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Major military drill
today at Dunree
24.07.08
by Liam Porter, Inishowen Independent
FORT Dunree will relive some of its glory days today
when eighteen troops from the 58th Infantry
Battalion of the Reserve Defence Forces arrive at
the clifftop facility for a military exercise.
The Reserve Defence Force Platoon exercise will
involve the 58th Infantry Battalion Reserve Defence
Forces (RDF) Integration Platoon.
Lieutenant Rory Quinlan who has organised the
exercise explained that the 58 Infantry Battalion
covers Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal and range in rank
from officer, to NCO to private
The exercise is not the first to have been staged at
the famous Inishowen fort, but it is the first in
several years.
“It is the ideal location for this exercise and we
checked it out and found out that we’d be able to
get access to the fort which was ideal,” he said. |
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Troops were expected to
arrive in the Buncrana area last evening for today’s
exercise, which is expected to commence early.
The training exercise will aim to skill troops in
offensive tactics and prepare Reserve Defence Forces
Infantry Personnel to assume appointments at Platoon
level.
It is believed that at around 9am offensive orders
will be given |
and an offensive attack
will commence which is set to challenge the skills
of Reserve Defence Force Officers, NCOs and men in a
tactical environment.
Military exercises of course were not uncommon in
the Dunree area in years gone by. In 1957 one such
exercise saw 150 FCA men manage to break through
enemy lines and hold onto the strategic stronghold
of Fort Dunree, while up in the skies parachutists
descended like flakes of snow.
A newspaper report at the time said the men were
harassed by enemy troops all the way from Cockhill
to Fort Dunree, but fortunately, casualties were
few.
The enemy soldiers the FCA men managed to thwart
were members of the regular army of the 6th
Battalion, Athlone, under the leadership of
Lieutenant Connor Burke.
Until the 1980s Dunree maintained its role as an
important military base, often housing training
camps and exercises for the FCA and a few years ago
another training exercise was held at the camp.
Today's training exercise is expected to incorporate
some of the latest equipment displaying the ongoing
success of the Defence Forces' integration
framework.
While the exercise will take place on the fort
grounds Lieutenant Quinlan said there will no danger
to the public from Thursday’s event. |
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