A FORMER Acton School pupil has taken part in a military skills competition as part of a 1st Battalion – the Royal Welsh (The Royal Welch Fusiliers) team.
Gareth Roberts, 22, from Wrexham, has just returned to Dale Barracks in Chester from a tour in Cyprus, from where the regiment provided support to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After the arduous assault course, part of the competition, Gareth, who is a fusilier in the battalion, said it was “the hardest assault course I’ve ever done”.
It involved teams crawling through tunnels, over cargo nets and swinging across deep water, before moving on to a demanding 36-hour patrol.
During the foot patrol, conducted in day and night conditions, Gareth was tested, along with his section, in military skills ranging from cross-country driving, a tactical water crossing, assaulting a fortified house and a simulated casualty evacuation, to more basic military skills such as observation and patrolling.
The competition, which involved 200 personnel in teams from the newly formed 11 Light Brigade, finished with a two-mile speed march immediately followed by a shooting competition.
Gareth said: “I’ve been challenged – the lack of sleep and constantly moving between tasks has been quite hard.”
His team received the prize for the best march and shoot in the competition.
Gareth, known as Gaz to his colleagues, joined the Army at the age of 16 and lives with his girlfriend in Wrexham.
He has been deployed on operations to Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as heading to Canada for two exercises lasting several weeks at a time. Although he enjoyed Cyprus, he says “moving back to Chester is also moving back closer to friends and family, which is great”.
Gareth has also trained as a canoeing instructor with the Army and is keen to demonstrate he is ready for promotion by attending a six-week leadership and command course at the end of the month.
