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LANCE CORPORAL
UPDATE 2008:
The interview below was conducted 9 years ago, but gives
a good insight into 'Life in the Battalion'. We
caught up with LCpl Nick Jackson who is now a serving
CSgt in the Battalion. Scroll down after this
interview to read the report or 'click here'.
This page gives an insight into how and why training in
general and specialist training in particular is
conducted in the Coldstream Guards. Lance Corporal Nick
Jackson has served for over six years. He is a Signals
Detachment Commander within the Signals Platoon, one of
several specialised support platoons within the 1st
Battalion, and is attached to one of the Rifle
Companies. He has a demanding job as he is responsible
for training some 110 men, for commanding his small
detachment, for advising his Company Commander on all
signals related issues, for ensuring radio
communications up, down and across the chain of command
in peace and war, and for maintaining a great deal of
expensive equipment.
TRAINING
WITHIN THE BATTALION
Lance Corporal Nick Jackson
Training
has greatly improved since I was a recruit in November 1992,
when I signed the dotted line and took the oath. Training
was hard, as a soldier was bred to fight and follow orders
without questions. This in my opinion was and still is a
good way of training. This is not to say that today's
recruits are inadequate or weak, but training has changed
along with the political climate and so more time is taken
with the individual to make the difficult change from civvy
street to the military.
If you need
a high standard of soldier then the training has to reflect
that, so the type of person that the army is looking for has
to rise to the challenge: shock, hard work, learning new
skills and making new friends is what happens in the first
few weeks of training. It is rewarding and, ultimately,
makes a man out of a boy!
Recruit
Training
Just to
remind you, all Guards recruits go through two phases of
training of about 6 months. The training is designed to be
progressive, particularly the initial fitness training. We
want to build people up, not break them. Phase 1 training is
designed to give the young recruit a thorough but basic
grounding in a wide range of core military skills, like
weapon training, basic tactics and fieldcraft, First Aid,
drill (of course!) and NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical
defence). After Phase 1 is completed, Guards recruits move
onto Phase 2 training at Catterick. There they hone their
Infantry skills and knowledge and in every area increase
their range of expertise. For example, instead of just
concentrating on the SA80 rifle, they learn about and
practice on the whole range of weapons available to a
platoon, like the Light Support Weapon, 94 mm Light
Anti-tank Weapon, the 51 mm mortar, and grenades. They do a
lot more tactics and fieldcraft as well. Being future
Guardsmen, they also do a special course in Drill, which is
not just an exercise in shouting and being shouted at. For
hundreds of years, Armies have used drill to instil
self-discipline, self-confidence and pride in soldiers. It
works, trust me! The aim is to ensure that every recruit can
take his place straight away in his platoon once he joins
the Regiment after passing out from recruit training.
Training in
the Battalion
Of course,
training doesn't stop when you join the Regiment, either in
No 7 Company or in the 1st Battalion. In one way or another,
we train constantly, to refresh our skills, to learn new
ones, to deepen our knowledge of our profession and
ultimately to prepare for future operations. Training is as
realistic as we can make it and we have a solid foundation
of operational experience in the Regiment to make it as good
as possible. I've highlighted a few general subjects below
and will then concentrate on my specialty: signals.
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Drill. Drill in 90% of the Guardsman''s
eyes is the least glamorous part of Battalion training,
but inter-Company and even inter - Regimental rivalry
makes it more enjoyable. Of course, in Windsor,
where the 1st Battalion is currently based, and in
Chelsea, where No 7 Company is stationed, we mount
Ceremonial Duties for real. But like any good performance,
you have to practise to make sure it goes perfectly on the
day. There are other benefits to being smart on parade.
One often hears stories of sentries at Buckingham
Palace, St James's Palace and elsewhere being chatted up
by women who fancy you because of your smart tunic, shiny
boots and bearskin cap. The stories are all true - I speak
from experience!
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Driving. Nearly all Guardsmen go on a driving course to get
their licence. It doesn''t cost a penny and once you pass
you can further your experience by learning to drive
larger vehicles. As long as its green, or any colour and
used by the Army, then you can get a license for it. We
get qualifications for free that can cost hundreds of
pounds with civilian firms. Many Guardsmen arrive unable
to drive and can thank the Battalion for getting them
through their Driving Test. ·
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Personal Skills.
Weapon handling continues with the whole range of weapons
available to us. Range days are designed to refresh
personal weapons skills while live firing exercises allow
command and control and tactics to be practiced and tested
under arduous conditions. Range days in particular are
often combined with other lessons, like NBC training or
1st Aid to enhance basic skills and spot potential
instructors. Fitness remains very important and we are
lucky to have Windsor Great
Park for runs, Combat Fitness Tests or just days out for
low-level training, such as Map Reading.
