This Remembrance I was on exercise in Kenya. Here’s what it means to me.
This Remembrance, while hundreds of troops paid their respects beside the Cenotaph, thousands of UK Armed Forces personnel are deployed in 35 operations in 30 countries.
Over the last few weeks the 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland have been in Kenya on Exercise Askari Storm, training on the vast, harsh and arid African bush alongside our friends from the Kenyan Defence Force. This gives us vital experience of some of the extreme conditions this amazing continent offers, and how it affects the way we develop as professional soldiers.
Conducting such large exercises is a complicated business and as Quartermaster I’m responsible for the movement and sustainment of all personnel and their kit. I’m also the Battalion’s safety advisor, so out here climatic injuries and animal bites are something of a focus! My other role is community engagement, so I get involved in a range of schemes involving the local people, communities and schools — participating in renovation work and supporting several Scottish-based charities doing brilliant work here in Kenya, for example the St Jerome’s Centre who run a children’s home in Nakuru.
This year, here in Kenya, the battles fought are training exercises; in other years the bullets and enemy have been all too real. With real combat comes real casualties, and while all soldiers and their families make many personnel sacrifices — the unfortunate reality is that some make the ultimate sacrifice.
This November, although thousands of miles from our homes in Scotland, the poppies on our uniforms make clear how our thoughts have turned to Remembrance. On Sunday, the Padre lead our annual act of remembrance at a simple field service with the battalion parading alongside our Kenyan Defence Force comrades. We formed a hollow square and reflected on the debt we owe to those who gave everything for the freedom we enjoy today, and again honour their memory and pledge — as individuals and collectively — always to remember them.
Major Angus Steele, Quartermaster, 2 SCOTS
