Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders History

1st Battalion

The Argyll and Sutherland

Highlanders

Kenya 1996

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Ex GRAND PRIX III which started on 12th February 1996 was a major undertaking in that not only 1 A and SH, but L Battery 1 RHA, 3 Troop 58 Squadron RE, an Army Air Corps Detachment, 95 TA soldiers from all across Scotland and numerous attached personnel, were pulled together, briefed in a Study Day in January, equipped, innoculated, passported, mustered and then transported out to Kenya to work as a battalion group.

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The training in Kenya for a light battalion is almost matchless, with the opportunity to train for regional conflict and Operations Other Than War in a wide variety of environments. After a period of acclimatisation, to get used to the heat, the altitude and the environment (plenty of game viewing), each company rotated through a cycle of jungle training, live firing up to company level in hot, dry, scrub and bush, and adventurous training before the Battalion exercise on a new training area for the British Army — Ol Kanjao. Here, on an area four times the size of Salisbury Plain and with the companies based on the side of a feature that would have given Ben Nevis a run for its money, the Battalion was able to operate for a week in a mixed live and dry exercise supported by its support weapons, its Battery and Engineer troop, and with the aviation detachment flying range clearance, casevac, reconnaissance and liaison tasks. All the military aspects of Ex GRAND PRIX III were an undoubted success, proven as much by the fact that, as on TESEX in June 1995, the incidence of reported niggling injuries was almost nil, a sure sign that the Jocks are enjoying the training and relishing the soldiering. Every man was given the opportunity to do some adventurous training and more than 500 members of the battlegroup had more than six days adventurous training including white water rafting, hill walking and mountaineering with over 140 people reaching Point Lenana the second highest point on Mount Kenya, camel trekking, para-gliding, canoeing, cycling, top roping, abseiling and climbing.