4 down, 3 to go.....

The past couple of weeks have been a real roller-coaster of ups and downs. My Division (Tireless) passed Squadron Officer's Rounds last Friday night and were granted Pavillion privileges. This meant no more inspections of kit and accomodation at 20.00 every night, and the use of the bar on campus. As an additional reward we were permitted to attend a DIVEX (Divisional Exercise) which involved half of us sailing the four STCs to Brixham on Saturday with the other half walking there along the coastal path, an overnight stay with a good meal and lots of drink, then swapping over for the return leg; half of us walking, other half sailing. It was a slightly weird feeling being back in civilisation again after 3 weeks of isolation and everyone had a brilliant time. I've added some pics below.

Most of the past week has been taken up by an evolution called 'build' (BLD - Basic Leadership Development) which involves three days spent outdoors with everything we needed to survive (just!) in our Bergens. We had no tents; just sleeping bags, roll-mat and a bivvy pole and sheet, and ration packs with hexamine cookers for sustenance. The temperature barely got above zero the whole time and, combined with the biting wind, meant we all got very very cold. We had a party of German cadets training with us and one had to be taken to hospital with hypothermia! The following night another German cadet had to join him suffering from exhaustion/dehydration. At nights we had to take turns at getting up for one hour watches and I had no idea how hard it would be to pull myself out of my sleeping bag 3 times every night (after only @1.5 hours sleep each time) and into the freezing cold. On the second night we were 'bumped' i.e. told to pack everything up and be formed up ready to go in 30 mins. We were marched to another site and told to make camp again. In the mornings we had to have everthing back in the Bergens, having had a hot meal and drink (and be able to prove it by keeping all our 'gash' (rubbish) for inspection later), a shave (using mess tins!) and assembled in teams by 07.00. Each day from 07.00 until @17.00 we undertook PLTs (practical leadership tests) with each team member taking a turn at being leader and trying to get their team across ravines, rivers etc using ropes and pine poles and some clever techniques we had been shown earlier in the week by the Royal Marine Commandos who had been teaching us survival and navigation in the field. Every test had a time limit of 30 mins. The combination of bitter cold and wind, with heavy rough wet ropes has left my hands in a bit of a state and we all got bad windburn on our faces and dry cracked lips. Luckily my feet held up but some people have bad blisters from the DIVEX/BLD session. Each team had an Assessing Officer (in our case a Lieutenant Commander) who briefed the missions and scored each leader's performance. Thankfully I did well and have been recommended to proceed for ACE (Assessed Command Exercise) which is the culmination of this phase and takes us up onto Dartmoor for more of the same but over a longer period and in more difficult conditions with far longer marches over rough terrain and bigger hills between each task. The navigation skills we've been taught will also be tested. The idea is to push us to our physical and mental limits then to find out if we still have it in us to command a team and complete the task. We have all been warned that ACE will be much more difficult than BLD. Anyway, those were the good points of the last 2 weeks, now for the bad...................

After the rigors of BLD we were all looking forward to a long hot shower, some decent hot food, and a celebratory 'swally' in the Pav. Unfortunately a couple of idiots left their bed area in a sub-standard condition before we departed for BLD and we were all put back on remedial rounds until further notice i.e. no Pav and everything ship shape by 20.00 every night again! Needless to say the culprits are now fairly unpopular, not just with our Division but with Torbay Division also who, because some of Tireless share a mess with them, were also put back on rounds.

The morning after completing BLD (where we had only @4 hours of broken sleep each night) we were made to get up at 05.00 so we could be mustered outside the Commodore's house (just off the parade ground) to sing happy birthday to his wife at 06.30. She wasn't even there apparently!!

Next week will be mostly classroom based with our usual Monday night and Wednesday afternoon sports, and a couple of final pre-ACE sessions with the PT staff and Commandos. Then it's off to Dartmoor the following week for the big test......................