New Recruits Diary Week One

TROOP 1/00

Last Monday, I arrived at HMS Nelson more nervous than I had ever been before. To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect. The transformation from civvie to Royal Marine Musician was going to be a huge shock to the system. We signed our attestation forms on Monday evening and the Troop was introduced to the Training Team. I don't know if there was anyone in the room who sat there not really knowing what to think. The rest of Monday was filled with a bed making lecture which turned out to be quite a challenge when it came to making our own beds! Tuesday morning at 05.00 hours saw our room full of panic. We had to make our bed packs, have a shower and do hundreds of other things before breakfast. During the evening we had an ironing demonstration and most of the Troop was up very late ironing rig for Wednesday morning. After not much sleep, we had more briefs, our first drill session and our first physical training session.

Drill was an experience. It felt amazing working in unison with twenty four other people. By this time, the pangs of homesickness had started to fade and the Troop had just about settled in. Thursday was very similar to Wednesday. The time started to fly by and before we knew it, we were standing behind our ironing boards preparing our rig for Friday. Friday was full of lectures and a locker layout demo. The whole Troop started on their lockers and worked hard. Saturday, we had a late breakfast (07.00 instead of 06.30!) and a short brief. In the afternoon we had two hours shore leave. We all raced around Portsmouth buying everything for our up coming field trip. The rest of Saturday and all day Sunday (apart from Church) was spent folding our clothes to Globe & Laurel size (A4). At the end of the first week, we as a Troop have some stretched tendons but we are carrying on and working as a team. The week was a challenge and we have learnt to put 200% into everything that we do. We are one week down with eleven weeks to go and determined to keep the positive attitude we began with.

Musn Harwood