An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir April 2015 www.dfmagazine.ie 14 | by COMDT DAVID SLATTERY PhoToS by INFO CELL 46 INF GP, UNDOF 46 Infantry Group, under the command of Lt Col Denis harrington, deployed to the united nations Disengage- ment observer Force (unDoF) in the Golan heights, Syria, in october 2014 following a substantial period of political and military uncertainty regarding the future of the mission. Prior to deployment, neither un Se- curity Council Resolution (unSCR) 350 of 1974, which authorised the unDoF mission, nor unSCR 2163 of June 2014 could accurately reflect the realities of the situa- tion as they were in late summer of 2014. Immediately prior to 46 Inf Gp's deployment, armed el- ements (AEs), none of whom were originally party to the 1974 Truce agreement, directly targeted UN posts and captured UN personnel in the Area of Separation (AOS) between Syria and Israel in an unprecedented shif t in the civil war in Syria that came in the wake of the Arab Spring uprising of 2011. It became immediately evident that the dynamic of the mission had radically changed in a very short period, not only due to the infantry group's move to their new base in Camp Ziouani on the Alpha side, but also because of the reduced presence of UN forces inside the AOS. Concurrent with the assessment phase of pre-deploy- ment training for 46 Inf Gp, the operational environment in UNDOF was transforming, and along with it the oper- ational requirements. Although pre-deployment training was tailored towards the operational reality as it existed for 44 Inf Gp, fortunately the purpose of a mission readi- ness exercise (MRX) is to create 'a coherent unit capable of carrying out its tasks effectively and to the standard required for the operational environment'. One of the first tasks assigned to 46 Inf Gp Force Re- serve Company (FRC) on deployment to UNDOF was the occupation of UN Post 80, one of only six posts that re- mained occupied inside the AOS following the relocation from Camp Faouar in September 2014. The purpose of this task was to ensure that a quick-reaction force (QRF) capability was maintained within the AOS at all times. Having executed the task and completed the pertinent contingency planning, Comdt Owen McNally, DCO and Coy Comd Mech Coy, directed training to focus on likely future taskings, the most probable and highest tempo of which would be the reoccupation of posts inside the AOS. The ESSC team commence search and clearance of a simulated abandoned UN post.

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