This weekend saw members of 68 Signal Squadron, part of 71 Signal Regiment, Royal Signals joined by a detachment from the US 1st Cavalry division riding in the Lord Mayor’s show for the first time. The US detachment was led by Major General John B Richardson IV, the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division. The UK detachment is an Army Reserves unit based in London. Delayed by Covid, this year’s parade marked just over 100 years since both the Royal Signals and 1st Cavalry Division were formed in 1921.
The units have worked together in the past, the Royal Signals providing communications, IT and cyber specialist support, and the US 1st Cavalry Division operating as a combined arms unit based in Fort Hood, Texas. The American detachment is currently in the UK to train alongside its UK colleagues.
68 Signal Squadron’s detachment are from a wide variety of backgrounds: their day jobs included a business owner, a civil servant in the MOD and a human rights and public law barrister, 2lt Badar, said, ‘The chance to work alongside the American forces was fascinating, but to ride alongside them in such a huge public event was an experience I won’t forget in a long time.’