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Communications. Being able to communicate
is very important, in whatever line of work you may be in.
Practice gives you the confidence to be able to speak to a
group of people, either in person or with a radio, and to
get your points across clearly and accurately. A Signals
Detachment Commander, such as myself, teaches
communications, or signals, within the platoons and
companies. I aim to bring out the more confident Guardsmen
within the platoon to see who can handle the extra
responsibility and technical knowledge that comes with
radios.
Specialist
Training
Signals is
the specialist subject on which I can talk with some
knowledge. Being a signal instructor is quite a
responsibility as you are only as good as how and what you
teach. The Battalion currently has a very good signals
platoon with a wide range of experience and knowledge. All
Guardsmen attend a Regular Radio Users (RRU) course early in
their career. This is taught in the Battalion. Later,
selected individuals will go on to attend further specialist
training outside the Regiment.
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Regular Radio User (RRU).
Many Guardsmen find the RRU course hard because there is
so much new technical equipment to learn. In addition to
learning about the radios and their ancillary equipment,
you also learn voice procedure, or how to speak clearly on
a radio net and skills like the phonetic alphabet
(A=Alpha, B=Bravo, etc), which sometimes causes a little
confusion. However, like your Army number, once learn it,
you never forget it.
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Regimental Signaller.
The Regimental Signaller course is held outside the
Battalion. It gives you not just extra signalling
knowledge but also introduces you to the care, maintenance
and accounting of signals equipment.
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Regimental Signaller ( Junior).
This course is much more advanced than anything you will
have done previously and is aimed at NCOs. You begin to
learn about the theory of communication, the way a radio
wave travels, and about power theory. This course is very
intense and qualifies you for promotion.
In the
signal platoon you have to be able to think quickly and take
in information, as you are often at the heart of the action.
You may be providing communications for Battalion
Headquarters or working directly with the Company Commander.
You are their link with the rest of their command and so you
carry great responsibility at a relatively junior rank. It
is essential that signallers have a high degree of physical
fitness and stamina. You have to keep up and you will be
carrying more weight than the average Guardsman. You can''t
think coherently if you are half-dead with exhaustion. Being
in the Signal Platoon definitely isn''t all about sitting in
the back of a Land Rover, drinking tea and smoking
cigarettes! But for compensation, you always know what''s
going on and what''s about to happen and you take pride in
knowing that you are definitely essential to the effort.
There are
other specialist platoons and areas such as Reconnaissance,
Mortars and Anti-Tanks. These, also, have intensive training
where a Guardsman''s skills are improved, enhanced and he
becomes of great benefit to the Battalion as a whole.
Sports and
Adventure Training
If you
enjoy a particular sport, be it common-place or exotic, the
Regiment will support you. The benefits of sports are
obvious, at any level of expertise, and we try, for example,
to keep Wednesday afternoons free for sporting activities.
This is not your excuse to go down to the shops! A number of
Guardsmen also go away throughout the year on courses to
qualify them for adventure training expeditions and
activities. These can range from a week at the Guards
Adventure Training Wing in North Devon, which offers a
number of activities like kayaking, mountain biking, sand
sailing etc to sailing on the Household Division's yacht ''Gladeye'' as
far afield as the Caribbean, Mediterranean or the Canary
Islands.
Summary
There is
much to do within the Battalion and No 7 Company. We train
for a purpose and not just to fill time and we try to make
our training as relevant and realistic as possible. We train
to make sure that we as individual soldiers and as formed
bodies of men, whether within a small section, larger
platoon. bigger company or even as a Battalion, are ready
for operations anywhere in the world at any time, so that we
can live up to our motto of Nulli Secundus, or Second to
None!
2008 - Follow up report ....
The interview above was conducted a few years ago during
the Battalions Millennium Tour of South Armagh when the
charts were filled with Cher’s “Believe” & Ricky Martins
“Livin' La Vida Loca” and the biggest hits in cinema were
“The Phantom Menace” & “The Sixth Sense”.
It might only seem like yesterday when quoting these hits of
yesteryear as they will probably still be fresh in the minds
of anyone reading this article.
But in such a relative short time, what has happened to the
young ‘keen as mustard’ Nick Jackson who in 1999 was a keen
Lance Corporal and Signaller serving in the Battalions
Signal Platoon ….
The next 9 years by
‘Colour Sergeant Nick Jackson’.
