22 Air Defence Regt RA

Hi,
I was in 22 Air Defence Regt RA from November 1976 to November 1985. I notice some wrong information on your site, see below.
“With September in 1976 came the creation of the Artillery Division. Headed from Bielefeld it comprised of;

5th Heavy Regiment RA (Hildesheim)
50th Missile Regiment, RA (Menden)
12 Air Defence Regiment, RA (Dortmund)
22nd Air Defence Regiment, RA (Soest)
94th Locating Regiment, RA (Celle)
1st Battalion, The Royal Scots, Infantry (Münster)
8th Transport Regiment, RCT (Münster)
More reorganisation was implemented in January 1978 with the creation of 3rd and th Armoured Brigades. The divisions were created from 6th (Soest) and 20th (Detmold) Armoured Brigades and the divisional troops of 4th Division. A very armour orientated BAOR were as follows:”

When I joined the regiment they were at Kirton Lindsey near Scunthorpe. They moved to Napier barracks in Dortmund in November 1977 and stayed there until I believe 1992. 22 Air Defence Regt was never in Soest during this period.

Cheers

Rhid.

Hoppy

Thanks for this info.

Hi,
Am not sure where the source quote concerning the formation of the Artillery Division in Sep 76 is on the site - but Hoppy1 is correct about the location of 22 AD Regt Napier Bks Dortmund 1977 - 92.  

The Air Defence increment was 16  AD Regt RA resident in Salamanca Bks Soest from 1971 to end of 1976 (they returned to Moore Bks Dortmund 1981 - 85).

in 1980 I did my basic training at the Woolwich RA barracks it was suppose to be a 14 weeks course but for me it took slightly longer as I was back trooped twice through a few minor health problems as I had 6 operations in that time, I had ingrowing toenails 4 times as this problem started just after I left school where I had one operation for the same thing, then I had 2 sinus operations and the first of those was just 3 weeks into training as before I left home on march 1st 1980 3 weeks before then I had an operation on my sinus's then and I told my surgeon that I would not be able to attend his clinics as I would be in the army so I had to let the drs know at which barracks I ended up at so from the 1st march for 3 days I was a Sutton coldfeild selection centre to carry out various tests and fitness tests etc and on the second day I did a written test which determined where I could go and the more papers I had the more choice I had the military police, the paras, the royal artillery, amongst loads of others so I picked the royal artillery and I mentioned it to the officer that interviewed me and he phoned on ahead to Woolwich to let them know of this operation I had so that when I had my first medical at Woolwich they were aware of these operations I recently had so I was then sent up to the queen Elizabeth military hospital in Woolwich where I was seen by ENT surgeon and he was a captain on examination he found I needed another operation so within 2 weeks I was in having my op I was then sent home on sick leave for the weekend I was then back up the hospital for a check up only to be told I needed another operation again within 3 weeks I was in and I was sent home for a week by this time my troop had all gone away for a weeks field training so I was back trooped for that then the toenail probs I didn't go home for those as they did them in the barracks medical centre each time and again i was back trooped and I got fed up of this so I asked about a temporary discharge, I had to go before my commanding officer to explain to him why and after explaining to him and with the backing of the surgeon and medics along with my troop commander who gave me a shinning appraisal from what training I had managed, the C/O agreed I could have a temporary discharge to get all my health problems sorted out but I had to return back to my army careers office to re-enlist and I was then put through the first of 2 rigorous medicals the first at the careers office in which I passed I was then taken back to chester to retake my oath of allegiance I was then given a new date for Sutton coldfeild again where I didn't have to do all the tests again as I had already past them but I had the second of the medicals to make sure I would get through training this time and I again past the medical I returned to Woolwich where I completed my training, in my first short training stint I was given my regiment that I would be joining and I was told I would be joining 22 air defence based in Dortmund germany and in my second stint I thought they would have changed the regiment but to my surprise they didn't and I was given the same regiment, during my second stint of training one of our training Bombadiers barged into our barrack room at 3am and we thought we was going to start the day early, but we was all give a very nasty wake up call as we was told that we was all on stand by to go to the falklands as argentina was threatening to invade the island we was all very worried, our training was stepped up we was taken over the assault course more than usual, our weapons training was stepped up dramatically and was increased in the length of time we would be training as we had to cope with it as the instructors told us that they had to get us combat fit and ready after a month we was stood down so our training was relaxed a little and we had covered most of our 14 weeks in a month the instructors turned round and said that we shouldn't be making any errors now and we didn't our commanding officer seven gave us all 2 weeks paid leave just to try and realign our training programme and to prevent any boredom setting in etc when we returned our training was only a week out of sinc as we was still ahead so we was asked what we would like to do for that week and we all elected to go out and do an extra week sleeping out in the woods so we was actually taken to Larkhill which incidentally was where we did our second one 3 weeks before our training finished as the last 2 weeks was nothing but marching on the main south parade square where we would be doing our pass out parade we did 4 more weapons skills and just the odd bit of pt but we was mainly getting ourselves ready for the big day, and in the final week of training we was all told no alcohol to be consumed whatsoever and 3 days before pass out one Scottish lad decided to be clever and went drinking and the following day we was all up on the south parade square in hot weather in our full best uniform and peak cap he collapsed and ended up in hospital, lucky for him he was allowed to pass out the same day as us without doing the parade and he was worried that they might back troop him and I told him I doubt they will do that not for 3 days as he had done all his training our troop commander did go to the hospital and had a chat with him and told him he was being allowed to pass out and was very very lucky that he wasn't being back trooped for 2 weeks as that was when the next pass out parade after was due, had they backed trooped him 2 weeks all for 3 days he would have been sick as a parrot and it would have been his own fault and we all told him that even the troop commander as he did defy an order as we obeyed the order he was also told that he was lucky not to be facing a court martial for blatantly disobeying the order as the order always came directly from the C/O but everyone thought the injury he suffered was enough punishment, anyway I had a fantastic time in the army best thing I ever did