Saturday, 29 December 2012

SAR Exercise

Simon had the chance to take part in a Search and Rescue exercise again, this time winching from Rigid Raiders in and out of the Sea King....Photos are a mix taken by Simon from the Rigid Raider/Sea King and Dawn on dry land...

Ruth the PE Teacher (and a new recruit) looking slightly nervous!
After some pootling around the harbour.......




...the Sea King turned up....



Some video is here
Aerial view of the school....
...and Liberation Monument




HMS Clyde

Simon had the chance to spend a few days on board HMS Clyde, the local Royal Navy Patrol vessel.  Clyde is a modified river class vessel, and the new CO is keen to develop links with the FIDF.  As it was the winter (summer to my UK readers) holidays, Simon was free to visit for 3 days of....well....it turned out to be incredibly stormy weather...we're talking of operations being shut down, RN people throwing their guts up, all in 20+ ft seas...something like this type of image for Day 2, which was fun, but no sea sickness from Simon!

He was treated to several interesting exercise, including Man Over Board, and Quick Draw, which simulates an attack by insurgents against the ship....

The aim was to familiarise FIDF people with life on board should the worst happen....

The first couple of days were very bad, and no movement on deck was allowed.  On the third day, the Quick Draw exercise took place.  This is a simulated attack by insurgents against the ship.  A video can be found here.








Some birds were in the middle of the exercise!
 

Our transport off was care of British International (brintel).  



 First of all we had to drop this section of Paras on a remote island

HMS Clyde from the air...



bybe bye paras!




Snow on the higher ground - it was still winter!
Trev Law had been out doing a recce for an upcoming FIDF exercise
Ferry Terminal

Goose Green



Back to Stanley...

Sunday, 9 September 2012

Liberation Day - The 30th Anniversary

For some reason, this was sat in the drafts area, and had not published....

As ever, the 14th June is Liberation and is a public holiday, with a parade and public reception.  This year, the 30th Anniversary of the Liberation was scheduled to be a big one.  The Foreign and Commonwealth Minister Jeremy Browne was visiting, along with a whole host of other dignatories.  Also present were 50 or so veterans from the conflict.

Tensions were high as there was a debate at the C24 Committee at the UN on Decolonisation.  The scheduled speaker was Christina de Kirchner, the Argentinian president, with a counter response by members of the Falklands Legislative Assembly.

The day of the parade began cold, clear and crisp, and Simon had to be at FIDF for 8:30am for final rehearsals and to be in position at Liberation Monument.  However, as the parade, assembled, it began to snow!








After the Parade, there was a civic reception and party held at the FIDF Hall.  Simon had also spent the week supervising the construction of a large cake in the shape of an aircraft carrier.  Students at school had baked the cake in batches, and then Simon's Year 10 Hospitality and Catering group constructed and decorated the cake.  The cake was based on the scrapped carrier, HMS Invincible.  Cutting of the cake was performed by His Excellency The Governor, Nigel Hayward CVO.

The party continued until late into the evening, when Harry grabbed a camera and began taking photos!
Harry photographed Meghan, who is one of the babysitters when we go out...and no she hasn't been drinking!

Playing on the captured 105mm Recoilless Rifles outside FIDF.






Harry still needs some practice!

Tiegan is in Harry's class, and they are sweet on each other.....

One of the highlights was the Aircraft Carrier Cake.  The school had held a 3 day collapsed timetable week, and the majority of the students had helped cooka a cake towards a scale replica of HMS Invincible, one of the aircaft carriers in the conflict, and now sadly scrapped....The pictures in this link show her being cut up, and were published one day after the 30th...  The cake used over 300 eggs, a mean feat here in the Falkalnds...There was an egg shirtgae the following week, but no one complained!

Simon's Year 10 Hospitality and Catering Students performed the final assembly and decoration...

Taking Shape...

Front View
Vulcan to commemorate the Black Buck Raids
Over 2metres in length..

...and the Governor puts his ceremonial sword to good use!