Gunners make their home in Lisburn
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| Alderman Paul Porter, Mayor of Lisburn inspecting members of 40 Regt Royal Artillery (The Lowland Gunners) on parade amongst the new Home Lines. | 40th Regt Royal Artillery (The Lowland Gunners) newly built Home Lines,
incorporatlng offices, stores and maintenance areas for all of the
regiment's needs |
L1SBURN based soldiers who have recently returned from Afghanistan' organised their own unique way of marking the move into their new purpose built headquarters and workshops - a gun run and salute.
40th Regiment Royal Artillery (The Lowland Gunners) are based at Thiepval Barracks and whilst on duty in Helmand contractors were working flat out to complete their new Northern Ireland base.
At the same time the Regiment was able to honour a number of colleagues who won Operational Honours during the arduous deployment.
The new headquarters — specially designed and built for a deployable regiment — are called 'Home Lines' (pronounced Hume) after the tartan which is worn by 40th Regiment. Lines is a term used for any building occupied by soldiers and goes back to the 1st World War trenches where the soldiers lived and held back the enemy lines.
During the opening celebrations in Lisburn, three Chief of Joint Operations Commendations and two Commander British Forces (Afghanistan) Commendations' for outstanding contrinution during Operation Herrick 10 and one Long Service and Good Conduct Medal were presented to 40th Regiment personnel.
The ceremonies ended with a unique gun run competition. Two teams of 6-7 military personnel emerged from vehicles and assembled L118 105 Light Guns' which have been used in every British conflict since the Falklands war, for action before completing an assault course and returning to fire the gun.
julieann.spence@ulsterstar.co.uk
Ulster Star
16/07/2010
