3 minute read
Delta ready
By Charlene Williamson
Despite the challenges that Covid-19 has placed upon training this year for the New Zealand Army, nothing has stopped Delta Company from achieving what they set out to do at the start of the year.
Key leadership engagement skills were emphasised on the exercise, including the importance of low-level confrontation and problem-solving in certain situations.
Delta Company, 2nd/1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment (RNZIR) have completed their final exercise for 2020, Exercise Delta Patrol.
Acting Officer Commanding Delta Company, Captain Waaka Parkinson said this exercise was the final phase of training for the year.
“For our soldiers this training reinforces all the hard work and commitment to training they’ve undertaken this year.
“We’ve all faced challenges to maintain our degree of high performance and skill readiness, especially during the earlier restrictions of lockdown This exercise has given a sense of completion and achievement for our soldiers,” he said.
This year Delta Company have focused their training around four fundamental skills – move, shoot, communicate and medicate.
Exercise Delta Patrol focused on skills that are well known to Kiwis, the ability to communicate with other cultures and the ability to build rapport with people from all walks of life. “This has always been a strength of New Zealand service personnel on operations – to work collaboratively with locals, and gain trust and information to achieve the common goal.
“The intent of the exercise was to prepare our soldiers and give them the tools necessary to be able to deploy, build trust, mutual respect and interact effectively,” said CAPT Parkinson.
CAPT Parkinson said that whether it is security and stability operations, or humanitarian aid and disaster relief we must be ready for these challenges.
“We must continue to train our people to a high standard of skill and professionalism. Not only are we continuing to train highly competent soldiers, but also developing model citizens,” he said.
Delta Company, like most of the Army, have had commitments to Operation Protect this year in addition to trying to maintain training outputs.
“The impact of Covid-19 has actually had a positive impact for Delta Company this year,” said CAPT Parkinson. Early in 2020, the company headquarters was exploring new ways of training their soldiers, hoping to make better use of time and technology to enhance training.
“Covid-19 forced our hand early to implement new training initiatives with great success, despite the challenges of social distancing. We proved to ourselves that we could maintain a good tempo of training, and build morale within the company,” he said.
CAPT Parkinson said this challenge gave soldiers the ability to focus on a large variety of training, as well as a new environment to train in.
“Training outcomes were still measured and tested during exercise phases conducted throughout the year, spanning from individual up to platoon level.”
Training initiatives during lockdown for Delta Company included unclassified lessons via video conferencing, ranging from case studies of previous conflicts to presentations on leadership, and individual based fitness challenges – all done from the confines of soldiers’ individual barrack rooms.
– Captain Waaka Parkinson
