A roller-coaster.
I'll start with icebreaker though, despite it not bring mentioned in the title, I'll also through in a few Easter eggs so look out for those. You'll love the heads up.
Not sure of the language policy but I'm talking about the army here. I'm gonna throw in a few swears here and there. Deal with it.
Anyways, phase one training has been a roller-coaster. lots of ups and downs. The easiest exercise that you will do however is the icebreaker. If you struggle with the icebreaker, there's still a little time for you to screw the knot; otherwise when that discharge of right window opens, RUN!
What is the ice breaker? you may ask.
The ice breaker is an introduction to battle camp. There you will spend one night near camp in the woods sleeping under the stars. You will be guided by your section commanders, sergeant and platoon commander. They will all stay in the field with you. It's a learning phase so bring your notebook and pen. Infact, always keep your notebook and pen on your person.
Here are some things you will learn
1. Stag
2. Admin in the field
3.preparing ration packs
4.wet dry drills
Battle camp 1
Fucking disaster I tell you and yet, it will be the easiest one that you will do. You will spend three nights in the field. Remember that admin in the field you were taught during icebreaker? Don't forget it. Your commanders will have you leopard crawling all over the place.
There you will learn:
1. Section attacks
2. Firing maneuvers
3. Leopard crawling(if you didn't get an introduction to it on the ranges)
4.monkey crawling
5. Camouflage
6. Safety briefs on the use of the rifle with the blank firing attachment(BFA)
I.e which is pretty cool BTW
7. Medi vac(types of carries, e.g. baby carry, fireman carry, etc
8. All around defence
9.occupying a harbor
10. Target acquisition
11. Judging distance
These will all fall into theoretical lessons followed by practicals. It will be hard work but it will also be fun. These are a few things I wished people wrote about before I started basic. BC1 will have a stretcher race. It's a platoon stretcher race if I can recall. Ours was probably just under 2k but the loaded tab at the end of bc1 is dread! I did not finish. Had I pushed myself, I probably would have collapsed because of heat injury. My friend pushed himself and he almost died. He ended up in the hospital. A few of us didn't make it to the end. Make sure you eat, I know the rations are shit but eat them and sneak in a few gummies for sugar intake.
I forgot to mention, be prepared on the last night. Your harbor will come under attack very early in the morning and you will have to jump out of your sleeping bag with your rifle and take the Stan 2 position. You're going to have to pack all your shit quickly while your basher buddy fires. When you're done you take up the position while he packs. Get ready to load up your bergen and bug out to a hasty harbor.
After bc1, look forward to soldier development week though. That's fun. We did Ours at sennybridge camp in Wales. You'll learn to love the accommodations. Believe me.
BC2 battle camp 2
Bro....BRO!!/ SIS!!!!
Battle camp 2 is fun af. We let off rounds like crazy. However, this is the camp where you are tested on everything. Do not ignore that admin in the field. You do not want to get back trooped. You have 80 mins after Stan 2 to get all your shit together. That means, shave, clean off cam cream, prepare rations to eat, brush your teeth, polish boots, powder feet, clean and battle prep your weapon. Your section commander will come around to make sure it's all good. If he's infantry, he may not give that much of a fck. If he's RLC, most of the time you're fcked. Just do your best.
You will put into practice now those section attacks, you will learn about vehicle check points, and more. Ohh and btw, the tabbing has just begun. You will tab for atleast 3k for 1 lesson. You will be tabbing up hills and all over the place so be ready for that. We were up late. I'm talking about 1am late but on the fun side of this we got to do an ambush and fire automatic. One night, I only got 1 hrs of sleep, just keep pushing. The last day you get bugged out of your harbor as well. Ours was at around midnight. We tabbed to a new location where we slept in just our sleeping bags, no basher.
Bc2 you will also have lessons.
1. Ambush
2. Vehicle check point
3. Ground sign awareness
4. observation at night
And more. Don't forget that notebook and pen. Switch on and you won't get beasted. Unless you got mongs in your section. Always a couple of them. Fcking idiots.
Sennybridge (Brecon)BC3/FINAL FLING
sigh...
Switch on. Get ready for some real hard work. 4 nights in the field, 5 days. Last day ends with a 1.6 mile stretcher race, stick with it. It was cold, it was wet, it was muddy, it was tough but I'm here typing this blog a week later so I survived and so can you. Out of the entire week, we only got 1 sunny day and we didn't even do much that day. Sennybridge is huge, you should expect to tab to a different woodblock every morning. That means digging a trench everyday.
3 days in and a couple of us were made to get into a 2 feet deep stream and roll around in it on one of the coldest nights of the week, perform wet dry drills and go on Stag. Remember, you go on Stag with your wet kit on. The stream was dirty, muddy, stinky, somewhat stagnant and there were 2 dead sheep a few meters to the top of the "stream". I don't even know why I refer to it as a stream, that water was hardly moving.
At the end of final fling, we got our new barret with our respectful cap badges. A proud moment indeed. Recruit lance corporals were also announced, so that was nice.
Look forward to bayonet training😮💨 they'll make you think it's one lesson. They made us believe that we were going to get photos taken but they couldn't fool us. We figured it out, some of us. "Photos" we got thrashed on the second bayonet lesson. It was tough but you realize how fun it is after you're done. Controlled aggression They say.
Sir Arthur Lewis community college St Lucia
