Falklands training for Shropshire troops
About 150 Shropshire-based soldiers are spending two months in the Falklands Islands to take apart in a training exercise.
Members of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment, based near Market Drayton, will patrol the island and take part in a series of exercises using live ammunition.
Unfortunately for the regiment, which is based at the Clive Barracks in Tern Hill, it is winter over there and it could be forced to train in ice, rain and snow.
Captain Jay Walker, one of the organisers, said: "This is as close to realism as we can come without actually going to war.
"It's absolutely crucial that things like this take place and that training areas like the Falkland Islands remain so that when the Government calls us we are ready.
"They will be conducting low-level training as well as conducting live firing ranges.
"We want to create realism and simulate that battle environment on the ground.
"It's a really good environment as the soldiers enjoy it and we get to get outside, out of the office, where we get to do what we joined the Army to do.
"This generation of the Army are used to fighting in warm and dusty environments. The Falkands is a testing environment and completely different."
The regiment has recently taken delivery of five new types of light-armoured vehicles after officially changing from an air to a ground assault focused organisation.
It has mainly roped or dropped into action from helicopters, but it will officially change its designation to a light-armoured vehicle based group.
The changes are a part of the ongoing UK-wide restructuring plan known as Army 2020.
Formerly classed as an Air Assault Infantry Battalion, the regiment will now be known as a Light Protected Mobility Battalion operating from a range of new vehicles, including Foxhound, RWimik, Wolfhound, Husky and Ridgeback.
There have recently been elements of the regiment deployed to Mali in support of a EU training mission.
The most recent battalion size operational deployment was in 2011 as part of Operation HERRICK 13 in Afghanistan.
In September 2008 the battalion also completed a tour of Afghanistan. It became the first unit in the Army to receive three Conspicuous Gallantry Crosses (CGC) in a single operation.
In February 1989 the Clive Barracks were bombed by the IRA. But fortunately no one was injured in the early morning bomb attack thanks to the sentry who cleared the barracks after seeing two men acting suspiciously.
