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LIVING HISTORY WEEKEND
When the show
season finishes,
it's
time to go back to basics and FAAA organise several weekends
through out the autumn and winter.
These
weekends are a mixture of Admin and restoration weekends and
Training weekends to bring the new recruits up to standard.
This last
weekend was aimed at inducting our new recruits into the
organisation and re-organising the Honor Guard for future
ceremonial commitments.
This
was done around a living History weekend run at our
headquarter at RAF Twinwood Farm, which for this weekend
would be used to represent part of the vast Fort Benning,
home of the "Airborne Command" and set in 1942, around the
time when the 501st Parachute Battalion (the first
completely parachute Trained Battalion) were Split to form
the 502nd and 503rd Parachute Battalion Cadres.
As the Site was
now closed for the winter and there were no public around,
we had the run of the place, however we were still in good
company as the Rangers, Home Guard and National Fire Service
Groups were around carrying out restoration work.
All
civilian
cars were kept
well away from the areas we needed to use.
Over the weekend,
15 members of the Association mustered, one or two were on
sick call and as they gave lifts to others we lost a man
down, as he could not get there.
All
the new recruits got there including our newest and yet
another "Harris"! Two
members were stood down to get to Malvern on the Sunday, but
they managed to complete the programme by working very hard
and late into Saturday.
Although the aim was to cover the
basic and advanced drill programme, other activities were
covered, including Weapons safety on all the types of
weapons the group are likely to come across.
Accommodation
was in the group's
Headquarters,
"The Benning Wing",
which was laid out to represent a Barrack Block at Fort
Benning. The
501st Parachute Battalion Headquarters was based in the
Station orderly room, recently restored and looking very
much like the offices found in the States in the early
forties.
The weather over
the weekend was extremely cold, well below freezing on both
Saturday and Sunday.
However,
the sun
was shining on both days,
which was good for morale
and the taking of pictures.
Saturday
night,
the temperature plummeted, but did not affect the Company
"Prop blast" and BBQ, which were held outside.
The
fantastic Brazier built by PFC Pete Harris was a godsend, as
was the field BBQ operated by Sgt Neil Galloway.
A
great social night held in a unique setting.
The weekend was
a fantastic success. Basic
skills were taught
and practised in
a completely military environment,
with the addition of a very social "non tac" evening.
The
new guys were completely brought into the group, some of
which did extremely well in the Drill training and have gone
on to be selected for the Honor Guard and Color Party.
To say I am
proud of all the group's
achievements over the weekend would be an understatement.
Well
done to all the Instructors, Admin Staff and Troopers,
without which these weekend, could not happen.
Using
pictures taken over the weekend, we will try to take those
interested through the scenario we used to run the weekend.
Lee Bowden
First Sergeant |
