A British Army officer is realising his ambition of being ‘part of something bigger’.
Captain Jonathon Nice, from Amersham in Buckinghamshire, recently took part in Europe’s largest military exercise of 2023, Exercise Spring Storm in Estonia, which saw 14,000 land, sea, and air personnel from 11 NATO countries training together.
The 29-year-old, Adjutant in the Queen’s Royal Hussars (QRH), who was SO3 ISTAR (Intelligence Surveillance Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) on the deployment enjoyed working alongside and learning from other nations.
...working with people from different cultures expands our horizons and helps us be much better at what we do.” Captain Jonathon Nice,
Queen's Royal Hussars
He said: “The challenge of working with a multinational battle group is that we can’t rely on the shortcuts and the colloquialisms that we would normally, so being really clear in our language when we are asking them to do something and vice versa, making sure our communication is absolutely crystal clear is the biggest take-away for us.
“The opportunity to meet and get to know partner nation officers and soldiers we are working with on a personal level has been invaluable. As ever, working with people from different cultures expands our horizons and helps us be much better at what we do.”
On why he joined the Army, Jonathon, whose unit is based in Bulford, Wiltshire, said: “I had considered it when at school. When I went to university, I wanted something more than working in an office, nine to five.
I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself,..." Captain Jonathon Nice,
Queen's Royal Hussars
“I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself, part of a family regiment, and to be looked after by the people around me. And I wanted an opportunity to deploy around the world, as part of an organisation that means something and has an effect.”
A former pupil at Berkhamsted School in Hertfordshire, Jonathon took a sharp change of career path during his time studying criminological psychology at the University of Southampton, joining the Army aged 21.
“Criminological psychology gave me the ability to look at a problem from multiple angles, analyse it critically and try to come up with either an understanding or solution. That’s something I now do day-to-day in the Army.”
The biggest challenge in his Army career is being away from loved ones but he says the support and camaraderie of his colleagues helps immensely.
...it is so important to have those personal relationships and build trust among the team you are working in." Captain Jonathon Nice,
Queen's Royal Hussars
He said: “I’m married and have a son who is nearly one, so being away from them is always a challenge. Everyone in the Army understands it and that’s why it is so important to have those personal relationships and build trust among the team you are working in.
“Having shared adversity really brings you together as a group of people and that’s an environment I enjoy being in because of the culture of the QRH.”
The UK rehearsed the reinforcement of the enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup (eFP) Estonia to Brigade-level strength alongside its allies during the second half of May.
The British Army’s 7 Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Team (7LMBCT) HQ and Light Dragoons Battlegroup joined the Queen’s Royal Hussars on the exercise.
Participating countries were the UK, Estonia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and USA.
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