Troops serving with 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards (QDG) have started to return from Afghanistan following their 6 month tour of duty in the country.

Around 100 soldiers from C Squadron were welcomed home by their friends and families as they returned to their barracks in Sennelager, Germany on 23 March, after flying into Paderborn airport.

C Squadron deployed on Op HERRICK 9 at the beginning of September and worked predominantly in the Musa Qaleh area, in southern Afghanistan as part of Battle Group North West under the command of 2nd Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles.  Musa Qaleh is about the size of Sennelager in Germany or Ammanford in Wales.  Meanwhile 1st Troop C Squadron had been based with Battle Group South under the Command of the QDG.  The Sennelager cavalrymen deployed to Afghanistan as part of 3 Commando Brigade.

C Squadron deployed as a Mastiff Group, providing recce, observation posts, flank protection, intimate support for infantry ground troops to assist with their assaults as well as being involved in resupplies.

SSgt Jason Wilcox from Crosshands in South West Wales is Javelin Troop Leader for C Squadron QDG.  He said he saw a “real transformation of the young men of C Squadron during the tour.  It was a fast learning curve for them and they went away as boys and came back as men”.

Jason’s wife Jennifer and Daughter’s Erin (aged 3) and Jessica (aged 2 next month) were there to meet him along with many other families as the buses pulled into Dempsey Barracks, Sennelager, the QDG homebase in Germany. [Pictured Above and Below]

On asked his thoughts about being home, Jason added: “The homecoming reception was overwhelming and seeing all the wives, girlfriends and Regiment out to greet us was fantastic.  I have done every tour the Regiment has deployed on in the last 17 years and this has definitely been the best homecoming so far.”