· On Recruit Training
I recently visited ITC Catterick to talk with some recruits
and was pleasantly impressed with the facilities that are
now available. When I was in training all we had was a NAAFI
shop but today’s recruits have access to all sorts of
welfare facilities including; playstations, internet access,
video games and Sky TV. There is also an area to just relax
and write letters and generally chill out which is always
handy when you are working hard. Training has definitely
changed but is still full on and any potential recruits have
got to be prepared to work long hours and give 100% all of
the time. The Army is busier than it has ever been so we
need our new soldier to be as well trained as possible,
which means training needs to be tough. The Army is a team
game which needs team players and everyone needs to put the
team first before individual needs. Good training will teach
recruits the importance of team work and instil the right
ethos which is required in war fighting situations.
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On Battalion
Training
Battalion Training is important because even the best
soldier in the world gets ‘skill fade’. There is more and
more technical equipment in use these days and if you don’t
constantly practice you will fall behind. Battalion training
is much less intense than Recruit Training but the quality
of training is better as it is aimed at a higher level. New
members of the Battalion will be introduced slowly into
Battalion life and will be encouraged to ask questions at
every opportunity. No one is expected to know everything all
the time and there is always someone to ask for help or give
advice. The great part of being art of a team is
 that
everyone is pulling in the same direction and there are
always more experienced people around. In one day you could
training on different pieces of kit from Bowman radio,
Grenade Machine Gun, Mortars, Javelin Rocket Launchers and
lots more weapons and equipment. There is also driver
training and with new vehicles being brought into service
all the time the Battalion are always looking for men to
train on any licence!
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Public Duties
If you join the Coldstream Guards you have to prepared to do
your ‘stint’ of public duties, consisting of Buckingham
Palace, St James Palace, the Tower of London and the Queens
Birthday Parade (Trooping the Colour). As a Guardsman you
will stand on sentry for two hours at a time which is hard
work, but after your turn you are then able to relax. Once
you have prepared your kit you can then use the gym, watch
TV or use the internet – all whilst on guard! The Queens
Birthday Parade is my favourite and millions of people watch
the parade from all around the world, and the best thing is
that no one can do it better than (or like) the Guards! It
is the attention to detail that makes us so different, which
in turn makes us better. If you enjoy drill then you can
join Number Seven Company who are based in London and
specialise in Public Duties. They work independently of the
Battalion and are involved in regular infantry training and
adventure training. Guardsmen are also given more
responsibility and paid more in Number Seven Company but
once again, you must be prepared to work! Just imagine your
parents faces, sat watching you march around Horse Guards
Parade Square with Her Majesty the Queen taking the salute
…………. there's nothing better!
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On the past 9
years
After the Millenniums Tour of South Armagh I showed interest
in taking up post in a Recruiting Office up North some where
and being a loyal Yorkshire man I was ecstatic to be
selected to take up post as the Coldstream Recruiting
Sergeant in Barnsley. The post was for two years and I was
promoted to Lance Sergeant on posting. The experience of
recruiting was ‘Second to None’ and although it was hard
work, it gave me such a buzz to follow someone that had
initially knocked on my door with an interest in joining the
Coldstream Guards to seeing them join Battalion and
Coldstream Family.
After two years at Barnsley I then re-joined the Battalion
for the Op Telic Tour in Iraq and was promoted to Sergeant.
My role in Iraq was Operations Room Manager, and although it
was very demanding, it also was very rewarding. The tour
seemed to pass very quickly, probably because we were all so
busy!
The Battalion moved from Aldershot to Windsor and I was
still serving in the Signals Platoon taking part in many
exercises all over the country and completing a couple of
extensive and exhausting signals courses that would benefit
my career in the future. I was also very fortunate to
represent Headquarter Company a couple of times in the Inter
Company Pace Sticking Competition (link to images). The
Battalion were then sent on Op Herrick (Afghanistan) where I
was one of a handful of individuals that had the role of
teaching the Afghanistan National Army in very important
routines such as avoiding mines, suicide strikes and
communication procedures.
On the return from Afghanistan I was promoted to Colour
Sergeant and took on my present role as the Signals Colour
Sergeant/Quartermaster Sergeant where my role is to
administer all members of the Signal Platoon, ensure all
communications plans are up to date and more importantly be
the sole signature for the Battalion’s Signal and
Communications Equipment – about Ł12million pounds worth!
It may seem like a lot to fit into such a short time, but in
that period I have still managed to fit in getting my
Motocross Licence, do some time adventure training Sailing
in Majorca, and take full advantage of playing Rugby for the
Battalion.
The future …………….. my 22 year point is up in 2016 and I have
another 8 years left, let me get back to you in a couple of
years for another sit-rep!
N Jackson
Signals CSgt
CSgt Nick Jackson is a fine example
of a career in the Coldstream Guards. He will no doubt take
over as the Regimental Signals Warrant Officer in the very
near future which would be a pinnacle in most soldiers
careers. The future is still very bright for CSgt Jackson
and yes he is ‘still keen as mustard’ …………… when he can find
his beret!
Go back to the Recruiting page
by clicking here
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