New Recruits Diary Week 12

The end of week 12, one week to go and the end is still nowhere in sight. We all started the week with the same fear and dread only this time it was worse. It was the final exercise, a test exercise Baptist Run. The exercise itself consisted of ten tests, starting with a kit muster at 0630 on Monday. We had another NBC test, only this time without CS gas, and a signals test before moving into the field.

TesEx.

This first day wasn’t too bad although the cold weather did nothing for troop morale! We had a static map reading stance which was managed without too much trouble, however, this wasn’t reflected in the night Navex which we found much more of a challenge with some members of the troop finding themselves geographically embarrassed (lost). The harbour routine was more relaxed than in previous exercises as this was a non-tactical exercise. As the sentry duties weren’t started until much later than in previous exercises most of us found ourselves only having to do one duty compared with the normal three or four. What made it even better was the knowledge that there probably wouldn’t be a crash move, although we weren’t sure whether the training team were serious or not. We had another kit muster the following morning, which saw us doing various exercises to keep warm. Musn Button provided us with some light entertainment by wearing a pair of training shoes over his ears dressed as Deputy Dog. Sgt Smith and Musn Boyes were the only two to understand the joke, the rest of us ended up being envious of someone with warm ears.

The next test saw us playing soldiers, stalking our peers whilst dressed like ferns, bushes and trees. The stalking went well as most of us were unseen. Musn ‘clockwork’ Richardson tried the most adventurous manoeuvre, a roll from the top of a bank to the bottom. Unfortunately he wasn’t covered, so his dramatic move drew all the eyes towards him. Never mind Clockwork, you tried. Lieutenant Colonel Waterer and Captain Cunningham were present, commenting on the effectiveness of our camouflage after almost standing on many of us. To finish the exercise we had an observation stance, target indication and judging distance during which the weather got progressively worse.

Thu 22 Nov Intense rehearsals have also started this week for the passing out parade both in drill and PT. Drill was helped along by a march around camp with training company parade band. It boosted our morale and also gave us a glimpse of what we will soon be doing.

Fri 23 Nov We had our first rehearsal with Captain Cunningham on Friday which provided some amusement where we knew the drills but he didn’t. By the end of the session we were getting there. We had long rehearsals for PT going over our routine so we were tired of it before it was even completed. It is impressive and enjoyable as it is our first set of work with music. It was hopeless at the start, however once we started using our musical knowledge all the movements started to click, confusing Sgt Griffin in the process with our language.

With another week of rehearsals to go before the big day - roll on December 1st.

Musn Clark