their experiences a little later. If you'd like to find out more about the selection and training process, pay a visit to the RAF Reserves website.