Home  /  Newsroom  /  News  /  2023  /  British Army officer shares experiences of serving with NATO eFP Battlegroup Estonia

SZCZECIN, Poland – Captain Jonathon Nice, from Amersham in Buckinghamshire, recently took part in Estonia's largest military exercise of 2023, exercise Spring Storm, 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.

He said: "The challenge of working with a multinational battlegroup 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.

CPT Nice was part of Spring Storm, Estonia's biggest military exercise, where he worked with Allies from across NATO © British Army

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, 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.

CPT Nice alongside a French service member with NATO eFP Battlegroup Estonia © British Army

Nice also 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.

On deployment, 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 Queen's Royal Hussars.

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.