Weathering The Storm

by Lt P O’Connor RN

‘Hmm, difficult. VERY difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There’s talent, oh yes. And a thirst to prove yourself. But where to put you?’ The Commando Helicopter Force ‘sorting helmet’ had its work cut out for it as the 12 newly qualified pilots and aircrew of 846 Naval Air Squadron’s Commando 4

(CDO4) Operational Conversion Flight (OCF) sat with bated breath waiting to see where they would be sent following the completion of their flying training, which for some had taken over seven years. The flying training finale for CDO4 materialised in the form of Ex Merlin Storm 24. This saw the students, instructors, engineers and survival equipment specialists of 846 NAS deploying to Okehampton Battle Camp for a gruelling week of rapid planning and real time tasking with a compliment of three Merlin Mk4 helicopters.

Flying training Final Ex on Dartmoor

On top of this was a tactical overlay, comprising of a realistic wartime scenario which would see the OCF students utilising the skills learnt on their tactical and warfare phases of the course. Upon arrival at the camp the students were ushered away from the hardened accommodation, reserved for the instructors of course, and were instead shown what was to be their home for the week; two tents of questionable rigidity atop a hill battered with near gale force winds. After a few hours of broken poles, makeshift windbreaks in the form of Pusser’s 50/50s and plenty of expletives, the tents were erected... for now. Come the morning, the exercise truly began. The course was split into two waves per day, each of which comprised of an ‘Int drop’ which outlined the serials they were to achieve in their flights that day.