Welcome makes regiment feel at home in Moray
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MORAY’S Army regiment has hit the ground running in its new home, while also coping with overseas deployments to Afghanistan and Kenya.
Kinloss Barracks has been the base to 39 Engineer Regiment since July 22 this year, following the transition from RAF Kinloss, and the 740 personnel and their families have adjusted well to life in Moray.
That is in large part due to the warmth of the welcome afforded the regiment by the local community, said Commanding Officer, Lt Colonel Andy Sturrock (41).
The regiment’s job is moving soldiers and kit around the world at short notice, so the logistics of the move were not really a problem.
"The hardest bit in all of this is moving families," said Lt Col Sturrock. "When the regiment normally deploys overseas, we don’t take the families with us.
"Here we were asking people to move their home as well as their place of work, and that is always going to be a much more emotional rift for people."
Last November, when the announcement was made that the regiment was moving to Moray, he admitted there was a sense of shock in the regiment and among families.
"There was no corporate knowledge of what or where Moray was; it just seemed a long way away and completely unknown, and that fear of the unknown was quite a strong element in people’s initial reaction," said Lt Col Sturrock.
See Northern Scot for a Special Report on Moray's army regiment.
