An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 13 4; the treatment and evacuation of a friendly-forces casualty to a suitable heli landing site; a C-IED incident; carrying out a combat estimate and recce of a suitable site for a Role 1 medi- cal facility; camouflaging a Role 1 hospital and marking a heli landing site for a Chinook; and a section-in-attack where the team was tasked with collecting casualties left behind after a friendly-forces advance, with orders to take out any isolated enemy positions that may have been missed. For Phase 3 the teams were transported back to Catterick Bks for a march-and-shoot competition in which each team was split into two fire teams; Charlie Fire Team underwent a 2km timed battle march, followed immediately by a falling plates shoot, while Delta Fire Team carried out a timed battle PT ses- sion involving stretcher carries, log runs and a combat run. Scores and points from all three phases were correlated, with the top five to compete in the grand finale, an 'It's a Knockout' challenge. To our delight the Defence Forces team made it to the final event, having finished as the second highest scoring team! This site for the deciding event was filled with spectators. The energy in the air was palpable and the atmosphere was electric. For the final challenge the teams competed against one another in another timed battle PT session involving fire- man's lifts, stretcher carries and paintball shooting, in order to determine the final order of merit. Teams received a time advantage relative to their positions after the end of Phase 3, with the highest scoring team setting out first followed 30 seconds later by the Defence Forces team and the remaining three teams at further 30-second intervals. The spectators roared encouragement and cheered the five competing finalists throughout the challenge. Teamwork was essential in carrying out the tasks and also after the battle PT circuit was completed there was a final sprint to the finish line, which all members of the team had to cross before their time was stopped. At the end of the event we had managed to hold on to our second place and we received tremendous applause as we mounted the podium at the prize-giving ceremony. We held our podium position and placed second overall. As well as receiving a perpetual trophy for second place, the Defence Forces team also received the Best Officer award. These ac- colades are testament to the professionalism, competency and demeanour of the team, which acted as a composed and cohesive unit throughout. During the exercise, we made a number of observations about our counterparts. The most important was that it was almost impossible to differentiate between their regular and reserve personnel on the exercise. Both groups appeared to work seamlessly together and the single-force concept ap- pears to work very well for the Royal Army Medical Corps, with many of their teams comprising doctors, nurses, dentists and paramedics from the NHS, who operated very competently throughout the tactical scenarios they faced. Exercise 'Arduous Serpent' was an immensely worthwhile experience from which our personnel have benefitted substan- tially. It afforded the opportunity to develop and hone skill sets and exposed the Defence Forces to different methods of opera- tion, as well as providing us with a platform to affirm the high standard of instruction and training in the Defence Forces. The success that we achieved was a consequence of the superb instruction and preparation that was conducted prior to the exercise, and we are very grateful to all those concerned. Involvement in this major training exercise provides a benefi- cial and rewarding opportunity for the Medical Corps and I'm sure our continued participation in the future will prove to be of great value.

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