Monday
What a start to the week… 'Griffin Curry' (see last week). A double session
of PT! Everyone was dreading it, wanting to know what was in store for us, but
as usual once we had started the period it was OK and we got into it! We then
had map reading and got issued the maps that we would need for Wednesday's day
and night NAVEX! We were also given non-permanent marker pens to use to mark
our route cards for the two NAVEXs. On the day, the non-permanent marker pens
caused a bit of a problem, to say the least! Let us just say that rain and non-permanent
marker pens do not mix. After the map reading we had drill with our drill instructor
Sgt Henderson. We spent all afternoon practising for our interval drill passout,
which we were all very pleased to pass at the end of the afternoon. We also
had our long weekend leave to look forward to on Thursday! YEAH!!
Tuesday
Today started the same as yesterday. A PT session is always guaranteed to wake
you up first thing in the morning. The rest of the day was spent having our
first NBC lectures (Nuclear, Biological & Chemical Warfare Defence). It
was a hard day as there was a lot of new information for us to take in and at
the end of the day we felt as though our brains had been frazzled. It was a
rather scary day for most of us as we realised how dangerous some of this stuff
can be. We all found NBC to be a very interesting subject. It will all be useful
in a couple of weeks.
Wednesday
We got up for an early start today as we were going off the base for our day
and night NAVEX. We all got on the coach to travel to the training area and
before we knew it we had stopped at the static map reading stance, a viewpoint,
where Sgt's Higgins and Connolly were awaiting our arrival. We spent the morning
learning new skills, revising what we had learnt in lectures over the past few
weeks and putting everything into practise. Map reading is a lot harder than
it looks as myself, Bug Ford and Musn Grey found out.
After the static map reading stance we made our way to the NAVEX area to begin
the two navigation exercises planned for the rest of the day. When we arrived
Colour Sergeant Curry and the rest of the team were waiting for us with 9 members
of Training Company who were going to act as checkpoints for us. The day NAVEX
went quite smoothly and I think almost everyone made a wrong turn at some point
but we all got back in one piece. We then had some delicious scran and, as usual,
'it all had to go!' Later we started the night NAVEX. That too went well with
only a couple of pairs getting lost and Musn 'Chubbs' Walton falling down a
badger hole but recovering and making it back to the start in one piece.
All in all an eventful day!
Thursday
The whole troop woke up this morning wishing that time would fly by to 1300
so that we could start our long weekend leave. It obviously didn't and the troop
began to concentrate on what we had to do to get to 1300! First period we had
PT, a 'Griffin', then NBC where we were taught how to do our respirator drills
correctly so that when we go in to the CS Chamber in a couple of weeks time
we won't cough and splutter. It is most likely that we will though! After the
NBC lesson were then told we could all go and get ready for our long weekend!
A lot of us had long journeys ahead of us but no-ones was to be as long as Musn
Burton who had a 12 hour train journey to look forward to, rather him than me!
We all looked forward to our long weekend of relaxation but knowing that on
Sunday night we would be back refreshed and ready for the week ahead… in
the field ahhhhhh!
Happy Corps Birthday and I hope you enjoyed the weekend guys!
Musn Linden