An Cosantóir

19 The following few days were busy, training exercise troops from Kilkenny, Limerick, Galway and Cork. The exercise troops had to have a good understand- ing of all the drills going forward to the Company attack. This was part of the student Instructors test week; they would be tested on the way they deliver their instruction of all the drills to the exercise troops. The final week we were operating from 3 different locations, Kilworth, Fort Davis and Camden Fort, no easy task when it came to TRR'S, but it worked, and made the Company exercise that bit more interesting. The MOUT Instructor course from a student's perspective. On the 03rd June six- teen students reported to 1 BTC Collins BKS to commence the MOUT instructors Cse. With the reputation of the course being that it is a physi- cally and mentally robust course, the students awaited the opening brief, anxious but also eager. After being intro- duced to the 1 BTC staff and instructors, training commenced. Rifles and Body armour were signed out and before the day was out, we had already made the initial move to LYNCH CAMP KILWORTH, where we would be accommodated for the duration of the course. Once bedded in, it was straight to the back field for contact drills and a general shake out in weapons handling. From here we moved to the Military Training Facility (M.T.F) in the Curragh Camp to begin the training phase of the course. Here we spent a long but enjoyable week learning the new skills and drills of M.O.U.T from Sgt McEvoy and his team of instructors. They would be replacing the old Fighting in Built Up Areas (F.I.B.U.A) drills that the majority of the DF had been trained in. After four days of rehearsing our newly learned drills from 0900hrs to 2200hrs, all students were confident in their own abil - ity to conduct M.O.U.T operations. The culmination of this week was a final Platoon level assault on the new ARW Kill-house. This Excellent facility proved inval- uable, as it allowed students to experience entering an unfamiliar urban area which proved to them how important it was that all soldiers must be competent in their own personal M.O.U.T drills in order to achieve mission success. Taking what was learned in week one of the course, we moved to LIMERICK CITY to occupy the CLEEVES factory which is an abandoned Creamery, for the instruction phase of the course. This, along with the ARW Kill-house, was an excellent facility as it had never been used by students previously and added an excellent element of realism to the course. This week consisted of an initial platoon level assault on the factory and then implementing a scheme of defence. After two days of exercise, we then received troops from the 12 INF BN and 3 INF BN to instruct. The next two days were spent bringing troops from these bat - talions up to date on the current M.O.U.T drills we had learned on the course so far. This proved to be a chal- lenging task as the saying "old habits die hard" was proving to be true. A lot of time was spent eradicating the old F.I.B.U.A drills and instilling the new M.O.U.T drills and ethos into the soldiers. These soldiers however, had an excellent attitude and were eager to learn and by Thursday evening were operating at a high enough level to be integrated into our platoons. The following morning a Hostage Rescue mission was conducted in what would become known by students as the "rubix cube" building, due to its series of complex rooms and corridors. After successfully securing the hostages, it was clear that the students had successfully imparted their M.O.U.T knowledge to the exercise troops and that the platoons were primed for the final exercise on FORT DAVIS. On the final week of the exercise team, the main body moved to LYNCH CAMP while an Observation Post (O.P) Team inserted to FORT CAMDEN and began reporting back to the Operations Cell that had been established in LYNCH CAMP. The next three days consisted of battle prep and rehearsals for all stu - dents and exercise troops. Company Level and Pla- toon Level orders were delivered on Wednesday and Thursday at 0300hrs. The company level assault on FORT DAVIS and the culmination of the course com- menced. Here we were afforded the opportunity to collaborate with supporting arms, with the engineers from 1 Brigade Engineer Group, installing an infantry assault bridge to allow troops to gain entry to FORT DAVIS, utilising the element of surprise. The Company cleared the upper level of FORT DAVIS in what proved to be a challenging attack and an excellent test of all the M.O.U.T drills and skills that had be learned on the course. On behalf of all the students I would like to thank Lt Mick Murphy and Sgt Seanie McEvoy along with all 1 BTC staff for hosting this course and impart- ing their knowledge to us students. Lt Joe Gunne Student assessing the route ahead Stack formation before entering a building MILITARY OPERATIONS IN URBAN TERRAIN (MOUT) INSTRUCTORS COURSE

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