There have been lots of articles,
memo's etc,etc wrote on Kosovo, most about how the Irish Guards
were getting on during the Kosovo period (Op Agricola) 1999,
however, as a member of the MILAN platoon (Second in Command)
I can assure you that we were in the forefront of these exploits.
Part of the Anti - Tank platoon deployed with the Lead Armoured
Battle Group in the early months of 1999, this was under the
command of Sergeant Kev Farrell, now the MILAN second in command.
The remainder of us deployed not long after, after a very
stressful short period of getting the warriors (AFV) ready
for deployment. The first part of this tour was spent in Macedonia
training to full operational effectiveness with live firing
exercises, ensuring that every individual within the MILAN
was up to the required professional standard requested by
our commanding officer.
The day the battle group were
sitting in the assembly area getting ready to cross the border,
a blue red blue thought came over one of the NCOs, who said
" it's the 12th June, the trooping of the colour at horse
guards is today", what a day to leave the assembly area
in Macedonia for Kosovo, it was a good day, the Guards division
were on top form that day, no matter what country they were
in.
