Proud Dragoons taking the fight to deadly virus
THEY have valiantly protected our country for 300 years.
Now the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards are on the front line of yet another battle – the war against coronavirus.
We told last week how the Army has been drafted in to help accelerate the rollout of Scotland’s vaccine programme.
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, based in Leuchars, Fife, have been tasked with identifying and setting up vaccination centres. Last week they swung into action to prepare the Donald Dewar Centre in Glasgow’s Drumchapel area for use as a vaccination centre.
Team leader Lieutenant Calum MacLeod, inset, said: ‘We are happy we are out here and able to move this process along and get these jags in arms as quickly as possible.’
The light cavalry regiment’s usual duties include driving tactical support vehicles. But the pandemic has seen them deployed on Operation Rescript – the largest UK peacetime military operation, with soldiers stationed at mobile testing units across the country. Now 98 soldiers are being utilised to turn 80 Scots venues into mass vaccination centres. Among the first was the newly built Donald Dewar Centre, which last week had soldiers in camouflage fatigues, berets and masks laying new floors, moving and setting up tables, marking out zones for physical distancing and ensuring that NHS staff have everything that they will need to administer jabs. Up and down the country, the Dragoons are surveying suggested sites for suitability, organising car parking, drafting traffic flow systems, establishing patient recording methods and practices and facilitating vaccine delivery, as well as preparing storage for medicines and equipment.
On Friday, team leader Lieutenant MacLeod, from Renfrewshire, was among those preparing the building for its new purpose.
The 27 year-old said: ‘Everyone here is more than willing to help out in any way that they can, be that Army personnel or civilians.’ But the fight they have on their hands now is a new challenge for even the most experienced of soldiers.
Army reservist Trooper Richard West, 26, from Edinburgh is halfway through a two-year fulltime post with the Dragoons.
He said: ‘I never expected to be doing anything like this.
‘Originally the idea was to improve my driving skills and basic soldiering skills.
‘The benefit is that after I arrived I got to join in with the
testing so we were working at drive-through testing, handing out kits and scanning people in.
‘This is a natural next stage, helping with the vaccination process – it’s pretty wicked.’
Trooper West’s father suffers from multiple sclerosis and his partner and sister are asthmatic. Being part of this operation gives this soldier a true sense of pride.
He said: ‘When we were told we would help set up the vaccination centres, I said to my girlfriend, “I am looking forward to this”. It feels like the first big step in the turn of the tide. This feels like the beginning of the fight back and when I was told I would be taking part it felt really good. This is something that’s really worthwhile to help local communities out.’
Fellow soldier Lance Corporal
Callum Sinclair is also happy to help in the fight against Covid.
The 25-year-old, from Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, said: ‘It’s part of the job and something we need to do, but it is really good to get out and help people.’
Speaking last week, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said: ‘For us all, vaccines are the light at the end of the tunnel.
‘I’m very pleased that the expertise of the British Armed Forces is helping the Scottish Government get vaccines into arms as quickly as possible. The UK Government is supplying and paying for vaccines for the whole of the UK – it is vital that these doses are administered as soon as possible.’
For the Dragoons, their proud history is a constant comrade – to this day, their regimental cap badge bears the name Waterloo, their most famous victory.
This mission may look very different. But, with hopes of a whole nation resting on the success of the jab campaign, it could turn out to be an equally historic victory.
‘It feels like the first big step in turning the tide’