Page 85 - Wish Stream Year of 2016

For someone with limited military experience prior to arrival at the Royal Military Acad- emy Sandhurst, I had very little knowledge
OCdt Lewis-Taylor
Sergeant Allison (SCOTS) and Pl Comd Captain Butcher (RLC). From the moment they nished their opening addresses to us in the lines on day
of what I was letting myself in for.
Although both my parents are
former Majors, their experience
of Of cer Training is somewhat
dated and as such, I tried to gain
some sort of perspective from my
time at OTC and those I had met
at PCCBC. The questions on eve-
ryone’s minds, however, regard-
less of prior military experience, were ‘what pla- toon am I in?’ and ‘who are my Directing Staff?’ These questions were swiftly answered as we were herded up to the lines to drop off our bags (and ironing boards) and change into our par- ticularly fashion conscious coveralls.
I want to start by giving an insight into daily life at RMAS and perhaps most importantly, the Direct- ing Staff. It may seem almost paradoxical to say, but the days seem to last an eternity yet the weeks have own past. I’m aware that the Com- missioning Course has evolved and adapted in recent years due to the return to contingency after operations in Afghanistan and a desire to keep RMAS internationally competitive, so I will give you a brief overview of our days here. The working day usually begins at 0600hrs and we are in lessons until lunch at 1230hrs. Afternoon lessons then usually start around 1400hrs until 1900hrs for dinner.
Perhaps the most decisive element of our time at Sandhurst is the DS. I have heard people say in the past “you will never forget your Platoon Colour Sergeant from Sandhurst”, and I could not agree more. As an Of cer Cadet of 3 Pla- toon, The Somme Company, we have Colour
one, they have been greeted with an enormous amount of respect from the entire platoon. Another member of the DS who has had a consider- able impact on my life at Sandhurst, much to the amusement of my peers, is Warrant Of cer 2 Company Sergeant Major Dougherty (Grena- dier Guards). The above quote of
never forgetting your Colour Sergeant may need to be adapted in my case. One particular morn- ing on Ex SELF RELIANCE (our rst experience in the eld) would end up de ning the rest of the term for me. Without delving into the details too much, I became a local ‘celebrity’ within The Somme Company after attracting the Company Sergeant Major’s attention for a heinous crime. Needless to say, it is not a crime I am likely to repeat in the near future, nor is the Company Sergeant Major’s attention something I would like to attract too often whilst here! It is safe to say that my battle eld discipline on Ex MONT- GOMERY’S MARK (the nal testing exercise of Junior Term) will be second to none.
In hindsight I have thoroughly enjoyed my rst few weeks at RMAS. Only now writing this arti- cle, re ecting upon everything we’ve done, has really shown the sheer volume of information we have had to digest, understand and demon- strate. I looked at the men and women standing around me and realised how far we had come in just 11 weeks. For the most part, we are all eagerly anticipating what Ex MONTGOMERY’S MARK, then Intermediate Term and Old College have in store for us.
First Impressions of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Furthermore, the exercise is a brutal lesson in navigation and planning.
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