A British Army soldier from Fife has taken part in a major military exercise close to the border with Russia.
Fusilier Kyle-Conner McMillan, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 SCOTS), A Company, 1 Platoon has deployed as part of a 2 SCOTS-led Battlegroup to Estonia.
Kyle, aged 25, was born in Glasgow with his family coming from Drumchapel.
Listening to his grandfather’s stories about his time in the military fuelled Kyle’s childhood imagination.
Fusilier Kyle-Conner McMillan, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 SCOTS), A Company, 1 Platoon has deployed as part of a 2 SCOTS-led Battlegroup to Estonia.
The soldiers have joined thousands of other British Army troops taking part in Exercise Hedgehog, a major multinational exercise involving 17,000 troops from 12 nations.
The exercise, running from 9 to 24 May, has two purposes. Firstly, to test the ability of the Estonian armed forces to respond to potential attack by Russia and, secondly, to practise the rapid and large-scale deployment of allied forces to Estonia.
Kyle, aged 25, was born in Glasgow with his family coming from Drumchapel. He now lives in Burntisland in Fife with his partner Mandy.
Kyle has a younger brother, who has recently had trials for the Scotland football team, and a younger sister who is due to go to university in Dundee. Kyle’s father works offshore while his mother does interior design work.
His grandfather was a sergeant major in the Black Watch who was shot through the hand by a sniper and suffered facial injuries while fighting on the beaches of France during World War Two. Listening to his grandfather’s stories about his time in the military fuelled Kyle’s childhood imagination.
Before joining the Army, Kyle tried his hand at many different jobs. After leaving school, he worked at a caravan park near Burnley in England before returning to Scotland to work as a chef and at an industrial cleaning company. He then worked for a debt collection company in Glasgow, at a supermarket, as a scaffolder and at a barber’s shop. Kyle eventually, though, followed in his grandfather’s footsteps and joined the Army.
“The highlight of my career in the Army is working with and meeting new people and learning new things. My family couldn’t be prouder of me.”
Kyle said:
“The highlight of my career in the Army is working with and meeting new people and learning new things. My family couldn’t be prouder of me.”
As far as training on Exercise Hedgehog in Estonia goes, Kyle said:
“It’s good. Everyone is looking out for each other and helping with morale. One of the hardest things has been preparing for trench warfare. Digging in and sleeping in trenches takes a different mindset.
“The way the world is now, with a lot of trench warfare in Ukraine, you need to be able to dig, live and sleep in a trench. You need to be able to work with and help the other people you’re in the trench with because, if you’re not, you’re going to be in a world of pain.
“We’re here to reassure the Estonian people that if anything does kick off, we’re going to be the first ones here.”
Kyle has also picked up his barber’s clippers again while in the army, saying:
“It’s good to cut the other boys’ hair and make a bit of money. When we are out in the field on an exercise like this, there are obviously no barbers, but the boys still want to look presentable. It’s also therapeutic as when you’re a barber, people come to you with their problems. It’s also good when you’re cutting officers’ hair as you get to find out what’s going on.
“In this job, it’s very high stress at times so if people keep bottling stuff up it can be a problem further down the road. You need to be able to speak about stuff as mental health is a very big thing. It’s good to help fellow soldiers get things off their chest.”
Kyle’s regiment, 2 SCOTS, formed a Battlegroup in the Nursipalu training area in south-east Estonia where they have conducted urban and woodland combat training.
2 SCOTS soldiers built trenches in the Estonian forest, along the same lines as those dug by soldiers in Ukraine to defend against Russia’s invasion. Attacking forces from other NATO allies assaulted the trench positions using drones with simulated pyrotechnic munitions, blank ammunition fired by machine guns and simulation grenades.
Exercise Hedgehog serves as a Forward Land Force (FLF) mission rehearsal, providing the opportunity for the FLF and allies and partner nations from across NATO to deploy to Estonia.
Thousands of British troops travelled from the UK to Estonia by road, rail, sea, and air in less than 48 hours. The mass transit of troops demonstrated the British Army’s ability to rapidly deploy a large-scale force to support a NATO ally that borders Russia.
The British Army’s 4th Light Brigade, also known as ‘The Black Rats’, is leading the deployment.
