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Week 7Monday morning arrived and Troop 1/07 began some much needed lectures on navigation. With the prospect of a navigation exercise midweek, the Troop paid extra attention to Cpl Underwood. As ever, Cpl Sansby prepared us in the way he knows best: piggyback races around the Base. Tuesday morning brought more lectures, though this time on the afternoon’s activities, the eagerly awaited ‘gas chamber’. As a test on how well we learnt our NBC drills, we headed off to Whale Island to put them into practise with CS gas. Fortunately everyone managed to cope with the drills, although curiosity got the better of some of us and we decided to find out exactly what the gas is about: burning eyes and nose as it turns out.
Wednesday eventually came and we were back off to our home from home, Longmoor. The day consisted of many navigational exercises to see how much we had managed to remember. Following a compass blindly into the night showed many of the Troop the importance of staying awake in the classroom. After we got back (well, most of us) we began digging our shell scrapes. Digging these is hard enough in daylight what with roots and stones, but it was a near impossible task in the dark! So at around 0200 the Troop finally got to sleep. Thursday was much the same with the added extra of a quick dip in one of Longmoor’s tranquil lakes/big muddy puddles. Fortunately the night navigation managed to dry most of it out. Friday arrived and after a brief weapons inspection we began to pack away the equipment. Any queries as to why we left our stretchers and full water cans were quickly answered. After an epic run down to our RV (rendezvous), the Troop was ordered back to the top. Then back to the bottom, then back … you get the picture. Eventually an exhausted Troop 1/07 boarded the coach back to civilisation and much needed rest. You can imagine how happy the Troop was when the training team informed us we would be starting Exercise Baptist Run on Sunday instead of Monday. Panicking we quickly packed our bergans ready to deploy. We were then marched over to the armoury to draw out our weapons. Sgt Bissett’s pleasure was hardly concealed when he informed us that he’d had us all on and we were in fact leaving Monday as planned… sigh! Musn Hemming Bright and early Monday morning saw us sitting our final CBRN written exam in the classroom in preparation for the gas chamber on Tuesday. Before we knew it, ‘phys’ was upon us again and to our horror involved pairing up and piggybacking our partners around the Base circuit! We were getting some strange looks to say the least! Aching and tired from the monster ‘phys session’ the day before, Tuesday was a much-anticipated day and nervous anxious faces were among the Troop at breakfast. The gas chamber was fast approaching us! After a short but sweet map reading lesson in preparation for our next field exercise, Afghan Horn, due to start on the Wednesday, we headed to the minibuses loaded with our NBC suits and respirators. After a short drive to Whale Island we could see what we were about to face, a gas-filled room with doors at either end and big circular windows aka ‘peep holes’ for the Training Team to look through and laugh at us! The CS gas in the chamber really stung our faces and some members found it a struggle getting the canister changes correct – Musn Cruise – and ended up in a bit of a snotty, tearful state! After everyone had been laughed at and made themselves cry with the gas, it was over and we came back to camp prepared for our deployment.
Wednesday morning, our bergans packed and waterproofed we were once again off to Longmoor Camp on exercise Afghan Horn. We arrived and the usual routine began. The Training Team tent was erected and we emptied the cot beds and box after box of food for the Team. We, on the other hand, were given our ration boxes and started to break them down, swapping among ourselves… choc pudding for fruit dumplings… yum yum! Once our harbour position was set up, we expected to start to dig our shell scrapes and get our heads down in our warm bags… how wrong we were! The Training Team had different ideas! We plotted our points on our maps and wrote route cards for a night navigational exercise! There were a few worried faces around but some of the Phase 2s had arrived which brought us a bit of reality! We soon found out that some of the Troop are in fact navigationally challenged, but with a firm ‘lost procedure’ in place, no one was left behind – we hope! Night was on us and we had just started to dig in – near impossible when you can’t see what you’re digging out, but nevertheless spirits were high and we got on with our scrapes and ate scran. After a long night of sentry duties and the threat of rain, the rather tired and deflated Troop stood to and to our delight – no kit muster! We just had our weapons to clean ready for inspection that was a relief to most! Thursday brought us more static map stances and a trek through Longmoor! That night a surprise wet and dry routine shocked the whole Troop – tears flowed and we were all feeling rather sorry for ourselves, but we knew we only had one night to go! Friday morning, and after a long, cold and wet night we began to dismantle the tents and load up for our departure – big smiley faces as the weekend was nearly here! After de-servicing all our kit, Saturday night we let our hair down – quite literally – and went into town for a few (few too many in some cases!) drinks. The week was over and we know we just have one more exercise in the field left – Baptist Run Test Ex… Musn Fiona Mills Predicted forecast of the training programme (Subject to change at short notice)Mon 15 Oct CBRN Warfare Lectures & Practical
Tue 16 Oct CBRN Warfare Lectures Wed 17 Oct Tactical Field Exercise - Afgan Horn Thur 18 Oct Tactical Field Exercise - Afgan Horn Fri 19 Oct Tactical Field Exercise - Afgan Horn Sat 20 Oct Personal Administration Sun 21 Oct Church Parade Week 8 will see Troop 1/07 on Test Exercise (TESEX) Baptist Run
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